We went to meet Pirata yesterday and he’s going to come and live with us on 26th October. He has one more visit to the vet about his leg. The people who are fostering him are very nice and I am sure they are going to find it difficult to part with him. They feed street cats in Zafra and found him as a kitten. The knew he wouldn’t survive so bought him into their flat. They’ve been looking after him for 6 months and nursed him through his broken leg, so I am sure they have strong bonds. But they want a permanent home – which we can give.
He is very cute, doesn’t seemed fazed to be blind – but I guess as he doesn’t know any different that’s just what is world is like. He is very used to being handled and quite happily sat on my lap. He sniffs the air a lot, which is one of his ways of sensing his environment. I’ve never really seen a cat sniff before – except when they sniff their cat foot before proclaiming that they will never eat such muck.
I think it will take a while to integrate him – which we are expecting. He doesn’t have eyes, just little holes with scar material. I have read that animals can be scared of blind cats as eye contact is one of their ways of communicating. I had assumed that the problem was with blind cats with eyes that were unseeing. So I am not sure whether it will be different with a cat that doesn’t have eyes.
When he broke his leg it was actually quite a small fall that he had, so that is something we need to be aware of. It was only a couple of feet drop, but I think he got his leg caught in something.
He is quite big – much bigger than Babbity Bumble who appears to be a midget cat, although they are the same age. Judging by the size of his paws he is going to be a big cat, which is quite unusual. I think that this is a good thing as even if he doesn’t know that he’s big, the others will and I think it will help him to have a size advantage!
We’ve got quite a lot to plan. It is important that we don’t keep moving things around or moving him around to start, so deciding where his safe area is to be is the first thing we need to do. As is making sure his bed, food and cat litter are placed where he can get them. the people who are fostering him are going to give us his bed and bedding so that will be familiar. I was thinking about getting him something like this below to play on – however having now realized how he broke his leg I shall be looking for something decidedly smaller. I might get something like it for our other cats though, I just know that they will love playing on it so it might be a nice treat so they don’t feel left out when Pirata comes.
