Kurby has a dislocated left hip. Try as they did, the vet could not reposition it back in its socket.

The prescribed corrective action is to surgically remove the top of the 'hip bone'. With cats, the bone is pretty quickly replaced by cartilege (or something) that becomes rigid enough that it acts just like the removed bone. (We had to have this done with one of our other cats and you can't tell by the way he walks or jumps that there was ever anything wrong with it. We can't remember which hip was operated upon.)

The problem is that Kurby is a feral - though friendly enough that he'll let Kevin pet him. Even if we could afford to have the operation performed, we'd need to nurse him for at least a few weeks. Ever tried to nurse/medicate a feral cat?

We're faced with either getting the hip fixed or putting him down.

Right now we're leaning toward getting the hip fixed - he's only a year and a half old and has good prospects for a successful recovery with fewer complications (less or milder arthritis). We need to figure out where he'll stay and how we'll medicate him. There's a slight possibility, given his youth and friendliness with Kevin, that he may tame up somewhat and we could adopt him out, away from the park.