One of our most active volunteers and member of the local animal welfare organization The Little Paws of Nevrokop is Maya. We are used to seeing her but not as panicked as she is now, when she comes one day, gently handing over to us her charge: a stray cat with a mangled face.

Tripping over her own flood of words, Maya has concerns both about whether the cat is beyond help and about finding her a home. Maya already has a few ex-stray cats living under her roof.

Once our patient is sedated, we examine the wound. It’s an old one, a bad laceration.

Our patient is quite thin – a sure sign the wound was preventing her from eating well. So we get to work. The first step of treatment is surgical debridement of the wound, which means removing all nonviable skin and tissue. It’s a necessary prelude to the next step: sutures.

Once we are done, we send Masha home with Maya where she will be under supervision while receiving antibiotic post-surgery therapy.

After a few weeks it’s time for Masha’s checkup. Some of the stitches didn’t hold up but overall, the cat is able to eat well and she even has a favourite kind of cat food. We are told she’s wolfing down impressive quantities of it.

This is when we actually find out Maya has named the cat Masha. She adores her; Maya’s entire family does.