It’s our Parade: Adopting a special needs cat
By Gina Spadafori
November 1, 2009
I can’t believe I forgot this. Guess I’m still sulking about being stuck in Sacramento this weekend instead of in Miami.
BUT …
In today’s issue of Parade magazine, Dr. Becker and I have our latest article, this time on one of my favorite subjects: Adopting an older or special needs pet, in this case a cat, specifically.
And oh! what great people we interviewed for this one:
- Bonney Brown, whose career has gone from Best Friends to Alley Cat Allies to her current job as director of the Nevada Humane Society in Reno. Bonney is a leader in the no-kill movement, and she shows every day that there’s another way. We must have talked for an hour!
- Dr. Patty Khuly, PetConnection BFF and the person I had hoped to be reading the newspaper with over Cuban coffee this morning. Dr. PK is no stranger to blog readers, as the Alpha Bitch of both Dolittler and The Daily Vet @ PetMD.com.
Go read the piece! And the look in your heart and think about it: Is there room in your home for a hard-luck kitteh?
As a special-needs foster for the local shelter, I can attest to the fact that in the end, you always get back more than you give. I have fostered the blind, the lame, the sick, the very young, and the very old. I have had some very successful fosters (so much that one woman regularly requests a special-needs cat when she’s ready to adopt another to replace a dearly-departed pet. Note: she also takes in and fosters special-needs kids; a very special lady in her own right). But I also have had some spectacular “failures”—the two tripods and the one-eyed senior cat who now reside permanently with me! Are they worth it?? Hell, yeah!!!
Comment by Shellie — November 1, 2009 @ 10:56 pm
Last year when I adopted my cat, Sophia, puss was dripping from her eyes.
A week of medicinal drops cured her completely.
When I adopted my cat, Inca, she was sneezing, coughing, and eating in a peculiar fashion.
Inca healed with good food, plenty of sunshine in her enclosed space outside, and a remaining root taken out from her front tooth.
Now they are healthy and I feel blessed. However, I am ever-aware of those cats that do not get their needs met.
I enjoyed the Parade Article—which I read straight from the newspaper. Good job!
Comment by Colorado Transplant — November 2, 2009 @ 6:37 am
I suppose Buckley, the subject of my book Buckley’s Story - Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher, would have been considered a special needs cat. She had a deformed hind leg, it bent up at the knee (we were never able to figure out whether it was a congenital defect or an old injury that never healed right), but it was so clearly a non-issue for her, after a while, I didn’t even notice it anymore, and I was always surprised when people asked about it. Animals are so amazing when it comes to what we could consider a “handicap” - they adjust, live in the moment, and enjoy life to the best of their ability.
In the end, Buckley’s heart disease turned out to be a far more dire special need. Was it hard, and painful at the end? Of course. Would I have wanted to miss even one second with my “special” little cat? No way.
Like Shellie and Colorado Transplant above, I feel blessed that I was picked by such a special cat.
Comment by Ingrid King — November 2, 2009 @ 6:52 am