December 06, 2004

• I... I don't know. Jesus fuck, that's the saddest thing I've heard in weeks. Going off to hurt something now.
• do they make glasses for cats? poor little guy! but lucky to have found you. his life no doubt will improve immensely now.
• ..if she starts meowing "Georgia on My Mind"...
• There's some good information here, but the best advice is to schedule regular visits to your vet (at least once a year--if not more--even if catso seems in perfect health).
• I don't know about cats, but my cousin had a dog with serious cataracts. She basically bumped her way around the house like a slow pinball, but she was so old she never really got into any trouble. I would imagine cats would be tougher because they like to jump up on furniture, countertops, etc. Keep an eye out for your kitty, make sure she's getting around okay. It's key for her to find the litterbox and food on her own. And talk to your vet about regular eye health screenings.
• In all seriousness, I had a cat with degrading eyesight, and the way we knew is that he kept running into shit.
• i can't find it on the internet, but there was a guy who made "walking canes" for blind dogs by using a harness and a sort of hula-hoop like material that created a buffer zone in front of the animal. In other words the plastic tubing would bump into the refrigerator before the dog would. I know it's a cat, but maybe that will help somehow.
• Seriously speaking, musing, that's fucked up. I'm glad there's people out there like you who rescue "damaged" animals.... People who hurt animals for pleasure should be beaten to bloody pulps. Your story reminded me of another instance which happened to me as a kid. One summer, this dog showed up in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, whenever it saw a person, it would latch on to them and follow them everywhere, trying to get into the store you went into, even your house. I took to avoiding this dog like the plague, because he/she would just not leave you alone. I really hated walking by the abandoned lot the dog made home, because about half the time it would find me and follow me. As such, when my parents sent me to the store, I would walk an extra two blocks so I wouldn't have to go by the lot. Long story short, about a month later, no sign of doggie. I was relieved, and gave it no further thought. That is, until I noticed a strange smell coming from the lot. About a week later, me and my friends finally got up enough "courage" (not like doggie was violent, just over friendly) to enter the lot. We found a dog's charred corpse tied to a burned shell of a matress, and we ran away. After the initial shock of seing a burned corpse faded, I remembered crying. (it still brings a tear when I think about it, like now)... I never found out who did it, but even to this day, I would stab the fucker in the throat with a syringe full of AIDS if I knew. Just the image of him (I just imagine the dog as a him, don't know why) coming after me with tongue lolling out, dingy hide, and me yelling at him, trying to scare him off, strikes me as particularly vivid. He just wanted someone to take him home, damnit. He would only finally skulk off after the store owners shooed him off with a broom, or after spending minutes barking outside the building. Not your fault musing, but I think I need a drink now. RIP Doggie...
• Actually, I've recently discovered that the kitty was rescued as the fuckwad who hurt her was trying to set her on fire. Soooooo...yes. I understand your feelings. I like "special needs" animals...they're loving and affectionate and I like knowing I can give them a second shot at the life they should have had to begin with. In other words, I'm a softie. My boyfriend, InnocentBystander, doesn't seem to mind terribly. The way I see it, if a cat can forgive people and be sweet after that, it's a better creature than me, because it makes me seethe with murderous rage. And it's nice to have an example of absolute love and innocence right there in bed at one's feet, purring.
• Actuallysettle: my first cat, sally, was a present for my third birthday. When I was 17 she started, as you so aptly put it, "running into shit." She was totally blind within a week. She lived another 3 years - not quite as willing to take big risky jumps as before and not as willing to deal with little kids, but otherwise just fine. So I'm not terribly worried about the possibility of the cat losing sight, but yeah, I was wondering if there was any sign before the "bumping into walls" stage. Hrrrm, evidently not! Good to know. (side note: I know I shouldn't have laughed at this, but I always thought it was hysterical when my wonderful late cat Sally would bump into walls and then HISSED at them, even though they had obviously always been there!)
• Why are there people who like hurting animals? I wish I could spend some time with them in a small room and some blunt instruments.... I remember less than 10 years ago, a pretty orange cat got kicked so hard, he died with his eyes filled with blood. There are usually several strays where I live, fed by sundry kind people who also get them neutered and checked up. This one in particular was a very quiet affectionate type who liked kissing people. I straddle a bench or seat, and he would jump up and sit between my legs. Then I would bend down so he could give me little pecks on my lips.
