Woman sets up donation drive for cat that needs leg amputated after being shot in Cape neighborhood

A Cape Girardeau woman has set up a fundraiser to get care for a neighborhood cat she named Garfield, who she says was shot in the leg.

Madelyn Bandermann took to social media to share that an outside cat that she feeds and cares for was missing for a few days, then returned to her house with a limp.

Bandermann said she had Garfield examined by a veterinarian, who said Garfield had shrapnel embedded in his leg.

“We have two choices,” she wrote. “We can put him down. Or pay $1,000 to have his leg amputated and make him an inside cat.”

Bandermann calls Garfield a “sweet boy” who wouldn’t hurt anything. While Garfield is an outside cat, Bandermann had him neutered and his ear marked, she said in an exchange of messages with the Southeast Missourian. He also had his rabies shot. Garfield hangs around with other outside neighborhood cats, and got them some veterinarian care also. Bandermann lives on Cape Rock Drive in Cape Girardeau.

“I feel like they’re mostly mine because they’re always around when I come outside whether it’s morning, afternoon or night,” she said. “I wanted to bring Garfield in last year, but there are a few other cats that seemed to be his buddies, so I left him outside with them. Now I don’t have a choice because someone shot him.”

The veterinarian, Dr. Elizabeth Kistner, who did the X-Rays, confirmed that Garfield "definitely" had been shot.

Here is a link to the GoFundMe campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/f/garfields-journey-from-feral-to-family?attribution_id=sl:a0c73204-d833-4348-a14b-dff1917d25cb&utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet-first-launch&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer.