Duffy's 4th annifursary (long)

On Jan 30, 9:44*pm, "MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER
wrote:
He is such a sweet, loving cat
that I simply cannot comprehend how someone else could have had him for two
years and then returned him to a kill shelter (and especially not for they
ridiculous reason she gave - she said he had learned to get to her birds and
was teach her sighted cat to do the same thing). *That cruel decision turned
out to be my good fortune (and Duffy's and Holly's) because he now has a
forever home with us and I have truly been blessed.

MaryL

Photos of Duffy: * * *'o'
Duffy: *http://tinyurl.com/cslwf
Duffy and Holly together: *http://tinyurl.com/8b47e
Duffy and the Christmas tree: *http://tinyurl.com/clal7

Congratulations to all 3 of you, Mary!!!!! I remember when you got
him.

Candace

wrote:
I can see that Kitty Farmcat's eyes are starting to cloud over just
in the last few weeks - and why wouldn't they since she is over 20
years old?
I am sure she will manage as she knows the house very well and where
her litterboxes are (one downstairs and one up.)/////

I was telling my TED about KFC when HEFL and I went to see him on
Monday. He laughted and said he wasn't suprised when I told him that
KFC was a tiny ex-feral who knew her own mind! ;o) He said the feisty
ones always survive the longest with care and love. )


Thank your lucky stars I survived, eh? otherwise she'd be heading your way!
g

Steve Touchstone wrote:
piggybacking here because for some reason I missed the OP

Congrats on the anniversary.

I missed it too, but late concatulations on the anniversary.

Sam, supervised by Mistletoe

MaryL wrote:
Tomorrow (Jan. 31) is the fourth anniversary of the day I adopted
Duffy. It's hard to believe that four years have gone by, and he is a
true treasure. He is the dearest, sweetest, most wonderful little guy I
could ever imagine. Most of you already know that Duffy has been blind
since birth, but he does almost everything that a sighted cat can do.

Happy annifursary Duffy and Mary! I'm glad that your gorgeous Duffy has
his loving forever home and that you and Holly have such a wonderful
companion.

And you have an astonishing array of cat trees and scratching posts -
all very lovely!

Susan M
Otis and Chester

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:44:53 -0600, MaryL wrote:

Tomorrow (Jan. 31) is the fourth anniversary of the day I adopted Duffy.
It's hard to believe that four years have gone by, and he is a true
treasure. He is the dearest, sweetest, most wonderful little guy I could
ever imagine. Most of you already know that Duffy has been blind since
birth, but he does almost everything that a sighted cat can do. He even
has his own "fan club" among some of the readers of this newsgroup. Duffy
gets around so well that I thought he might have a small amount of vision.
If I move a chair, he will be sitting in it a few minutes later - there
is no need to keep furniture in a fixed location for him. I arranged for
an evaluation by an ophthalmologist at Texas A&M University College of
Veterinary Medicine because I wanted to see if there was some sight (and,
if so, what I should do to preserve it). There I learned that Duffy is
completely blind and that he has a condition known as "anterior cleavage
syndrome." There should be space between the iris and the cornea. In
Duffy's case, the two components are pressed together, and there is no
space between them. This probably happened before birth and possibly was
caused by infection in the mother.

