Monday, February 20, 2012

Blind-cat Davey - It's official, he's mine

January 24, 2012
It's official, I now have 4 cats.  I never wanted to have more than 2 at a time, but now it's double that.  People ask all the time how I can raise foster kittens and not want to keep them all.  It's easy - vet bills.  I love raising kittens, just really don't want to have a hundred cats. 

Today's addition is Davey, the little blind kitten that I've written about here in the past.  When I first started fostering him, it became quickly apparent that he could not see.  His eyes are permanently dialated, he doesn't 'track' movements, and he bumps into stuff everywhere.  Some of that is just kitten-clumbsy, but mostly he just can't see anything.

When he was checked out by the specialty vet, she determined that he has detached retinas - one fully detached and the other mostly detached.  If he has any vision at all, it is very little.  That's OK though, because he doesn't know the difference.  He gets along great, loves playing with toys that make noise (especially mylar crinkle balls!), and can find his way around the house just fine.  Never misses the litter box either - which is more than I can say for one of my other cats!




It's tough to get a picture of him that doesn't look weirdly freaky because his pupils are so wide open that the camera flash shows off the back of his eyes in nearly every shot.  His eyes don't really glow blue & red in real life.




He's growing fast.  Went from 3lb to 5lb in short order.  Loves terrorizing the older cats.  Lorenza is sweet & tolerates his kitten antics the best.  Cotton REALLY still wants to be an only cat.  Colleen isn't taking the new addition well and has started sleeping in the litter box (yuck).  More on her problems later.




Since there haven't been any fosters for a while, I'm sure you'll be seeing more about Davey soon.  If I can ever get the video edited, I've got the first day he walked 'down' stairs by himself - a very big milestone.