Saturday, September 24, 2011

Sight Disabled Cats: Homer, Coolio, and Stan

Today's post is written by a guest blogger who needs no introduction: Amy Palmer. She's a "cat whisperer" over at Wayside Waifs - and is also famous for taking Sebastian's dictation down for him at www.seabasscat.com (she's his Mom!).
________

  This post is #16 in a series. You can read post #15 on Sebastian The Sensitive Soul's blog.
 ________

If you have read Gwen Cooper's “Homer's Odyssey”, you know that even if a cat doesn't have eyes, he can still be fearless. 

Homer once scared off a burglar! He doesn't need vision to be a fully-abled cat. If Homer can live a normal life without any eyes, having one eye is a piece of cake for Stan!    
Stan
photo courtesy Amy Palmer

Stan is an 8 year old, domestic medium hair cat with a gorgeous white coat who is available for adoption at Wayside Waifs. And he happens to be missing an eye. Big deal. He looks a little different but he doesn't let it bother him. He knows he's a handsome fellow!

And how about Coolio? She doesn't let a little vision problem keep her down! She's playful and full of energy. Her right eye appears a little cloudy, but otherwise she looks pretty normal. She had a previous eye problem that caused her iris and cornea to fuse, causing permanent limited vision in that eye. 


Coolio
photo courtesy Amy Palmer

All of these cats are considered “less adoptable” but in reality they are no less adoptable than a fully sighted cat-they just look different. Sometimes a cat with sight issues will need special eye care, but in the case of a missing eye, no medical care is needed. It's just like owning any other cat.

There are some tips that will make life easier for a blind or sight-disabled cat. First, if a cat has partial vision, try not to approach on the cat's blind side. If the cat is completely blind, try saying the cat's name before touching him so you don't startle him and he can orient himself to your position.

As far as the cat's living conditions, an open layout home will be more difficult for a sight-disabled cat to navigate. Walls and doorways give a blind cat a way to orient himself in his surroundings. Also, it's best to not rearrange furniture. Doing so can confuse a blind cat. That goes for the cat's items as well: keep his bed, bowls, litter box and scratching post in the same location.

When you are first introducing a sight-disabled cat to your home, start slowly. Let him get acquainted with just one room first. You can expand his world as he gets comfortable.

Stan
photo courtesy Wayside Waifs


Sight disabled cats can be the result of many issues: injury, infection, tumor, or simply age. There is no reason to think that a cat can't deal with it though-cats are very adaptable! Other senses heighten to make up for the loss of the other, plus, those whiskers work wonders with navigation. Don't let a missing eye cause you to miss out on a great new friend!


6 comments:

  1. This is an awesome post. Homer is a hero to all us sight disabled cats (I have micro opthalmia and one eye has never grown properly - the other of sort of OK MOL!), and I am honoured to meet Stan and Coolio too.

    Mum and Dad got when I was tiny and I clambered up onto Dad's shoulder. No Fear!!

    Adopting a sight disabled cat means you might have a bigger handful that a sighted one Mum says, I play with my tortie sisfur, torment my other sisfur (heh heh) and love the great outdoors.

    Your friend,

    Dash Kitten

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh Stan, our mummy sure thinks your a good lookin' fella!! My good pal Dash is a pussycat that has showen us all how amazing a sight disabled cat can be (and he's also a good lookin' fella Rumblemum informs us...)

    ReplyDelete
  3. We've had some sight-disabled cats at our shelter, and they never cease to amaze us with the ways they adapt. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am allergic to cats, but we have an issue with many sight disabled dogs at our animal shelter in Peru's Amazon. Pekinese is a favored breed, so we see many Pekinese mixes in our shelter. Their bulging eyes and the dusty environment and bacterial worms from polluted water all conspire to create vision problems. I am bringing home a sight impaired dog from Peru next month, and your blog provided me with great tips that I'm sure apply to dogs as well. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jen took in a 19-yr-old kitty that was determined to be both blind and deaf. One thing most people want to know about animals like this is- will this cat use the litter box? Absolutely! A cat doesn't need vision to find the litter box. Introduce like you do the rest of the house. The kitty we cared for died several months after we took him in, and during that time there were NO litter box issues.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I sure hope Stan finds a home soon. Mama was telling Dad all about Stan while she was writing this post. She sure falls for those kitties at Wayside Waifs!

    ReplyDelete

Coolio! A comment? For US?