I want to thank Megan because she is the one who made all this possible.
I was trying to help a friend find a cat to adopt. I had been
communicating with Megan about another matter and told her about it. She
suggested that we look at Petfinder.com. We did, and there was a picture
of Duffy. He looked like a sad little waif in the picture the shelter had
posted. In fact, I thought he was a very old cat from his picture, but he
was actually estimated to be 3-5 years old at the time. It was
heartrending when I saw that Duffy was blind, had been returned by someone
else after two years (and this was a *kill* shelter), and had been in the
shelter for several months. My friend simply wasn't interested in a blind
cat and would not even consider adopting, and I was really fearful of
adopting another cat because Holly had a history of aggressively attacking
any other cat in my presence. We even called her "the black tornado"
because of the way she would hurl herself at other cats. She was my dear
little shadow and followed me everywhere, but she would not tolerate
having another cat around. Megan kept prodding me to adopt, or even to
foster for awhile. She told me that she would help me throughout the
process and was positive that we *could* get Holly and Duffy to adjust to
each other. Well, she kept that promise. She walked me through every step
of the slow, careful introduction. Every time I would think about
speeding things up, she would remind me to be patient and take it slow and
easy (excellent advice for anyone adopting a cat because I think this is
the reason so many people have trouble getting their new adoptees and
their resident cats to accept each other). She made numerous
long-distance calls at her own expense, and she always seemed to recognize
exactly what I was describing in the relationship and knew precisely what
would work. I will also say that I was a "good student." I followed her
advice every step of the way, and the result is that I have two loving
companions instead of the jealous reaction from Holly that I had always
seen previously.

Getting back to the ad on Petfinder.com...the notice looked so old (and
the shelter only promised to keep animals for 14 days) that I really
thought it was probably too late and that Duffy was gone. It was Megan
who kept insisting that I give them a call. "You need to check," she
said; "You can't just assume that he isn't there." Ironically, I did call
and was told that he had already been adopted. "Check further," she said;
"Send them an e-mail." So I sent an e-mail to the director of the shelter
- and learned that Duffy was still there. I have no idea what the first
person was talking about or how she could have been confused about a blind
cat named Duffy, but he was still in a cage at the shelter! Kitten season
was approaching, and space would soon be at a premium. I really believe
they could not have kept him for much longer. He is such a sweet, loving
cat that I simply cannot comprehend how someone else could have had him
for two years and then returned him to a kill shelter (and especially not
for they ridiculous reason she gave - she said he had learned to get to
her birds and was teach her sighted cat to do the same thing). That cruel
decision turned out to be my good fortune (and Duffy's and Holly's)
because he now has a forever home with us and I have truly been blessed.

MaryL

Photos of Duffy: 'o'
Duffy: http://tinyurl.com/cslwf
Duffy and Holly together: http://tinyurl.com/8b47e Duffy and the
Christmas tree: http://tinyurl.com/clal7


Many happy returns of the day!!! MLB

"Susan M" wrote in message
...
MaryL wrote:
Tomorrow (Jan. 31) is the fourth anniversary of the day I adopted Duffy.
It's hard to believe that four years have gone by, and he is a true
treasure. He is the dearest, sweetest, most wonderful little guy I could
ever imagine. Most of you already know that Duffy has been blind since
birth, but he does almost everything that a sighted cat can do.

Happy annifursary Duffy and Mary! I'm glad that your gorgeous Duffy has
his loving forever home and that you and Holly have such a wonderful
companion.

And you have an astonishing array of cat trees and scratching posts - all
very lovely!

Susan M
Otis and Chester

The cat trees are especially for Duffy. Holly uses them, but not nearly to
the extent that he does. Vertical space is very important for him since he
is blind. He loves to climb and is like a little gymnast -- he will whip
around the poles of the cat trees and go up and down at amazing speed. The
carpeted pole that is mounted beside the hutch (and the one lying
horizontally on top of the hutch) were ones that I had installed because he
would use shelves to climb to the top and then hang down from the top,
reaching toward me. I was afraid he would slip and fall from the polished
wood since there was nothing for him to grasp, so I had the carpeted poles
put up for him to climb on and also be able to grab for protection. He
loves it! Holly also goes to the top of the hutch, but she seldom climbs
the pole. Instead, she just leaps up and then surveys her domain.

MaryL

I was telling my TED about KFC when HEFL and I went to see him on
Monday. He laughted and said he wasn't suprised when I told him that
KFC was a tiny ex-feral who knew her own mind! ;o) He said the feisty
ones always survive the longest with care and love. )

Thank your lucky stars I survived, eh? *otherwise she'd be heading your way!
g

LOL! And yes, thank my lucky stars I had the escape... ;o)

I told TED that *he* had a lucky escape and he informed me that he
prefers fiesty ladies! ;o)

Helen M