Moet, the blind survivor

Here we are, our next guest post: brave and very cute Moet, the blind cat!

By our twitter friend @MoetBlindCat (with some help from her Mum) !

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I first met Moet when I went to the vet one day for the usual supplies for my first rescue, Luna, and was asking about getting another cat or kitten. As they knew me well and also knew my love of cats and attentive loving care for them, they said they had a 1 year old blind cat up for adoption, but that it wouldn’t be advertised because they wanted just the ‘right’ owner for her. My instant reaction was that I didn’t want a blind cat. I’m out all day at work and a ‘special needs’ cat just instantly seemed too ‘difficult’.

 

However, they persuaded me to “just come and see her”. So I did, as I love cats and can never resist the opportunity to give any cat some attention! There she was, a sweet little champagne coloured Persian, with stiches in her eyes where they had recently been removed and an Elizabethan (cone) collar on. I crouched down next to her to stroke her and instantly she rolled over for tummy rubs and purred really loudly. I was sold. How could I not take her? She was utterly adorable and so cute.

I asked how she had come to be blind and was told that she was one of a few that had recently been rescued from a pet shop. (NB: there is no animal welfare legislation in Oman and conditions can be awful). She was already blind when rescued and had been for several months they thought. As her eyes were a source of infection as they were starting to decay, they had to be removed completely. It was such a sad face but such a happy cat. She’d spent her life in a pet shop cage and the blindness was likely caused by untreated cat flu. She also had to be wormed, vaccinated and spayed, which was all done for free by Muscat Vets.

 

The night I got her home she seemed pretty happy and relaxed. In fact, she is so easy-going, I was able to introduce her to Luna after just two days and although wary, Luna did little more than hiss occasionally. It should be noted that Moet is very feisty and can give as good as she gets! Moet learned the layout of the apartment amazingly quickly. Her senses and sense of adventure are immense and she soon started to tear around the place after crinkle balls and feather wands like any sighted cat. She navigated my custom-made 6ft cat tree and enjoyed climbing on every bit of furniture. She loves her toys and playing and after a few weeks, she started bringing her feather toys to bed after I’d gone to sleep, leaving them next to me; although I’m never sure if they are gifts or an invite to play!

 

Having settled into a nice routine with my fur-babies, one day I had a heart-stopping shock. I woke up one morning and little Moet was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere, thinking maybe she’d been shut in somewhere, but no. Then a sixth sense told me to look out of the window…

 

To digress, I am on the fifth floor of an apartment block (overlooking a quad) and had a 6ft fence erected on the balcony to keep the girls safe. Luna is too heavy to climb it and Moet… well, she wouldn’t – she’s blind, right?

 

I was wrong. There, at the bottom of the quad, lay little Moet. I can’t tell you the fear, self-anger, grief and shock I felt. The vets found nothing broken, but it soon became clear she was slowly giving up and further investigation revealed she had severe anaemia, due to internal bleeding into her chest cavity. Being blind, she could not have anticipated the landing, even though she righted herself. On the plus side, she didn’t have the broken limbs one might expect after that kind of fall. On the down-side, she’d landed on her chest. After two long and agonising weeks in the vets, lots of TLC and visits every day from me, she pulled through. The vets said that she perked up every time I went in and called her name, so I knew I had to check in every day, no matter how busy or late I was. I was grief-stricken even at the thought of losing her. I’d grown so fond of her over the three short months I’d had her. But she’s such a survivor. Needless to say, that balcony is now totally fenced-in and a fun area for the girls to play.

 

And now, a year on, she is such a vibrant, talkative, playful and incredibly happy girl. She has settled well my most recent addition, Lily, who was rescued from horrible conditions – being kept in a tiny birdcage at a local Souq. I have a happy three-girl family and they are the light of my life (but especially little Moet). Now I’ve spotted a boy to round off the troops. Will I, or won’t I? Let’s see…

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very interesting last lines .. i will stay tuned !

(copyright all pics in this blogpost by @MoetBlindCat  , all used with her permission here)

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