Buddy is an orange American short-haired cat that looks like a normal adult male cat. You would never know that he had a disability without watching him closely. Buddy is deaf and has vision loss due to a head injury and adopters like him until they find out what needs to be done to take care of him.
We rescued Buddy in April after his people had moved away and left him behind. We suspect that this unaltered cat had gotten into numerous fights and that is when the head injury occurred. When we rescued him we did not need a trap, this cat came to us with deep puncture bite wounds and deep scratches on his face. I remember telling my husband that I never saw a cat with red eyes, that is because the red that we saw was blood.
We immediately took him to the animal hospital where we learned that His vision is distorted, as he has no depth perception, he does not hear and he is infected with FIV. (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus). We also learned that his cocked head and shaking of his head may be permanent due to head trauma.
When we first brought him home we put Buddy in the cat-safe room. In this room, there was a futon bed, carpet and tile on the floor, a cat tree, a window seat, cat toys, a litter box, and food and water bowls. A nice cat room with everything a feline would need. However, the entire room changed in a matter of minutes because Buddy had difficulty walking and could not keep his balance. Everything high off the floor was moved, the futon mattress came down to the floor, and the bed frame was removed.
Buddy has to live in a room where everything is on the floor because the head injury and inner ear have made him clumsy. He could not get to his litter box or to his food bowls so we picked him up and put him in front of everything, we are thankful that there is nothing wrong with his sense of smell.
Buddy underwent three months of veterinarian care, including surgery on his ear, and in the end, I suspect he hears a little because he plays with the toys that are in front of him but if they go too far he will sit and stare. I do not think he can see them or hear the bell in his ball.
We hoped that we would be able to find an adopter who had no other pets, that had time to take care of Buddy so that he could not try to jump on something because he would fall. But the truth is that there are no adapters for Buddy that are willing to remove furniture from a room in order to keep Buddy safe. When they realize that they have to pick him up and put in on the sofa, then watch so he does not fall when he gets down.
The adopters turn away from this cat with disabilities and FIV because he is too much work. That is why I say it is hard to find adopters for cats with disabilities and FIV.
