My cat Tom was hit by a car last week which resulted in him having to get his back right leg amputated, and I got him home from the vets a few days ago. He’s learning to move with it well when he does go somewhere but is tired and reluctant to, and so far to ensure he’s getting the right nutrition we’ve had to lift him down from beds/the upstairs to bring food/water to him when it’s not possible to bring the food to him instead. 

My problem is Tom is what you might consider a Big Boy. He’s half British blue, and half something the breeder could only guess when the mother cat somehow became pregnant, but as a result is considered the size of a small dog, and is even on small dog medication. We’ve been assured he’s not overweight and is very average for his size, but still weights about 7 kilos.

The problem is I’m a 20 year old girl who’s never seen a gym in her life, who struggled to carry him before the accident. Usually I would go for hand under the front legs and one arm scooping his butt, or a baby cradle style where he’s on his back in my arms but I’ve struggled to do either of these without irritating his stitches. I’m particularly struggling with the act of the initial lift between wanting to not put pressure on the wounded area, but supporting his back end enough he’s not dangling by his front legs. 

Does anyone have any advice/tips or tricks for this? I feel like it’s quite a specific problem I haven’t been able to find information on in general tripawed guides. Everything else with his care is going fine, and worse case scenario I can nudge him to where he needs to be, but was just wandering is there a better way?