Feline blindness

Hello, Group:

Within the past ten or twelve days I noticed some odd behavior in my
six-year-old female cat Alice -- she won't stay on the floor or any
other place she considers "too low". She stays on the refrigerator, on a
dresser, on the mantle or any place high. None of this has been normal
for her in the past. The few times she was on the floor recently she was
acting a little fearful as if she thought something was in the room with
her. July is the month for her yearly physical so when I took her to the
vet I intended to ask about it.

While waiting for the doctor to come into the exam room, I noticed that
when she made an attempt to jump from the floor to the exam table, she
fell short and back to the floor. Twice more she looked at the table
top, trying to judge the distance, then backed off from trying the jump.
On the third try she succeeded. I realized at that time she must be
having trouble seeing.

The vet examined her, did some rudimentary tests with her fingers around
the cat's eyes (blink test, mainly) and agreed but she doesn't know why.
They did a sophisticated blood test of some kind and she's clear of any
problems there. The vet says her retinas appear to be OK but wants me to
take her to a specialist, an opthalmologist. I'm all for that, the
sooner the better. The vet told me she did speak with the specialist
before the blood test results came back and that the specialist didn't
seem to think it was anything serious. The specialist asked my vet to
call her again after the results of the blood test came back. My vet did
call but the specialist hasn't gotten back to her yet.

Has anyone here ever had a cat that exhibited similar symptoms? Any
input would be most gratefully received because I'm really concerned
about Alice. I lost quite a bit of sleep last night just thinking about
her because I don't know what's wrong.

Thanks so much.

George