Siberian street cats limp to new life with prosthetic paws

Gorshkov holding his patient Ryzhik the cat, who lost all four paws and got 3D-printed titanium prosthetics in 2019, at the veterinarian clinic in Novosibirsk, Russia. — Photos: Reuters

NOVOSIBIRSK, Russia: Ryzhik, a scruffy red tabby cat, was found on the streets of the Siberian city of Tomsk in the blistering cold, his four paws completely frozen.

He would have been the latest victim of Siberia's unforgiving winter had he not be found by animal protection volunteers and brought to Russian veterinarian Sergei Gorshkov in Novosibirsk, some 200 kilometres (130 miles) away.