• if she starts meowing "Georgia on My Mind"... Spit Take. Debaser: You are one sick and funny puppy. Mel: If she has partial eyesight and loses it gradually, she'll get around like gangbusters, and it will probably be hard to tell for certain if/when she does go blind. Best case would be if she maintained what she has, and regular vet visits is the best thing you can do. Even if she goes blind suddenly, keeping her with her cat buddy and NEVER trimming her whiskers help. Introduce her to each room one at a time, and make sure you speak to her frequently as you move from room to room in the house. (no sneaking up on her) If you have to move things around--furniture or whatever, do it one item at a time. Her most important resource will be a quiet, safe, small enclosed area where she can sleep without fear. If her box is in the shape of a L, where the entry is recessed, that is very secure feeling to a cat--easily defended. If you can find a carpet tube and make a slanted ramp to an elevated enclosed area with a sleeping box, she might like that. She could perch above all the activity and feel safe, but included. We had a blind kat (eye infection as abandoned kitten) with the most amazing hearing--could play with a toy consisting of a feather on a leather string dangled/dragged in front of her. We enabled her to get up on the couch and up and down her cat tree by putting her up, then lifting her down slowly, then finally putting her up and coaxing her down. Once she realized what the distances were, the shapes, and the orientation of things, she could get up and down just fine. We moved when she was about 9, and she was first to get out from under the bed and explore the new place. Depending on your new babe's personality, she may be pretty adventurous and a handfull, or she could just be a meatloaf cat. Good luck with your new little buddies. They've found a wonderful friend. Keep us posted.
• RRRRRRAAARRRRRR!!!!!!!!! Alnedra: Why are there so many people who have witnessed this random violence against harmless animals shit!!! Man, just once... just once... I would love to catch some dipshit doing this to an animal.... In preview... sorry, musing... don't mean to hijack the thread... Let's worry about the one's that are still alive, that's all we can do, really. I go 'way now...
• Yes, and post pix too. :)
• musingmelpomene, you are an upstanding person. I am sad (like Old Yeller kind of sad). My advice would be to just give her tons of love and catnip. But that's mostly because I'm a drunk who loves love. When my cat went blind we rubbed a catnip trail into the rug so she could follow it to the litter box. It took her a while to get to the can, of course, but it seemed to stop her peeing all over the place.
• Damn humans can be vile. That's just fucking hideous. Two of our dogs were abused by previous owners, one was systematically starved to within a couple of days of death and the other was found by the dog warden wandering the streets painted with thick yellow paint and with burn scars on her stomach. But acid and setting on fire ... just ... damn. Makes me ashamed to share genetic code with these bastards. I don't have advice to offer, just wanted to wish you and the little kitty all the best. Sounds like you're all lucky to have found each other. and could we please have a picture so we can all go 'aaah'?
• This thread makes me want to adopt a zillion animals.
• http://www.petfinder.com/fotos/FL346/FL346.2990348-1-x.jpg Here's a link to my kitty's picture - her friend doesn't have a petfinder page. :)
• aaaaaaaaaaah! What a beautiful cat - she's adorable!
• What a gorgeous little tortie! Do you have names picked out yet for her and her buddy? Just remembered that a friend of a friend helped his blind cat navigate around the house by keeping the radio at low volume 24/7. Of course there was an adjustment period every time they moved or got a new piece of furniture... I hope there's a uniquely awful hell for animal abusers.
• I'm suffering through major kitty withdrawal currently, I can't believe anyone would want to hurt one. I'm so glad you're taking in that gorgeous cat!
• I don't have any philosophical background but this whole thing about the capacity of humans for evil greatly bothers me. I mean one gangster killing another I don't care about. But people harming animals like this, cutting arms off babies, or hell, the Pol Pot regime and Stalin, is just beyond comprehension. This has made my own view on life extremely solipsistic.
