I think he’s a better cat caretaker than me. He has four cats and if he had a bigger house he’d have more, he says. All his cats are rescues and he describes them as the “dregs”. What he means is that his cats are of the sort that shelters cannot give away. They are the unwanted but he wants them and he loves them.

The unwanted rescue cats loved by Joseph. Photo: Special to the Press-Citizen.

His name is Joseph Dobrian. I think he lives in Iowa city. One of his cats, Lige, is a hermaphrodite and he/she came from New York five years ago. He says that hermaphrodite cats don’t normally survive infancy but Lige did although he describes her/him as the smallest adult cat that he has ever seen. Also, he has seizures and a lot of respiratory health problems. In addition, he sheds a lot of fur. This is no problem for Joseph.

Another one of his cats Dom João, has cerebellar hypoplasia. This means that he is uncoordinated and looks clumsy. In addition he is twitchy and shaky. He also has a cataract in one eye. He has a loud Siamese-like voice. He says that his appearance would make him the star of some “cheesy horror movie”. He says that this is the charm of him. He likes to jump on Joseph’s lap and head-butt. Mutual love I’d say.

Another cat that he cares for is Karl-Friedrich von Hosenboden und Himmelhoch. His everyday name is Goddamnit! Joseph says that Goddamnit is severely inbred. He says this because he’s got two toes on one foot and seven toes on another. He has a kink in his tail and a dysfunctional hind leg. He cannot retract its claws like all other domestic cats can. When he walks around the home he makes this clickety-clack sound. He is the most active of all four cats.

The youngest of the four who he calls The Fat Kid aka ‘Hugues’ (formal name: Hugues Honoré Eugène du Barry), had a bad start from the shelter. The shelter staff said that he didn’t play well with others. Joseph didn’t believe it and said that he would get along fine with his other cats and he does. He is particularly fond of hearing Joseph sing. When he sings Hugues starts to rub against him. Joseph wonders whether he thinks he is in distress and needs some help.

All four come to greet him when he comes home. When he sits down three of them sit on his lap. It would be all four but there is not enough room.

Joseph Dobrian

Joseph says that if people cannot deal with the sort of cat behaviour which they complain about such as scratching furniture, shedding fur or puking then they should not adopt a cat. Common sense, yes, and it is something that we have been saying on this website for a long time.

His formula success is to let them do what they want and there won’t be any trouble (i.e. create a natural environment where cats can behave normally). He is a great cat caretaker, I believe. He is adopting the sort cat that all of us should adopt because they need us more than other cats.

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