Adopted August 2010-September 2010

Rebel/Seamus, our kitty with the chronic eye problem, had a challenging adoption - his first wonderful home just could not get their other cats and Rebel to get along, but they found a fabulous second home where he has fit in beautifully! We all love a happy ending.

6/13/12:

This is Rebel-Seamus-Gilligan ten months after his surgery for entropion.  He has not had any more eye issues at all.  Doesn’t he look good?

The vet suggested that entropion was a possibility and referred him to a Pet Eye Clinic.  We took him there, and they confirmed it.  They said that surgery would definitely improve his quality of life, so we got it scheduled.  The two weeks with the Victorian collar were quite an ordeal.  When we first brought him home he kept managing to wriggle out of it, and we were scared to make it any tighter.  My husband finally put a harness on him and looped it through the collar.  That worked well, but then he got an ear infection because of course he couldn’t clean his ears, and we had to take him to a Pet Emergency place.  He actually handled it all really well; you know how he is just always playing.  What a personality!  We are really glad to have him.

9/20/10 (in his new permanent home):

Yes, we are currently doing our best to take great care of Rebel-Seamus. He stayed with us overnight before he went to Susan’s in the first place, and we just thought he was a great kitty. Therefore, we have taken a bit of a special interest in him all along. We’re glad to have him at our place again, and we are hopeful that we may be able to keep him. As Susan said, we took him to the vet to discuss his eyes and general health, and also to make sure we wouldn’t be putting our other cats at risk if we introduced them. Our vet did not feel that there would be a problem with introducing him to the other cats, but she did recommend that we wait a couple weeks, or as long as it takes for his eyes to clear up. He’s on steroid eye drops right now, and those seem to be helping quite a bit. 

8/12/10:

Rebel is doing well- his eyes seem to be doing better. Still a bit swollen but he is opening them much more. I do see the light sensitivity and what you mean- he’s just a bit preferable not to bright light but the severe squinting was the flare up. It’s still here, but much better.

Yesterday he came outside with me for a while to sniff around. I watched him closely, gave him about 30 minutes then we went back in. this morning was the first time he’s been affectionate- he actually slowed down his neverending household investigation to let me pet him and he purred and rolled around- it was very nice. He has been a real busybody, I imagine some of that comes from a lot of life changes over the past while (shelter, foster home, transport, my house) and he needs to know he is home now. Anyhow, I promise I won’t haunt you with pictures every 3 days, but some of these were too cute not to sure. Isn’t he the most beautiful cat?  

8/9/10:

Rebel has arrived- he seems very happy!

He was very squinty yesterday, often sitting with his eyes closed and quite sensitive to light. I did his medicine 3 times yesterday and this am he was improved.

He is residing in my daughter’s room, with his litterbox and food and water and a window cracked (with screen of course, but barely cracked so he can’t squeeze out) so he can sniff the outdoors. He is so easygoing, he has settled in as though he’s been there forever.

The other cats have been at the door- there was some sniffing through the door- I did notice he is very sound sensitive and will growl and mumble when he hears something. I think that is because his vision is compromised with this flare up so he is making sure that everyone knows he is there (because our house is tiny and he can hear other cats). I bumped the vanity he was sitting under and he gave me a good growl and then as soon as I saw him he stopped.

I got him at 9 am on Sunday (thank heaven I had made arrangements, my show went until after 9 on Sat evening). I got my first purr from him at 12:48 as we read Gone with the Wind and snuggled in “his” room. So far the through the door sniffs have been calm and I have been taking his blanket and Norm and Scotty’s and moving them around so everyone gets to smell everyone.

A friend is giving me a cat tower for our covered deck so that someday when he does go out he has a place to hang out in the shade that is cat friendly. Right now we have a box with a comfy blanket for the cats but a tower seemed more regal, and fun.

I just adore him, though. He has something so special I just know he is going to be very happy with us. Oh the note from his foster mom brought tears to my eyes- and she included his “mouse” ( a ponytail holder) and he has been playing with it. he seems to like me to throw things for him, so I have been doing that. Tell her how much I adore him, and he seems very happy with us already- he lets us hold him and he happily snoozes on my daughter’s bed when we’re not in there. She gets home from a 2 week family visit with grandparents on thurdsay so it’s nice to have these few days for him to settle in.

We locked the other cats out and let him check out the whole house (it’s only 700 square feet so it’s not too intimidating) and he found it very interesting. He seemed drawn to the laundry room, perhaps I will build him a shelf in there because I seem to spend WAY too much time doing laundry. haha

When the other cats are outside, I lock the pet door (so he can’t get out) and he has the run of the house. And I do mean RUN! He gallops around, and is so talkative. He investigates everything, plays with everything- he is so darling.