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New kitty! Meet Daredevil.
Hello, internet! We have a new cat.
It's been long enough since Mama's passing that it finally feels like the right time. Dee's been watching the humane society's website for cats with special needs but affordable upkeep, and when Daredevil showed up see seemed like a good fit. She's blind due to a congenital defect, but well-adjusted, outgoing, and highly affectionate. She's also so teeny-tiny.
She was born blind; the humane society saw some weird tissue in her right eye and so did a minor surgery, finding a very small (obviously non-seeing) eyeball that they removed, and then they surgically closed that eye—there's a bit of scar tissue there, visible in photos. The left non-eye had no eyeball, and they left it open to preserve the tear duct. She should be as healthy as any other cat! No other issues, no particular danger of further eye issues.
She's had one previous owner, who got her as a kitten from a friend or relative; she was fine in that home, and had positive interactions with cats/dogs/children, but they were unable to keep her. They probably had her around six months. Daredevil was her name in that home (not one assigned at the humane society). We're keeping it (but calling her Dare), for reasons that will soon be evident.
She came to us at two years old-ish and 6.5 pounds which, if you were counting, is super teeny omg. She's nearly half August's size. She makes tiny-man Gilly look big. She's a short-haired tortoiseshell.
Dare takes a little bit of time to adjust to new spaces and stimuli, but is proactively engaged with her environment; she's bright and observant, and has already conquered the bathroom and is eager to get out to the rest of the house. Disability isn't inspiration porn, even in cats, but the degree to which this cat is engaged with her environment is amazing. She tracks sound so well it seems like she's making eye contact with what she's "looking" at; she's a great example of how much cats use their whiskers to explore and navigate their environment. Being blind from birth probably helps, since she's unaware of what she's missing; it probably also helps that she's bold and friendly. She's refined the tools she has to engage with her environment, and damn but does she use them. She makes my cats look like lazy slackers.
She has a teeny little meow, and is moderately vocal (a good bit of meowing for attention, but so far no yowling for the pure pleasure of making atrocious noises), purrs persistently, and kneeds a lot—that last is winding down a touch as she gets a little less frantic for human interaction, but I'll still be maintaining the hell out of her claw trimmings. She's quite playful, and absolutely able to bat and chase cat toys. It will be interesting to see how her behaviors change as she adapts to living her and to plenty of human interaction—Gillian, for example, was very needy when he first came here and now is happy to take his humans for granted.
And she is so wildly different from Mama that there's no hidden regret or sense of betrayal. Dare is her own unique cat, not a replacement.
Juu, who cares, show us pictures.
(From the humane society's adoption page.)
(Taken by me, on her first day home.)
(Taken by Dee.)
(Taken by Dee.)
I do dumb liveblogging/picspamming on my tumblr (cat tag) these days, just fyi.
It's been long enough since Mama's passing that it finally feels like the right time. Dee's been watching the humane society's website for cats with special needs but affordable upkeep, and when Daredevil showed up see seemed like a good fit. She's blind due to a congenital defect, but well-adjusted, outgoing, and highly affectionate. She's also so teeny-tiny.
She was born blind; the humane society saw some weird tissue in her right eye and so did a minor surgery, finding a very small (obviously non-seeing) eyeball that they removed, and then they surgically closed that eye—there's a bit of scar tissue there, visible in photos. The left non-eye had no eyeball, and they left it open to preserve the tear duct. She should be as healthy as any other cat! No other issues, no particular danger of further eye issues.
She's had one previous owner, who got her as a kitten from a friend or relative; she was fine in that home, and had positive interactions with cats/dogs/children, but they were unable to keep her. They probably had her around six months. Daredevil was her name in that home (not one assigned at the humane society). We're keeping it (but calling her Dare), for reasons that will soon be evident.
She came to us at two years old-ish and 6.5 pounds which, if you were counting, is super teeny omg. She's nearly half August's size. She makes tiny-man Gilly look big. She's a short-haired tortoiseshell.
Dare takes a little bit of time to adjust to new spaces and stimuli, but is proactively engaged with her environment; she's bright and observant, and has already conquered the bathroom and is eager to get out to the rest of the house. Disability isn't inspiration porn, even in cats, but the degree to which this cat is engaged with her environment is amazing. She tracks sound so well it seems like she's making eye contact with what she's "looking" at; she's a great example of how much cats use their whiskers to explore and navigate their environment. Being blind from birth probably helps, since she's unaware of what she's missing; it probably also helps that she's bold and friendly. She's refined the tools she has to engage with her environment, and damn but does she use them. She makes my cats look like lazy slackers.
She has a teeny little meow, and is moderately vocal (a good bit of meowing for attention, but so far no yowling for the pure pleasure of making atrocious noises), purrs persistently, and kneeds a lot—that last is winding down a touch as she gets a little less frantic for human interaction, but I'll still be maintaining the hell out of her claw trimmings. She's quite playful, and absolutely able to bat and chase cat toys. It will be interesting to see how her behaviors change as she adapts to living her and to plenty of human interaction—Gillian, for example, was very needy when he first came here and now is happy to take his humans for granted.
And she is so wildly different from Mama that there's no hidden regret or sense of betrayal. Dare is her own unique cat, not a replacement.
Juu, who cares, show us pictures.
(From the humane society's adoption page.)
(Taken by me, on her first day home.)
(Taken by Dee.)
(Taken by Dee.)
I do dumb liveblogging/picspamming on my tumblr (cat tag) these days, just fyi.