Photo by Danny Fulgencio
Cassie Evans Decker once volunteered to have the skin from her butt transferred to her cat Chester. The treasured pet had a tumor on his elbow, but there wasn’t enough skin to close the wound if the vet removed it.
“I can’t put your butt skin on your cat’s leg,” the vet explained. “He will reject it.” Instead, the vet removed Chester’s leg. “He came declawed on the front, so I had a one-clawed cat.” Chessy died in February. “He was a three-legged cat,” she says, “but he was such a trouper.”
Decker is now foster mom to two cavalier king Charles rescues, Bucky and Rusty, and two bunnies for Dallas Pets Alive! The bunnies reside with her parents. A single mom to 4-year-old daughter Hattie Pearl, Decker felt a connection with the mother-son duo, Thumper Thumperton and Hoppy Hopperton. Decker’s husband took his own life when Hattie was 12 weeks old, and she couldn’t bear to separate the two bunnies. “I felt bad for the mom because Thumper was a single mom just like me.”
Early photos of Hoppy show the bunny nestled in Hattie’s dollhouse bed tucked in with a dollhouse duvet. The baby is now double the size of the mom. The fluffy pair eat kale, watercress, fresh basil and sweet potatoes (the sweet potato diet has resulted in an orange double chin for Hoppy).
Hoppy is tamer because he’s known the family from an early age. “Hattie loves to kiss his face and head.”
Lucky Star Cavalier Rescue: luckystarcavalierescue.org.
