My Name Is Sealy

By Sealy

My name is Sealy and I’m a handicapped cat. A lot of people may think I’m handicapped because I’ve only got the one ear since a car fan blade chopped off my left ear. That’s not why I’m handicapped. I have a mental handicap caused by my accident.

The fan blade that cut off my ear also cut all the way through to my head bone. That was the fastest to heal. It left me a little slow in the thinking department. I had a few seizures(only once, thank goodness) caused by my injury and I stick my tongue out a lot without meaning to. So if you see a picture of me with my tongue out, I’m not making fun of anyone. It’s just the way I am. And I also drool more than most cats. I’m not sure if any of you drool. I always have a wet bottom lip. The vet agrees I have a little mental damage caused by my accident. Mommy isn’t getting any tests run to prove it because she says it won’t change what I am or how she feels about me. I’m just me.

I have a whole website with all of my stories listed here. This is the first story I’ve ever done by myself and I hope I do it right. I wanted to write to warn everybody who loves cats to be careful this winter because cats sleep under car hoods to keep warm. Michael here even wrote a story about me. I feel so LOVED! It’s at One Eared Cat.

That’s what happened to me and my best friend Tank. We were curled up all comfy one freezing morning and somebody cranked their car up without looking under the hood. Tank died at the shelter a few weeks after mommy rescued me.

I still remember when mommy and Sissy Laura brought me home. I was in a little square box with a clear lid where I could look out at them. They had fixed me up a nice cage in the living room with a comfy blue blanket and good food and water. There was one just like it in mommy’s bedroom. I felt so safe and warm in cages! In the beginning I was really slow to come over and check out what kind of food they gave me. I was so used to being hungry. I only weighed 5 pounds when they brought me home!

In the beginning I played tricks on mommy and Laura. I’d come to the front of my cage like I wanted out, then I’d run to the back when they came over to get me. It was so hard to decide whether I wanted to be held or take a good nap in my comfy cage.

I scared mommy and Laura the first night at my new home. I was supposed to sleep in my cage in mommy’s room but guess what-I ESCAPED! Went right out the bottom of the cage! Mommy ran in the living room screaming “he’s gone!” and Laura thought I’d went on to the rainbow bridge. They found me curled up asleep in the big closet in the bathroom. After that they learned to fix the cage where I couldn’t sneak out.

I had to have two operations to try and fix my hurt head. They didn’t work because of where the wound was. I thought mommy and Laura were going to drive me crazy trying to keep my paws away from my head. They tried to make me wear clothes with a hood. One time they wrapped my feet with bandages. They even tried putting socks on me. I think they were more worried about my head wound than I was. As long as I got fed five times a day-plus snacks-I was happy. Mommy finally got a tip on what would heal me and ordered Buck Mountain Wound Balm and that’s what got me better.

I have a secret to tell everybody. After my checkup for my second operation, mommy let my vet baby-sit me while she went to the grocery store. Can you believe it? I can’t really blame her because she wasn’t gone long and she’d have had to leave me alone at home and make a long ride back to town if she hadn’t done it that way. My vet and his people love me because I just lay on the table and let them do anything they want to. I didn’t even try to get away when I had my stitches taken out. So I took a nap in my cage until she came back to get me. She took me for my first few checkups in my big cage, then she switched to by box with the clear lid. Once we were at the vet mommy would get me out of my box and hold me until my turn came to see my doctor. Everyone who saw me was shocked I was alive after such a bad accident.

A lot of people got really mad at mommy and Laura for keeping me in a cage. One lady told mommy she needed to be in a cage. She told that lady if they made a cage big enough, she’d be in it with me. My hurt head had to be kept clean so it wouldn’t get worse and make me die. I couldn’t go under the bed or under chairs or anywhere I could get my head dirty or hurt. Mommy still has a cage next to her bed where I eat my meals with my new best friend Renny. He reminds me a lot of my friend Tank. We live in mommy’s bedroom and big bathroom. Some of the other cats come in to visit. Usually Mandy and Cassie and Lucky. Lucky takes a nap on the bed with me and Renny then he goes back in the living room for the night.

My cage in the living room was left open after I’d been in my new home about three months. I just didn’t want out of there. Mommy fixed me up a box and started putting me in my box every day. Or she or Laura would hold me in their lap. When I got tired of the box or being held I’d jump down and get back in my cage.

I have an exciting new life now. I have a table to lay on where I can look out the window or just sleep in the sunshine. I have a best friend in Renny. We sleep curled up on the bed together. Sometimes our cat-dog Cujo sleeps with us. He’s okay for a cat-dog, but I don’t think I want to lick him anymore. He tastes funny. Mommy sleeps with me curled up at her head or under the cover beside her. I’ve got her trained to open us a pack of food every time she wakes up.

There are some people who still get upset because she has my cage by her bed. The door stays open all the time except when we’re eating. Mommy shuts the door and when we’re done we push against it and come back out. Plus there’s a soft blanky in there in case one of us wants to take a nap.

Mommy also keeps a big-BIG bowl of food and water on the floor as well as one in the bathroom. So there are places to eat everywhere I turn! This is SO great! I’m up to 8 pounds now!

Now I live for food, head rubs (especially behind the ear and under my chin) and back scratches. Mommy says I eat more than any cat she’s ever seen.

I think I’d better explain all of the pictures I chose for my first story. The first is my shelter photo. As you can see, I wasn’t real happy in that one. The second one was mommy’s failed attempt to keep my paws away from my head. The same goes for the next one, except she put me in PINK. UGH! Then the vet wrapped my paws. It turned out the tape was as rough as my paws would have been. So baby socks went on after that. Those didn’t work either.

The middle row shows me and Cujo kissing. He had doggy breath and I had chicken breath. The middle one is my favorite. Sissy Laura had put catnip in my cage and me and Cujo both enjoyed it. That picture was made for Halloween. Mommy said she wished she had black and white striped outfits to go with the cage theme. Do we look a little guilty in that one? Then we have me laying on the table at the vet. I didn’t move until someone would pick me up and put me back in my carrier or cage. My doctor says I have slower reflexes than normal cats. That’s all right. I don’t have to go anywhere in a hurry these days anyway.

I love my pictures at the bottom because I was getting better. As you can see, I was doing the tongue thing. I wasn’t real happy about the cone head. I was sitting outside my box for that one. Thankfully, it didn’t last long and I’m all better now.

I want to thank everybody that has helped me get my food. Some people even ordered it to come to the house. And thank you for all the help with the vet bills. Mommy says I’m the 2K cat, whatever that means. I only go to the vet for fun now to visit my doctor.

I hope you all like my first story. I love all of you very very much. Remember to tell all of your friends about me and warn them to look under their hood before they crank their car. I really hope my writing this story will save other cats from what I had to go through. Even if I did get a home, um, and room service, um, and massages out of it.

Sealy