Blind Cat

Blind Cat photograph copyright riviera 2005 (Flickr)

This is a beautiful photograph of a blind cat. It shows how great sadness can be made beautiful in a photograph. I feel sad when I look at this photograph. Sadness for the unfairness of life and at how harsh it can be. It seems that it was taken in a developing country (mind you some so called "developing countries" are rapidly becoming developed).

I remember seeing a blind cat in a colony of feral cats outside a hotel I stayed at in Italy. The blind cat coped well within the colony using his nose to find the food that we had put out. He ate as well as the other cats and I sense that his life was no shorter as a result of his blindness; I hope not.

Blind cats can cope very well and live happy lives. Cats don't think to themselves, "this is unfair, why me", they just accept it and get on with it. They also have us to care for them if they are domesticated (the cat above seems to be feral and they still cope with their acute sense of smell and athletic abilities). Blind cats may even using the echo of their voice to locate objects. This is a technique being trained to human individuals, which is proving very effective. The person makes a special clicking sound and listens for the echo. When skilled at this, some people can differentiate between the quality of the reflected sound from a wide range of objects, some quite small, such as fruit.

Photo by AkumAPRIME (Flickr)

A blind cat gets around through the use of his memory of the position of objects (so leave them in the same place), sound, the use of his whiskers (which are very sensitive and which can sense the change in air current that flows around objects) and perhaps the best of all, his sense of smell.

Blind cats should be indoor cats or indoors + an enclosure. See another blind cat with great dignity.

Related page: Living with a disabled cat. Charlie three legged cat.

From Blind Cat to Cat Facts