crosspost:
*************
Location: Springfield, OH, willing to deliver.
Hello all.
I've posted on here before, as well as contacting various websites and
local shelters that have either turned us away due to overcrowding or
never responded.
It seems it's hard enough to find a home for a healthy cat, let alone
Batman, a one-year-old with severe Cerebellar Hypoplasia symptoms- the
inability to balance properly, not in so much a funny "drunk" way, as
constantly falling and needing special care and handicapped accessible
liter. The vet speculated that it's probably the result of abuse as a
kitten- we found him at 5 weeks old in a box with his siblings, who
were all physically sound.
Batman was my cat and my responsibility, as I was the one who tried to
keep him from being put down, as was suggested. My sisters and I first
bottle fed him, then trained him to eat and drink from a bowl and use
the litter box, but this took time and my mother was understandably
upset. Tension rose between my mom and my sister, so I took the
still-very-small Batman to my house and continued litter-training him.
It required him to be shut in one room, as being too far away from the
litter box was a problem. After a couple months, a friend had found a
stray kitten the same age as Batman, and as I was at work much of the
day and he was shut in a small room, I decided to take in the other
kitten, Arthur, as a playmate. Several more months went by, by which
time I was unable to keep the house. My mother took in both cats while
I found a place to stay, eventually moving in with my boyfriend, who
is allergic and not willing to take in one of the cats.
Batman is still living at my Mom's house, and she's made extraordinary
efforts to make a livable space for him, going so far as to give up
her bedroom and sleep on the couch so that we have an enclosed space
for him and the two other cats. After lots of trial and error, she
devised a simple handicapped-accessible litter station for him, and
reports he's had no accidents since before Christmas.
My mom is a recently retired teacher, and has taken in animals all her
life- birds, raccoons, and too many cats and dogs to mention. Her dog,
Sidney, to whom she is very attached (often confusing the dog's name
for mine), is fourteen years old and ailing. Mom spends countless
hours cleaning and caring for her own aging dog and cat, and the
foster animals- of which she now has four: Batman; Arthur; Atya, a
tortoiseshell kitten that my sister found who takes Phenobarbital
twice a day; and a sweet small brown dog who was losing her fur, and
whose breasts were completely covered in painful cysts. (We have had
half of the cysts removed, and she's scheduled to have the other half
taken out soon; the fur on her back and legs is growing back thanks to
frequent washings with a medicinal shampoo).
Even with all the work my mom has put in to taking care of Batman,
she's indicated several times that it's just too much. She urges me to
find a home for him, sounding more desperate every time, and I believe
she is considering putting him to sleep.
All of the four foster pets I described need homes, but Batman's case
is the most urgent. Please forward and cross-post this if you wish to
help. I took on more than I could handle with Batman, feeling as I
still do that it would be deeply wrong to allow such a happy, loving
animal to be put down, and I'm hoping I can find someone out there who
knows how to care for a cat with this disability who can pick up where
I left off.
As mentioned above, we're willing to deliver Batman to the right home-
if you're serious about wanting to take on this responsibility but
live far away, contact us anyway. My sister was even talking to a
special-needs cat farm in Colorado- we are willing to make
arrangements for this cat.
Georgia Papadakis
Contact: [email protected]
Pictures:
Batman: http://www.georgiapapadakis.com/batman/b1.jpg
http://www.georgiapapadakis.com/batman/b2.jpg
http://www.georgiapapadakis.com/batman/b3.jpg
Atya: http://www.georgiapapadakis.com/batman/kitten.jpg
Arthur: http://www.georgiapapadakis.com/batman/a1.jpg
http://www.georgiapapadakis.com/batman/a2.jpg
http://www.georgiapapadakis.com/batman/a3.jpg
Arthur and Batman:
http://www.georgiapapadakis.com/batman/ab.jpg
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