• Awww! A lovely little tortie (usually I call them stir-fry kitties, due to the wonderful randomness of the pattern, but hestitate to here, given the nature of this thread). As the devoted staff of eight damaged and thrown away animals who are now loved beyond belief, I thank you for taking in two more. It's so rewarding to give critters like this a loving home. My Thomas Windsor Gingerpuss has eye issues due to a major beating and the vet checks his "problem" eye very thoroughly each year to check for changes. He usually lets me look into the eye with that cool "lookin'-into-a-cat's-eye" instrument and it's amazing how different healthy and damaged tissue can look. The idea of rubbing a catnip trail is great! The cats would probably prefer a tuna trail, but that might become a little unpleasant...
• Debaser626- Christ, I think my heart just broke into teeny little pieces.
• stir-fry kitties heh! I like that Chickie! Shhhhhh!
• This thread is so unbelievable sad, I can barely stand it. I also feel like throwing up. Fuck. Our kitty is a shelter kitty, and the previous family had given her up because she had been peeing on the kids' toys. Yeah, that would be annoying, but I'm 100% convinced that it wasn't her fault. When our friend's three-year old came over, Ada freaked and hissed at him when he came near. I am sure that they did not teach the kids how to interact with her, and they pulled her tail or some such and so she was retaliating in pretty much one of the only ways cats can. Either than, or it may have been because she wasn't fucking spayed at 2 1/2 years old. Plus, she had an infected paw, and was way, way too skinny. Sorry, I didn't mean to derail further, but oh, if only that family could see my gorgeous, healthy, utterly loving and devoted and loved kitty now. Yes, that would be nice. Because then I'd have a chance to laugh in their faces for giving up the best cat in the universe, plus if it was at their house, I'd know where they lived and I could throw a brick through their window. Hah. Good on you, mm, and good luck with your beautiful new kitty. You are definitely one of the "good people".
• *skips Debaser's story* God save anyone I cat pulling crap like this with an animal. Because that's about all that will. "You like sticking fireworks in cat's ears? Let's see how much fun it is with people!" My wife's old cat lived a few years blind. He wandered around the house quite happily unless something (like furniture) got moved. He'd occasionally get lost in the back yard - he'd still go out to sun his old bones - but would yowl until someone called so he could find his way home.
• A beautiful little cat! About twenty five years ago, I took in a stray kitten whom the vet said had been hit so hard on the head one eye was damaged. She recovered her eyesight in time, but was subject to seizures for the rest of her life, having trauma-induced epilepsy, mostly petty mal but sometimes more severe seizures. However, she seemed to enjoy life for the most part, and lived to be almost twenty. The only cat I've known who seemed totally unaware of the attractiions of catnip, I've always wondered if her sense of smell had been damaged somehow, too. Best of luck with your little one.
• Add me to the list of people made homicidal by cruelty to animals. I'm fortunate to have never witnessed something like what was done to musingmelpomene's beautiful new kitty. If I had, I'm sure would be doing time somewhere. I'm ordinarily a very peaceful person--vegetarian, anti war, against the death penalty, all of that. But when I think of someone pouring acid into a cat's eyes on purpose, all I can think is that such a person must be erased. Of course I've heard horrible stories sice I was a kid--setting fire to living animals seems a popular theme--and having travelled in places like India and Thailand, I've seen all sorts of cats and dogs in terrible shape. I was really suprised by how mean Thais and Indians can be to street dogs. I had naively imagined that the notion of karma would have made people kinder in their daily lives. Musingmelpomene, you get 1000+ good karma points to adopting this special cat. She is a great beauty. I've been thinking about adopting a special needs cat, too. Did you go through a particular agency or shelter that specializes in cats that other places might not consider adoptable?
• It's fairly common knowledge -- even to the layperson these days -- that a lot of people who get their kicks setting fire to animals are fledgling sociopaths. From what I remember from university, many countries' police keep files on anyone caught torturing animals, and take it very seriously. I have a feeling the UK is one such place.
• We're thinking we're going to name her Themis or Astraea - both inspirations for blind lady justice. Her black-cat friend, Persephone. We have to keep in the same pantheon, after all!
• Apis mellifera: I did an advanced search on petfinder.com for special needs animals near me. She was 7 hours away but the folks at the rescue are providing transport. :)
• musing, those are wonderful names! This is a heartbreaking thread, and before I go off to the corner to have a good, hard cry, I just want to pile on the thanks for having such a wonderful, big heart and taking that sweet kitty home. Good advice about cat blindness, abounds here, too. Bless anyone who gives the abused, abandoned ones a second chance at life.
