Thursday 11th October
The pin pushes through his skin at the top of the shoulder. Lisa & Keith whisk him to the surgery and find that due to healing, the bone has compressed and this is why the pin has moved up and through the skin. They shave a few millimeters off the top of the pin and stitch up the exit wound. After checking his thigh wounds they find there is a muscle separation exposing the sciatic nerve. This is incredibly painful, however natural healing is the only option.

Sunday 14th October
The pin has pushed through the stitches and now protrudes 3-4 mm out from the skin. Frodo is in pain and his left leg is hanging limp from the elbow down. X-rays confirm the pin has moved out completely and now the site of the break is even more shattered and splintered. There are at least three bone fragments “floating” in his leg. The team is demoralized, as the possibility of reconstructing the leg now seems far more daunting. Despite all this, Frodo has put on weight, his coat has improved and he is a beautiful young cat! The pin is removed immediately so that it does not create more damage to his leg. Lisa and Keith are passionate and want to find a workable solution to help this young animal. They will attempt to bind the bone fragments together with a metal plate and screws. The problem they now face is that the materials required for this type of operation are not readily available in Zimbabwe. It is rare that this kind of operation is performed due to expense, lack of equipment and degree of difficulty.

Monday 15th October

Frodo goes back into surgery – the outcome will determine his life.

If the leg is irreparable, he has no future as a wild serval. Frodo could never be released as other serval would try to kill him – weakness of any type is not accepted in the wild. No female would allow him to cover them. To stay in captivity he would have to be castrated as without castration Frodo would become aggressive and carers could not interact with him. As it is the belief of the Trust that every wild animal should have the opportunity of being free, they would not be able to condemn Frodo to a life of captivity and never being able to experience being wild.

On opening up Frodo’s leg, the damage is exposed – things do not look good. Fragments of bone are visible and the two broken bones do not seem very strong or provide much to work with. Lisa and Keith proceed with the operation and work with whatever they can. After three and a half hours of intense surgery the very skilled and dedicated Drs Lisa & Keith have worked a miracle screwing a plate onto the bone to hold the break together and have removed all the floating bone fragments. Frodo was unable to regulate his own body temperature during his operation and was given a blanket and beanbags to keep him warm. The Trust would like to thank ZESA (Zimbabwean electricity) as there was power which allowed them to warm the beanbags.

Frodo will be heavily sedated for the next five days because of his pain and the importance of him remaining as still as possible. These next few days will be critical to the outcome of the leg healing.

We at the Trust would like to sincerely thank Keith and Lisa for their dedication and passion. Thank you to Paul and Kim Wolfe and Buddy Mockford who have donated towards covering the costs of Frodo’s first operation. During a time like this we have to question whether we are doing the right thing by spending such a huge amount of money on one animal. The outcome of that deliberation is that every life has the right to the best opportunities on offer. Frodo is by no means out of the woods as yet, however we can all feel content in the fact that nothing has been spared to ensure that he one day will be as his name sake intended – WILD!