Scott Radley: This three-legged rescue cat from Hamilton could be America’s Favorite Pet

The voice on the other end of the phone is wonderfully friendly until the story of what happened that day in 2015 comes up. Suddenly, more than a hint of rage emerges.

Some jerk threw this eight-week-old kitten out of a moving vehicle on Walker's Line," Joanne Patak says.

Thus begins the story of Furiosa, Hamilton's three-legged rescue cat.

If things go well, he could be named America's Favorite Pet one of these days soon. He's doing well in a contest to earn that title. Votes are pouring in for him. But just getting to this point has been an adventure. Starting that afternoon on the streets of Burlington.

What was left of him that day wasn't pretty. His front right leg had taken the brunt of the impact. It was mangled. His body was severely bruised all over. And his jaw had been degloved," leaving the skin dangling from the bottom of his face.

The person who found him lying motionless on the side of the road scooped him up and rushed him to a nearby veterinary clinic where the leg was amputated and his face was put back together. Staff there named him Furiosa after the one-armed Charlize Theron character in Mad Max."

When the story got out about what had happened - the person who hurt him was never caught - dozens of people apparently tried to adopt him. Patak was chosen. He wasn't her first, either. She and her husband, Scott, have taken in many rescues and abused cats. Right now in their North End Hamilton home they have three others, including one with brain damage and one with a chronic sinus issue.

He's been a perfect fit.

Furiosa does startle when the doorbell rings. If someone unfamiliar gets too close, he'll run to the back of the house. And despite it being more than five years now, he clearly remembers the car. If they have to drive him somewhere, he begins panting and wets himself as soon as he gets into the vehicle.

But any other time, he's a charmer.

He's so friendly and loving," Patak says. It's a miracle."

Not just to his rescuers, either. A while back, a stray who'd clearly been through some stuff of his own wandered into their backyard. She brought him into the house, cleaned him up in the bathroom and kept him in there with the door closed while she figured out what to do.

Furiosa grabbed his favourite toy, hobbled to the bathroom door and plopped down to wait. When she opened the door, the two immediately hit it off. Seeing this, Patak started bawling.

She doesn't mind picking a favourite and saying he's the best cat she's ever had. She's even made him his own Facebook page.

So she got concerned two days before Christmas when he wasn't acting normal. When she put out his food the next evening, he walked into the kitchen as he always did, then collapsed.

They rushed him to the vet who examined him and told them it was serious. They had to drive him to a clinic in Toronto right away. Congestive heart failure was the diagnosis.

We almost lost him that night," she says.

He's better today but not well. Medication has sorted things out a bit but weeks of the stuff is beginning to affect his kidneys. Less than a year is what they're giving him.

So when she heard about this contest to find America's Favorite Pet, she knew she had to enter him. Just as something nice to do for him with whatever time he has left.

She's not going to lie, the $5,000 first prize wouldn't hurt either. That's what that Christmas Eve vet visit cost. He hasn't been inexpensive.

So far, he's doing well in the voting. There are various stages, but he was the leading vote-getter in his category, which means he moves onto the next level of public tallying that ends March 4.

It all helps Patak distract herself a bit from what now seems to be inevitable. No, he isn't old. He's only six. But it's been a rough go. And while the cliche goes that cats have nine lives, he doesn't.

He doesn't have much longer," she says.

But to be remembered as a winner after all he's been through? She'd love that.

Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com