• So, do you happen to know the name and address of the sick fuck who did this? Don't suppose you could post it, hmmmmm? Our first cat was a rescue from an abusive household, but nothing like this. All kittys since were adopted from strays or unplanned litters from folks who hadn't spayed/neutered, under the agreement that they immediately do so.
• As traicle says, animal torture is almost always a sign of a severely sociopathic personality. It is often one of the indicators of an individual who has suffered from some form of abuse themselves. The abuse is an attempt to somehow regain the power that the person had taken from them. By the time it manifests itself, it's usually too late to treat the perpetrator, as the damage is done. Sadly, these deformed personalities then pass this abusive behaviour on to their offspring, and the vicious cycle continues. Most serial murderers relate episodes of animal abuse in their histories, usually beginning in early adolescence. Animals though, are much more resilient than humans. My own rescued cat, Sugar Bear , was terrified of all humans when I got him, and I only ever saw him when I put food in his bowl for the first year that I had him. But now, six years later, he is climbing up on stranger's laps when they stop to pet him when he is outside on the lawn. He's still petrified of the vacuum cleaner for some reason, though.
• Some animals don't heal, PareidoliaticBoy, but I'm glad yours did! Our previous cat, Pricilla, was rescued from an abusive household (named "Prissy" there!) and never did learn to accept love and happiness. She never liked being petted, but would sometimes sit in my lap if I didn't touch her held absolutely still. Usually petting resulted in a bite and her running under the couch. I tried to make up for it by buying her cat treats and catnip. She escaped whenever she could manage it, but we could catch her and bring her back. Eventually, she ran away and we never caught her. I saw her in the woods around our apartment building for several years, so I hope she was happier there than with us. Tried the best I could.
• Nail the animal toturing bastards to the fuckung door. I'll do it. I've already got the hammer... Makes me really angry...
• *lends kitfisto 100 TON HAMMER
• I don't know who did it - really, neither does anyone else. The woman got the cat away from the guy and immediately went to the vet without thinking to call the cops on the kid - she knew that the kitty might not have very long to live without immediate medical help and didn't want to wait around with a crazy person for 20 minutes waiting for the cops to show. That choice was debatable, but - to my mind - understandable.
• You certainly have my admiration for adopting this kitty, she's beautiful. The neighbors I had when I was growing up were very abusive to their "pets". They had a mentally handicapped son who killed several of them. He closed a window on one cat, breaking its back, threw another one against a wall, one of their dogs got a broken leg from a car and they never took the dog to the vet so he hobbled around for a year before he got hit again and killed. The cops wouldn't do anything, so we resorted to stealing their pets and taking them to a shelter whenever we could. I have to admit, since the cops didn't do anything, we vandalized their house in retalitation (hey, we were in our early teens). Once their son spray-painted my cat (what fun it was bathing that hissy ball of fur and claws) so we broke out every single window on their house.
• The first dog I ever had was a rescue dog. He was a weimaraner. His former owners named him Satan and tried to turn him into an attack dog by being really mean to him (which shows how stupid they were. This breed makes good watch dogs because they're so loyal and smart, but bad attack dogs.). When they got tired of beating him, they starved him and finally abandoned him. When we got him, he was tick ridden and skeletal. We re-named him Fred, both because Satan is a lame name and to break his ties to his old owners. Fred became a great dog, very sweet and loyal. (He was not the brightest lightbulb in the lamp: in our big backyard, he'd run full-tilt until he ran head first into the fence. Then turn around and go the other way until he ran into the other fence. Then turn around. After a few years, we felt very guilty about not offering him enough space. We gave him to this fabulous couple out in the country, who had lots of land. He'd run *several acres* into the fence, then turn around.) For the rest of his life, though, he was terrified of newspapers and big men. I subscribe to the "eye for an eye" rule for animal abusers -- have done to you what you did to them.
• those who take in strays are excellent people. those who take in special needs critters deserve respect and great karmic reward. the thing to focus on when it gets overwhelming is how happy these critters are when they are finally given a chance to thrive. musingmelpomene, your level of caring for this cat you don't have yet is really touching. animal tend to hide illness until they just can't anymore, so I'm not surprised the first sign of blindness is bumping into things. I'm still giggling about the dog who runs into fences. ah, dogs are fun.