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On a Sunday evening in early spring, it was like getting a call from Merle Haggard and hearing him sing you're on "The Fightin' Side of Me."

Somebody was on the fighting side of Garrett Erickson, 65, a gent who would fit in nicely with Willie Nelson as there's no spit and shine when Mr. Erickson, a carpenter by trade, is loaded for bear.

He was fired up that night because some lowdown, dirty dog had left a little kitty to freeze to death in early March at the Gary Spina farm southeast of Wannaska, which is a couple of miles from where Garrett hangs his hat these days.

"He left his footprints in the snow and dropped him off near a building and could just as easily opened the door and put it inside," he said.

Credit Mr. Spina, after finding that kitty with all its paws frozen, with nursing it back to some semblance of respectable health before bringing it to Garrett.

And Garrett's take on the skunk who did this dastardly deed?

"They ought to be slapped upside the head and left out in the cold," he said.

He looks like he could do it quite handily, too.

In April, Mr. Erickson and the kitty were getting along famously.

"I named him Stumpy, and I've had him for about four weeks," he said, adding that Stumpy is lacking three of his four paws and has a single claw on its right front paw.

"If he has carpet or something smooth, he can walk around pretty good. But he doesn't like linoleum," he said, adding that he's pretty sure it's a male, but he hasn't really checked it out.

"I don't think he's more than three months old," he said.

This is a new experience for Mr. Erickson.

"I'm not a cat person, but I'm going to keep it," he said.

He laughed.

"He's kind of growed on me," he said.

They are a team.

In a way, it was predestined that he'd end up with Stumpy.

It couldn't stay at Gary Spina's, he said, because Gary has a couple of dogs - blue heelers - that don't take a liking to interlopers, especially cats.

This past April, speaking by cellphone, he had some advice.

"You don't want kittens, get them fixed. Don't just throw them some place in the middle of the winter."

In the background, Stumpy could be heard meowing.

"He's a dandy," he said proudly.

Meet Stumpy

On a recent June afternoon, Stumpy looked like life is treating him very well.

He sat outdoors in his own special bed and took it all in.

Especially the interloper, who asked Mr. Erickson if Garrett would pick up the kitty for a photo op.

Garrett & Stumpy

Which he most certainly did, except that Stumpy did what came naturally.

He buried his solitary claw into Garrett's arm.

Stumpy leaped out onto the grass and hustled under the porch.

Mr. Erickson wiped away a tiny pool of blood from his bicep and crawled under the porch to retrieve Stumpy, who might have to be renamed Spunky Stumpy.

He's on the rebound, but what won't ever grow back are his paws.

"There's no pads on the back feet. Just bone on bone," he said. "On the grass or anything soft, he's quick."

Just about as quick as the slap Garrett would like to give to the bloke who abandoned Stumpy to an almost sure death.

"Stumpy is comfortable and has a good home now," he said.