SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Racheal Long asked her mom if she could take Chevy out of his cage to play Thursday morning but that wasn't possible. The family cat was hit by a car on Larocque Crescent and left on the side of the road to die last week.

Racheal Long, 8, hugs her cat and best friend Chevy in a photo taken on Thanksgiving a few years ago while a family friend stands nearby. Chevy was struck by a vehicle and left to die just down the road from the Long family’s Frame Lake South home on May 3. A city employee on his way to work found the cat and rushed it to the Great Slave Animal Hospital where vets were able to save its life. - photo courtesy of Teresa Long

Chevy is now confined to a kennel after suffering a broken pelvis in the incident. He was found by a city employee near NJ Macpherson School, who initially thought the beloved family pet was dead. The man took the cat to Great Slave Animal Hospital where vets were able to save its life. The family had no idea what had taken place.

Teresa Long, Racheal's mom, said it was like spring clockwork when Chevy disappeared May 3.

When the warm weather comes Chevy is let out of the house, off to do whatever cats do when shedding their winter blues.

"My husband said don't worry about it, he'll be back in a day or two," Teresa said.

Two days had gone by but still no Chevy. As the situation happened to be, the family was already thinking about getting another cat to replace one that had to be put down a few weeks prior, and so on May 5 they went to the animal hospital to find another one. That's when they found Chevy.

"We went in and there is our cat," said Teresa, adding that the hospital knew it was their cat because it had a microchip.

"They hadn't contacted us because he had been hit by a car and they wanted to put him back into some resemblance. They told us if (the passerby) hadn't found him the cat would've died within two or three hours."

Curled up in the back of a small dog kennel, Chevy peers up to see what is going on, but quickly lays his head down on his front paws. His eyes seem empty and tired, probably from the painkillers he is given three times a day.

Racheal says the black and white cat has been her best friend for almost four years.

"I was really sad when they found him," said Racheal. "I really love him a lot."

The man who found the cat, said Teresa, "definitely had a good heart" in bringing their cat to the animal hospital.

"With his pelvis being broken he's never going to be able to jump again or walk straight," Teresa said. "He's never going to have a normal life that a cat should."

Teresa said the vet bill to get Chevy fixed up after being hit by the car was about $1,000, and the continued check-ups and medication for the cat to recuperate will force the costs upward.

"It was a hit and run and they just took off and didn't do the decent thing and take the cat to the vet," she said. "It's one thing to have an accident, accidents happen, but to take off and leave a pet for dead.

"I think the person who hit him should come forward and apologize and pay for half the bill. I have to take some responsibility because my cat was out, but the $1,000 bill is expensive and they surely don't take payments."

Racheal misses Chevy sleeping in her bed, something he did on a regular basis and can't now that he's confined to the kennel. The family got more bad news Friday when Chevy took a turn for the worst. He was taken back to the vet that night.

"We've had him since he was a kitten," Teresa said.

"She didn't have a whole lot of friends in the neighbourhood when we moved (from Edmonton four years ago), so he's been important. We just want the person who did this to come forward."