"Mayor" Stubbs Has Returned to Talkeetna

Talkeetna’s honorary mayor is recovering in his hometown after a dog attack on Labor Day weekend sent him to the hospital.  The attack left Mayor Stubbs, a sixteen year old yellow tabby, with a punctured lung, broken sternum, and a four inch gash in his side, as well as other injuries.

Stubbs is currently recovering at a private residence.  He’s under doctor’s orders to have the feline equivalent of bed rest for up to two months.  Lauri Stec, manager at Nagley’s, says she took his pain patch off, today, but that she plans to keep him out of the public for a little while, since he is still dealing with pain.  Eventually, she wants to move his crate into the store, where he normally sleeps on a pile of furs on top of an antique dog sled.

Saving a cat with injuries as extensive as Stubbs’ is not cheap, and Nine Lives cat food has donated $3000 for initial medical costs.  Smaller donations have been coming in from around the world, and there’s not a final number as of yet.  Lauri Stec says that she and the owners of Nagley’s are documenting all of the money that comes in for Stubbs.  Some of that will have to be used for continuing care, since his injuries were quite severe.  After the final number is tallied, Lauri says they’re planning to use what’s left to help local vet Jen Pironis, who stabilized Stubbs long enough to get him to Big Lake, where they were better equipped to perform surgery on his lung.