When we think we’ve seen it all, someone new comes to our rescue and we realize how wrong we were. This is Salem. He has been rescued from the streets but because he’s very sweet, we know he wasn’t always a stray cat. Someone must have thrown him out. But that’s not the biggest of his problems. Aside from being FIV+, Salem had a huge tumor growing out of his ear. After our doctor examined him it was clear that Salem needed complicated surgery to remove it. After it was done he had to deal with complications from his surgery. Removing such a large tumor always comes with risks, and there was no other option to save Salem’s life except to surgically remove his large ear tumor that would continue to grow, and be a risk for cancer. Due to the infiltration of the large tumor in the tissue, and large amounts of debris in his ear canal, the surgeon needed to perform an Osteotomy (removal of the ear canal) leaving him deaf in the right ear, but with a chance to live. In addition to the balance and vertigo issues he was experiencing, he also was diagnosed with Horner’s (his 3rd eyelid is elevated and his right pupil is small). This was a potential complication of this type of surgery and the specialists advised we will need to wait and see how he will recover as he may have a permanent facial paralysis. But Salem is a fighter, we all knew that. Luckily, he had two wonderful foster homes where he could fully recover and patiently wait for the right forever family. It didn't bother him that he had to wait for months, in the end, it was all worth it. Now Salem has a loving forever family that he was waiting for! This is how happily ever after looks like. <3