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Precious- Peach

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Purred: Tue Dec 4, '07 6:39pm PST 
Well that picture of Peach is about a year old, but she is just as precious now! I uploaded a new picture of her to prove it.

We don't call her Peach - we call her Kitten. She'll always be "Kitten" no matter her age. Speaking of which she's nearing 2 now.

Growing up Kitten was prone to URI's and ear infections. Ruptured ear drums several times. She pulled out all her stitches from her spay and had a gaping hole in her stomach that warranted a visit to the vet in the middle of the night. And to add to all her woes, she because "immune" to Advantage and Frontline if we use them to often - we had to switch back and forth. She is very allergic to fleas and have finally gotten her to a point where she doesn't need cortisone shots all the time.

Well about 6 weeks ago she started messing on the floor outside the box - unusual for her. Initial trip to the vet where we saw just the tech (I thought it could have been worms or a UTI and didn't request a full exam. Bad mommy!) found nothing wrong.

I took her in two weeks ago for a full exam because shes been lethargic, eating less and resting with all her limbs pulled under her (she's always been a sprawled out sleeper). Vet says she has glaucoma and doesn't think she can see much - if anything. Looking back over the past few months we have been having AHA moments. Regular little kitten grows to be a bad jumper then quits jumping, demands to be held all the time and won't stop following me (much like a 2 year old human) then starts messing on the floor, hiding, etc....

Tonight I think it hit me for the first time that my kitty is blind. I played with a string in front of her - noisy end first to see if she were interested in playing (she was) and then switching to quiet end and she turned her head at times like she was looking - but wiggling and bouncing it didn't seem to do a thing (same thing as with the noisy end that she responded to). Slowly moving my finger at her eyes and she doesn't blink even and I know I could touch her eye (I don't!). She DOES close her eyes, btw - just not in a protective move. Her eyes are always dilated and have a green, murky reflective look to it all the time (not like you'd expect at night with a cat, etc...).

She is doing fine, we are all making an effort to include her, call her to us, etc and she is responding. Litter box use has improved since we started moving her messes to INSIDE the box (scent?) and not covering it (she's fastidious that way - covers all poops lol).

My question is - she has adapted well here (never bumps into things, etc...) but we will be moving to a bigger home in a year. How will she adapt then? Will it depress her?

Also she is getting a little tubby from inactivity and its realllllyyyyy hard to get to do more than just bat at noisy toys. Suggestions?
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