Anyone owned by a one-eyed kitty?

Well, I am going to shelter regularly and have an application for
volunteering - they need somebody to brush kitties and I like brushing
kitties! Have been down with a nasty flu myself and did manage to get all
my kitty essentials but not yet the kitty. Charlotte the attention whore
is my love but don't know if she will be happy as a lone kitty and left
alone so much. So petting and brushing kitties at least spreads the love
around while I try to decide, ok.

Anyway, there is a little girl there, was born at the shelter and she is
about a year old. She has one normal eye and one that although it looks
cloudy in photos, in real life it looks very still and very blue. She is
actually quite fetching. They say she had an eye infection when she was a
kitten and it left her eye like that. I doubt she sees much out of it and
do believe her depth perception is a bit off because of it (she tried to
jump to the chair that my handbag was on and went *boing* off of it. Of
course, she recovered nicely since she probably "meant to do that"

Any of you have a cat with a vision impairment - is it safe to leave them
alone for a long work day? Don't know how many things she may try to
negotiate that her vision could be a problem. She is young enough to adapt
to a solitary kind of life I think, with toys and windows to keep her
occupied even with a bit of vision handicap.

Sue wrote:
Anyway, there is a little girl there, was born at the shelter and she
is about a year old. She has one normal eye and one that although it
looks cloudy in photos, in real life it looks very still and very
blue. She is actually quite fetching. They say she had an eye
infection when she was a kitten and it left her eye like that. I
doubt she sees much out of it and do believe her depth perception is
a bit off because of it (she tried to jump to the chair that my
handbag was on and went *boing* off of it. Of course, she recovered
nicely since she probably "meant to do that"

LOL of course she did!

Any of you have a cat with a vision impairment - is it safe to leave
them alone for a long work day? Don't know how many things she may
try to negotiate that her vision could be a problem. She is young
enough to adapt to a solitary kind of life I think, with toys and
windows to keep her occupied even with a bit of vision handicap.

MaryL is owned by Duffy, who is totally blind. There is absolutely nothing
a vision impaired cat can't do that a fully sighted cat can do. In fact,
pick up the November issue of Cat Fancy magazine. Cats use their whiskers
as "eyes" in many cases where they can't see things. If this lovely young
kitty only has a problem with one eye, I see no reason why she can't be
perfectly happy as an only kitty.

Jill

On Sep 25, 5:55 pm, Sue wrote:
Any of you have a cat with a vision impairment - is it safe to leave them
alone for a long work day? Don't know how many things she may try to
negotiate that her vision could be a problem. She is young enough to adapt
to a solitary kind of life I think, with toys and windows to keep her
occupied even with a bit of vision handicap.


Way to go Sue! Has the kitty always lived at the shelter or has she
been fostered? She may need to adjust to a different way of life, but
especially as an indoor cat she'll soon fine tune how she gets
around. My sis has a neutered male barn cat (built like a mack truck)
who lost his eye about 5 yrs ago, and he's a terror to the mouse
population, and is all over and under every building out there.

PatM

My parents have a one eyed cat who I have looked after from time to
time. I've not noticed any problems with her abilities. She jumps and
climbs perfectly fine and is an indoor-outdoor cat. Unless your kitty
has poor vision in the other eye, I can't see why her life would be
much different from a regular cat.

Dewi

PatM wrote:
On Sep 25, 5:55 pm, Sue wrote:
Any of you have a cat with a vision impairment - is it safe to
leave them alone for a long work day? Don't know how many things
she may try to negotiate that her vision could be a problem. She is
young enough to adapt to a solitary kind of life I think, with toys
and windows to keep her occupied even with a bit of vision handicap.


Way to go Sue! Has the kitty always lived at the shelter or has she
been fostered?

Her post said the kitty was born at the shelter.

Jill

On Sep 26, 7:57 am, "jmcquown" wrote:
PatM wrote:

Way to go Sue! Has the kitty always lived at the shelter or has she
been fostered?

Her post said the kitty was born at the shelter.


Oh, I saw that Jill. I just thought, being a year old, she may have
lived some of that time with a foster family. I know they are always
looking for foster famlies to do that here. We fostered a pair of
7yr. old pugs which didn't go at all well as they were not in the
least housebroken. Gotta love cats!!!!!

