ARLINGTON, VA — Cat lovers around the country have demonstrated their support for Cupid, the tabby cat who was shot in the head with an arrow in West Virginia, by flooding an Arlington County shelter with emails and thousands of dollars in donations.
A veterinary team from the Animal Welfare League of Arlington performed emergency surgery on Feb. 16 to remove an arrow from the cat’s head. Cupid, who had been turned in to a West Virginia animal rescue on Valentine’s Day, continues to recover from his surgery, according to Chelsea Jones, AWLA’s communications specialist.
“Last week, we had sent off a bacterial swab to see what kind of bacterial infection we were dealing with,” Jones said. “Our main concern was anything that was antibiotic-resistant, like MRSA. Luckily, it’s still an infection, but normal bacteria, nothing that was antibiotic-resistant. That was our first really piece of good news. It meant that we were doing everything right to treat his infection. He seems to be healing really well.”
Cupid’s drains were removed on Friday. The veterinarian is hoping to remove the stitches along the side of his face this coming Friday.
“He may or may not have the other stitches removed on Friday,” Jones said. “It kind of depends on how the infection is healing. We hope that probably within a week or two we’ll be ready to find Cupid a new home, as long as things keep trucking along the way they have been.”
Public reaction to Cupid’s story has been overwhelming, according to Jones. AWLA has been inundated with emails from all over the country, with people sharing their support for Cupid’s plight and inquiring about adopting him.
Once Cupid is fully recovered, AWLA will share the plans for his adoption on social media, including its Facebook page and Instagram account. AWLA has even set up Cupid’s own account on Instagram (@SavingCupid)
Many supporters have also donated money to AWLA on Cupid’s behalf.
“We had already raised like $26,000 in the first 24 hours, so it just kept climbing from there,” Jones said. “It was just awesome to see so much love pouring in for this cat that people who’ve never met him, they’ve just seen pictures and videos but they felt that connection to him and his story.”
Arlington County provides $1 million of AWLA’s annual operating budget of $3 million. That leaves $2 million each year for the nonprofit to raise through donations and fundraisers. As of Wednesday morning, AWLA had received a total of $87,000 in donations in connection with Cupid’s story.
“To put it in a perspective, our annual Walk for the Animals fundraiser last year, which is our biggest fundraiser of the year, I think we made $93,000,” Jones said.
While things have quieted down a bit from the initial outpouring of support for Cupid, Jones has been pleased with the many positive emails that still come in.
“You get a lot of the, ‘People are awful. How could someone do this?'” she said. “But now we’re getting a lot more of the, ‘Look how many good people outweighed the one bad person that did something to this cat.’ All of these people stepped up and donated, and there’s a lot of people commenting on it, like, ‘Oh, I have hope and faith in humanity because of all the money raised.’ That’s been really nice. A lot of people, they’re very inspired by Cupid and that he’s a fighter.”
In fiscal year, 2019, AWLA found homes for 1,463 cats and a total of 2,322 animals. The money the nonprofit raised around Cupid’s plight will help it find forever homes for many other animals it houses at its shelter, at 2650 S. Arlington Mill Drive in Arlington.
“We have photos of every single adoptable animal online,” Jones said. “We also have an app — it’s called Arlington Pets. So that’s the easiest way to see all of our adoptable animals. Or you can just come by for a visit. We’re totally happy for people to just stop by and check it out. You never know who you might fall in love with.”
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