Taz

Our poor little kitty, Taz...

Here she is as a baby... notice the eye?


Here she was just a few days ago. She's a beautiful Tortie with really great eyes but they never photograph well...


We're pretty sure she's blind in one eye. We never really noticed it before we had Rocky but the difference between the two cats is like night and day. We knew Taz was always "special" - and in many ways! But we never knew about her eye sight. You have to know Taz to understand what I'm saying. She is not a typical cat. She's not sweet. She doesn't like attention. She has spent years avoiding human contact. She has spent the last 6 years avoiding us at all costs, unless it came to her food bowl, kitty litter or the occasional pork product (about the only "human" food she reacts to).

After moving to our new house, she started moving around the house more. She sleeps in our bed, but still doesn't like to be touched. Over time, she has allowed us to pet her, but HATES being picked up. You should hear and see her reaction to be held. That's something I should video tape.

But now that we have Rocky, we've seen a new side of Taz. She'll hang out with us, actually interact in a semi-normal way. She's still not a normal cat. I doubt she will ever be normal. I don't see it happening, I'm not holding my breath... but I am happy that she isn't trying to kill Rocky now and that she's becoming more cat like. And what do I mean? She now climbs on furniture more, sits on my legs (but I can't pet her!), comes into the kitchen with the others while we cook, and follows us around the house. You will hardly ever (as in 99.9%) hear her purr or meow in a normal way. She occasionally plays with the cat toys we have... and that's when we realized her problem. We bought a laser for Rocky to play with (he LOVES it!) but when you try to get Taz into it, she'll only respond if you put it on one side of her face. Her right side is fine. She'll look at the laser, join in on trying to get it and everything. Put it on her other side and she doesn't react AT ALL! We've tested her over and over.

Tonight, my mom saw what we see. The cats were both on the love seat in our front room and you could tell Taz was having issues trying to turn around on the back of it. She only turns in one way, it appears. And then when she was on the floor, she ran into Zoey because Zoey passed her on her "bad" side.

However, we aren't surprised with her eye sight issue. She gets along great, knows where her food and litter box are and doesn't have any trouble with anything. As a kitten, she had been hit or attacked and her face took the majority (if not all) of the abuse. Her eyes water a lot and you can tell by her pictures that she keeps one open wider than the other. This has gotten better over the years and is not as obvious as it once was. I feel sorry for the little thing. She was just an adorable kitty, who got hurt and I took her in. She's always been viewed as "healthy" at the vet and actually acts really well when she goes there. She's 6 years old now and I don't see her problems interfering with her life. If it does, we'll figure out what to do then. I had an older cat that we think had a stroke and went blind. Or partially blind at least, as she would run into things that were out of their normal place (or the dogs, which moved all the time).