This is a simple story about a blind holiday kitten. These things happen. You like cats. You are sensitive to their needs. You are on holiday in Italy. You see a dying kitten that is in a bad way. You can’t walk on by. You get involved and it changes your life.
You spend the holiday trying to save your kitten. A local vet gives you really bad news even though you knew it was bad: eyes destroyed by an eye infection, worms, ear infection..
You go home from your holiday. You take your kitten with you. You had too. You were too involved.
You called her Skunky. She has a good life now. She is as loved now as she ever was. But it was a long journey.
Have you rescued a kitten or cat on holiday? I haven’t but I got quite near to it. There was a colony of cats outside our hotel in Italy. One was blind and kept warm by lying on top of another cat. We provided food, which may have irritated the hotel owners! Anyway the blind cat smelled his way towards the food. Very impressive. I felt for that cat.
The eye infection that causes blindness in feral or stray cats seems to be not that uncommon. I have read about it before. It is a terrible way to go blind. Think of the pain and distress.
Do they always turn out alright? Sometimes kittens rescued like this can turn out wrong. Perhaps they had such a traumatic early life they are damaged psychologically. Can a kitten be so badly damaged psychologically so that it is impossible for him to become a decent domestic cat? I don’t believe that. I believe that all kittens can be saved physically and emotionally.
It would take a lot to effect a kitten so. I think it would take a huge amount of abuse. Cats seem to bounce right back.
Almost all the blind cats that I have known to have lost their sight due to an eye infection; most in feral colonies, but some in hoarders homes. Very sad.
I love people who are willing to inconvenience their lives for the benefit of a cat, or any animal in need. Especially the suffering critters. We know from so many stories here and elsewhere that blindness doesn’t keep a cat for having a wonderful life. They adapt and don’t feel sorry for themselves. Thanks for the good story.
What is very nice about this story is that this guy more or less gave up his holiday for this kitten. Although the kitten probably made his holiday so much better or interesting. But it certainly wasn’t the holiday he had planned.