Luddly Neddite
Diamond Member
- Sep 14, 2011
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Meet Aragorn, a beautiful one-eyed cat who has a permanent wink. He lost an eye but gained a chance to live.
“He was brought to the ER for euthanasia at 3 weeks old after being attacked by a dog with his eye hanging out,” said Aragorn’s human mom via imgur. When she met the little ginger boy, she knew she had to adopt him.
This is Aragorn cuddling with his human mom in his new home.
He loves following her around the house.
Aragorn jumps in the bathtub after his mom showers.
“Are you taking me with you?”
“I only have one eye, but I can see just fine and I am happy and loved.”
I would have named him Polyphemus!
I had a wonderful one-eyed cat I called Wink. He had been hit by a car late at night, his eye was completely enucleated and crushed. He had been taken to my vet who called me because I was the executor of an estate that paid for pet bills. Because funds were getting slim, I authorized him to be pts but the vet called me back to tell me there was something special about the kitten's behavior and attitude. We struck a deal whereby the vet worked for free and I split the rest of the ^$1000 bill with the vet's office. The vet also said that since he had taken the last stray and another vet at the same office had taken the one before that, they "voted" that I should take this one. What the heck, I said. Sure, I'll foster him.
Then I fell in love with him. I could write a book about his behavior but suffice it to say, he really was special. He was just an ordinary looking grey tabby alley cat but nothing else about him was ordinary.
One example was that when he had to take medication, I actually taught him to take his pills. I put him on the kitchen counter and talked to him about why he had to take the pill while I gently pushed it into the corner of his mouth. After doing that twice, it became part of his evening meal to first jump up on the counter to take his pill.
I also had taken in a brain injured baby pigeon I called Walter. (Yeah, I know, probably everyone names their pigeon Walter.) Wink and Walter would sit on my desk, playing and wrestling, very rough and tumble. And, of all things, pushing pens back and forth. Walter either loved or hated yellow pens and would push them off onto the floor. I would pick them up and Wink would push them over to Walter who would again push them off onto the floor. Walter was always interested in Wink's eye and would push and peck at the where the other should have been. Wink would tire of that game quickly and would pin Walter down and put his mouth around Walter's head. Then they would go back to playing and wrestling. Eventually, the swelling in Walter's brain shrunk and he behaved more normally so, after some time for him to get used to where he was, I would let him out to fly. I would go out to the yard and call him and he'd come flying back. He liked to collect things and would pile them up on a table outside the back door. He would also build nests but I lived way out of town where there were no other pigeons and I didn't want to introduce them to the area so Walter never had a mate. Then, one day Walter didn't come back.
Another one eye-eyed animal I had was a great horned owl I called Luna - for the moon and his one good eye. He was brought to my wildlife rehab facility when he was just a fuzzy nestling, likely pushed out of or fallen from his nest.
I applied for and received a federal permit to keep him as an education animal and he went with me to literally dozens of schools, scout meetings, business man meetings, park fairs and more.
Luna also had some interesting behaviors. One time, at a day-long school job fair, he got tired, leaned against me and fell asleep. He had never been inside a cage and not thinking, I once put him in a cage. He panicked, screeching and screaming and thrashing about until I got him out. I never did that again.
He never got upset or unhappy on his education programs - except when he saw dogs at park fairs. Birds believe what they can see - I also had a blind red tail hawk called Spirit, who was never caged and went on all education programs, perched on his stick. Anyway, I would have to quickly turn, to put my body between Luna and any dogs and then talk over my shoulder, asking the dog owner to please move away. And, he was fascinated by little kids and would stare intently at them.
I trained him to do free flights where he would leave my glove and come back when I gave the signal and rewarded him with a mouse treat. But, one time, he decided not to come back and landed on a very high shelf in a library. It was a little embarrassing to have to climb up there to coax him back. Needless to say, after that, I never trusted him to come back when outside.
It was always a toss up whether I taught him or he taught me. A little "trick" I would do during education lectures was that I would tell the group to listen to the sound of his wings and then, without showing any apparent command, I would magically make him flap his wings. Thing is, owls will move to the highest point on a branch for hunting. I would gently move my hand, which would make him flap his wings for balance while he moved up my hand. The group would be very impressed and after I explained the physical changes that owls have evolved to fly silently, I would also explain that Luna was not trained to flap his wings on command but rather, he had trained me.
The evolutionary differences for silent flight, btw, are that their feathers are softer than a bunny rabbits and their flight feathers have a serrated leading edge, which breaks up the wind as it passed over them.
GHOs are called Tigers Of The Sky because they will attack and kill almost anything. Although, its not true that they will take adult cats. They may attack them but raptors are way too light to actually carry away animals of any size. And adult cats are well armed and can fight back. Nonetheless, large owls will attack cats and can injure them badly enough to kill them. A gho I rehabbed had tangled with a skunk. My eyes would water at the smell but, since birds have no sense of smell (except vultures), the owl never had any idea how bad it was.
Luna is now about 17 years old, healthy and still lives in southern AZ, in his huge flight cage with other gho's. He dines on as many mice as he wants, has mated and reproduced owlets who went on to be released to a life in the wild. Not a bad life for one who would have surely died if he had not been found. I'm not in AZ any longer so he's not mine. I could have applied to have his permit transferred to me where I am now but I felt it was better for him if he stayed where he was known and where he was comfortable.
That's probably more than you ever wanted to know and I didn't mean to get off on owls and hawks. But, I do love them as much as I love cats and feel privileged to work with them ... Thanks for reading.
That is so fascinating! Thanks for sharing! You must miss Luna.
Thank you ChrisL
Like I said, I feel very privileged, honored to work with wildlife. And I love rescuing and fostering domestic animals. Although I have cut back on the number of animals I rehab, I will always rescue and rehab.
I do miss Luna and probably always will. But I think we all miss the critters who have shared our lives.