Our third commentathon fundraising has ended. With your support, we have received around 5,100 comments since Oct (I put together an amount of $255 in the fund). Thank you so much for your support. Many of you have nominated shelters to receive this fund and to be featured on Love Meow. They all deserve to be recognized. One of them got the most nominations of all. We would like to introduce to you a very special rescue group: Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary.
Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary began in 2005 in a mission to provide refuge to blind cats who were determined unfit for adoption and had once been scheduled for euthanasia. It is a cage-free, no-kill facility where all the feline residents are given a lifetime of love and care.
There are currently 45 cat residents on site. "Rescue isn't glamorous... it is about restoring hope and dignity to creatures for whom no one else cares about. We are but humble vessels to help these magnificent creatures find their forever homes. The responsibility is big but the returns on our emotional investment are greater."
Blind Cat Rescue accepts any cat that is certified by a vet as a blind cat. "Cats with 20% or less sight are accepted as blind."
There are always questions about how blind cats adapt to living in a home and how they tell where they are. Blind Cat Rescue has some tips for all of us.
"Blind cats are cats that just happen to not be able to see. They have no idea they are blind, they know they are cats, they act like cats. Blind cats can do pretty much everything that a seeing cat can do. Cora, who sees nothing, climbs to the top of a 7 foot climber... she got there all by herself, and she will come down the same way she went up. One of the only things I have found that stops a blind cat is a gate, fence or wall. Because they canot not see the other side of a gate, they have no concept that they can get to the other side. Blind cats can climb trees (they tend to back down feet first to get down), climb on cabinets, etc."
"If you pick up your blind cat and move him/her from point A to point B, try to put your cat down where they have a good idea of where they are. Example, at their litter box, their food, or where the floors have different textures. My daycare playroom and dinning room went from carpet to tile, if I wanted Louie to leave the playroom, I would put him so front feet were on the tile and back were still on the carpet... now he knew where he was."
They are going to build a new building to house HIV & FEL+ cats. You can help through their website here.
Here are some of the cat residents at Blind Cat Rescue. They all have come a long way since the day they were rescued.
Greta Prances with pink ball:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWK_OdNjeUE]
Lilly & Nicky are full of life having a lot of fun playing just like their seeing counterparts. Neither of them have eyes.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETCu_W2cW_Q]
Click here to check out more stories about blind cats or one eye cats.