Any of you have a cat with a vision impairment - is it safe to leave them
alone for a long work day? Don't know how many things she may try to
negotiate that her vision could be a problem. She is young enough to adapt
to a solitary kind of life I think, with toys and windows to keep her
occupied even with a bit of vision handicap.////

Both HRFL Tiger *and* Miss Lily Whiskers only have one eye each, and
it certainly doesn't affect them at all. Both have 24/7 indoor/outdoor
free access, and behave completely as 100% normal cats. The only thing
they occasionally have problems with is depth perception in that it
takes them a few seconds longer to judge a jump that they haven't made
before. It certainly doesn't stop their proficencies as hunters - this
week I've had 4 baby ratties, an adult rat, 3 mice, 6 earth worms and
a couple of shrews. Admittedly I think Pandora is responsible for the
big stuff, but Lily is certainly responsible for the earthworms. ;o)

HRFL Tiger had congenital cateracts in his left eye as a baby and was
blind in it from birth very similar to the little girl you are
describing. He developed keratitis and the opthalmologist recomended
removing it when he was 2 years old. It's never bothered him. Miss
Lily Whiskers lost her left eye at 4 weeks old when some *******
tortured her, before she was rescued.

It gets to the stage where you don't even see (excuse the pun) the
fact that they only have one eye. It's so completely part of them, I'm
often thrown when I see a black cat with 2 eyes because it looks odd!!

If her purrsonality is the right one for your lifestyle, then I feel
sure she will be just fine.

Helen M

PatM wrote:

On Sep 25, 5:55 pm, Sue wrote:
Any of you have a cat with a vision impairment - is it safe to leave
them
alone for a long work day? Don't know how many things she may try to
negotiate that her vision could be a problem. She is young enough to
adapt to a solitary kind of life I think, with toys and windows to keep
her occupied even with a bit of vision handicap.


Way to go Sue! Has the kitty always lived at the shelter or has she
been fostered? She may need to adjust to a different way of life, but
especially as an indoor cat she'll soon fine tune how she gets
around. My sis has a neutered male barn cat (built like a mack truck)
who lost his eye about 5 yrs ago, and he's a terror to the mouse
population, and is all over and under every building out there.

PatM

No, she has never been in a home. She was born there and all her brothers
and sisters were adopted eventually. The small town shelter I am visiting
doesn't really have a foster program though sometimes with the
teenyweenyitsybitsy types in kitten season they farm a few out

She is quite lovely. Short hair black/white tux. Just a normal cat. In
photos the eye looks more disturbing than in real life
http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/...?petid=8662960
where it is really just very blue and still. Except for her poor jump she
seems fine.

Hey, my Shadow was an awful klutz. We lived in a river shack for awhile
with MANY windows and a huge amount of wild life. I had my father and
stepmother over for Sunday once there. Shadow had radar for an open (or
not!) window. In this case, I had the window on the porch open for a few
when I was cooking in the adjacent kitchen but closed it when we were about
to eat. Shadow took a marathon run from the living room to the window (no
longer open and with barely any sill for a kitty). Oops. Was a classic
comic cat when she bounced off the glass and scraped down the wall. She
meant to do that really, and nonchalanty groomed after the spectacle

Bethany does have a very nice temperament. Likes other cats but is young
enough to adapt to being an only cat, I think. In the mean time, I don't
think there is anything wrong with bringing food and supplies and spending
two hours a week lavishing attention on the kitties.

Sue wrote:
PatM wrote:

On Sep 25, 5:55 pm, Sue wrote:
Any of you have a cat with a vision impairment - is it safe to
leave them
alone for a long work day? Don't know how many things she may try
to negotiate that her vision could be a problem. She is young
enough to adapt to a solitary kind of life I think, with toys and
windows to keep her occupied even with a bit of vision handicap.


Way to go Sue! Has the kitty always lived at the shelter or has she
been fostered? She may need to adjust to a different way of life,
but especially as an indoor cat she'll soon fine tune how she gets
around. My sis has a neutered male barn cat (built like a mack
truck) who lost his eye about 5 yrs ago, and he's a terror to the
mouse population, and is all over and under every building out there.

PatM

No, she has never been in a home. She was born there and all her
brothers and sisters were adopted eventually. The small town shelter
I am visiting doesn't really have a foster program though sometimes
with the teenyweenyitsybitsy types in kitten season they farm a few
out

She is quite lovely. Short hair black/white tux. Just a normal cat.
In photos the eye looks more disturbing than in real life
http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/...?petid=8662960
where it is really just very blue and still. Except for her poor jump
she seems fine.

There's nothing "disturbing" about her appearance. I'm starting to think
you are the one who is disturbing. You're so damned picky, no cat seems to
meet with your expectations.

jmcquown wrote:

There's nothing "disturbing" about her appearance. I'm starting to think
you are the one who is disturbing. You're so damned picky, no cat seems
to meet with your expectations.

What is disturbing, is those who attack for no reason. And now, finally,
enough of it.

Ta-ta usenet and the leagues of those who attack just for well, what is it
that you people attack over? To make up for?

I will stick with the animals as long as they never get the opposable thumbs
and internet access it is unlikely they will backslide into vicious lower
life forms.