Howard the combine kitty settling into life without his two front paws - Update

Jumping up on beds is easy. Getting down can be a little rough. And tile floors aren’t much fun.

Howard the “Combine Kitty,” though, has adapted to the amputation of his two front paws. He moves a little like a bunny, a bit like a meerkat — cautious but with curiosity. And he’s found himself a permanent home.

“Sometimes if we see him on the bed, we help him down,” said 8-year-old Bryce Billingslea, one of two young boys who found the kitten in late July in a ditch near a wheat field in Alaiedon Township near Mason, Michigan.



The kitten’s front paws had been almost completely cut off. Officials figure it was the result of a farm accident, involving a combine.

“It was like, ‘What do we do? What do we do?’” Bryce said. “So we went to the neighbours.”

Surgeries and foster homes helped bring Howard to today where he can, living with a family willing to tone down the horse play for a cat stuck with shortened stilts to walk on instead of cushioned paws.

There's a news video here. Previously.