Tiny but Mighty: How Piglet Overcame Open Heart Surgery and Found Love
Kitten makes a full recovery after urgent open-chest surgery and flourishes in foster care.
Meet Piglet, the kitten who’s nothing like his Winnie the Pooh namesake.
This little adventurer has no concept of fear!
He loves to sneak into the darkest of paper bags, dive into boots like they’re swimming pools, and tackle houseplants that tower over him like skyscrapers.
And get this – he even braved a major surgery when he was just a few weeks old. Piglet’s not just brave; he’s a tiny superhero in fur.
Piglet’s epic tale of adventure unfolds!
Piglet and his family arrived at the Best Friends Lifesaving Center in Salt Lake City from a local shelter.
They all moved into a foster home to grow and get ready for their forever homes.
Best Friends wants every place to be safe for pets by 2025, and people who foster pets help a lot in reaching this goal.
The person taking care of Piglet at home noticed something was wrong.
When Piglet tried to drink milk, he would breathe it into his lungs and then throw up after eating.
This was because Piglet had megaesophagus, which means his food pipe was much wider than it should be, making him vomit and unable to keep food down.
Dr. Megan McCarthy from Best Friends explained, “(Megaesophagus) makes the esophagus very wide.
This made him vomit and not keep his food.”
One day, Piglet started to have trouble breathing and felt very weak.
His foster person quickly took him to the emergency vet.
They found out he had a birth defect that squeezed his food pipe, making it hard for food to get to his stomach.
Dr. Megan said, “He couldn’t eat properly because of this. He really needed surgery to fix it.”
Best Friends made sure Piglet got everything he needed to get better, including an emergency surgery on his chest.
Even though he was young and small, Piglet did great.
After the surgery, he went back to his foster home to heal.
Tall and proud
After his surgery, Piglet had to follow special instructions.
He had to eat while standing up and stay that way for 30 minutes after meals.
This was a challenge.
His foster caregiver got creative, using cardboard boxes or books to raise his food dish so he could eat properly.
Piglet also wore a small sweater to keep his stitches safe (and he looked really sharp in it, like a fancy little tuxedo
A few weeks later, Piglet started eating like other kittens do.
“We’re really happy he made it, and we’re thrilled we could help him,” Dr. Megan said.
When it was time for Best Friends to find Piglet a forever home, his foster caregiver couldn’t let him go.
So, Piglet was adopted into the family, joining an orange
Piglet and Starling quickly became the best of buddies, much like Piglet and Pooh Bear in the stories.
Now, Piglet is doing great. He’s healthy, fearless, and his adventures are just starting.
H/T Best Friends Org
