Comments on: It’s our Parade: Adopting a special needs cat

By: Ingrid King

Ingrid King — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:52:28 +0000

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.

By: Colorado Transplant

Colorado Transplant — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:37:38 +0000

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!

By: Shellie

Shellie — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:56:23 +0000

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!!!