Alone, pained, and in the dark, Domino crawled out from under the porch where he’d been hiding. His owner had recently gotten sick, and had already made plans to bring Domino to the Connecticut Humane Society where he’d be able to be rehomed and cared for by a new family. But Domino’s obvious injuries that morning expedited their trip to CHS. This fluffy cat was bruised and bloody – an animal had clearly gotten a hold of him and hadn’t wanted to let go. His eyes bore the brunt of the trauma. Fortunately, Domino was brought to the right place, where CHS’ expert veterinary team was ready to stitch him up, and bring him back to health.

But it always sounds much easier than it is. Domino wasn’t up-to-date on his rabies vaccine and the state of Connecticut requires a 6-month quarantine for pets like him that have wounds of unknown origin. Because Domino’s injuries were of the mysterious variety, he’d be spending the next six months quarantined at the shelter. And it wasn’t as simple as healing up some skin wounds—his eyes were bad enough that he developed painful ulcers that needed surgery.

Staff every day watched and reported on Domino’s healing. The progress was more than just physical too. When he first arrived, he was hard to handle, and could be quite feisty at times. It was unclear initially whether it was because he was in pain or he simply didn’t enjoy being around people. Time with vaccinated staff and a custom enrichment program with the behavior team showed Domino was a very happy cat. By the time he was adopted, he was considered a very sweet boy, who loved cuddling – to a degree. His sight was saved, his quarantine was over, and he soon found just the right cat-savvy family that was ready to speak his language!