This is Esther. She's 8 weeks old. She is our current foster kitten.

Last week we received a call that the no kill cat rescue we volunteer with had just busted a hoarder who had 100+ cats cooped up in a trailer. The rescue had pulled as many as it possibly could, but there were still a lot of cats who had ended up at the county kill shelter, which was now overcrowded. They were desperately seeking fosters who could go pull some cats so that they were safe from euthanasia. A few days ago, I packed Valentine in the car and went over to the shelter, let them know who we worked with and asked if they could give me any cats that were at the highest risk of being euthanized. I expected maybe an older cat, or a shy one. But they brought this little rat-sized tortie out in a gigantic cat carrier. I took her home.

I was a little shocked that a weaned kitten was high on their list, but once we got home I got a look at her eyes. They're -extremely- crossed, even more so than you can see in this pic! They give her a really comical, adorable look. I thought she was blind at first but it turns out she can see, she's just got poor eyesight. She has to tilt her head up to look at things. Maybe the shelter felt no one would want her because of her eyes? But that's so silly, because plenty of siamese have crossed eyes.

Anyhow, the story doesn't really end there. I took her to our vet a couple days ago to get a checkup, and to ensure that she was healthy (the shelter mentioned they'd just had an outbreak of pan leuk, which is devastating). She turned out to be perfectly healthy, except for one problem. She may be FIV+.

What this means is that she'll have this all her life, and it'll most likely kill her. FIV+ cats can and do have full, wonderful lives but they can also have a lot of health problems. It's a gamble. Also, FIV+ cats can only either be the sole cat in the household, or with other FIV+ cats only. From what I remember, it can be transferred through bite wounds so even a minor tussle could put a non-infected cat at risk.

There is the possibility she's got a false-positive from nursing, if her mother was infected, but we won't know until she's 6 months old whether that's the case.

Either way, between that and her lousy eyesight, she's going to need a special forever home with someone who understands her needs and won't abandon her. (Arty and I are already working on that, mind you, I know FA isn't Petfinder :) That and I'm kinda paranoid about potential adopters so I like to make sure they're local people we can meet IRL) She's so incredibly sweet. I would keep her in a heartbeat because she reminds me of Lola (our ragdoll who passed away a year ago), but if she does have FIV she can't stay with our noninfected cats. They're not mean but they love to play fight. x.x

Why am I telling you all this? I'd just like for people to consider adopting a special needs cat.  reddogthecat had chronic health problems like Esther here may, and I can't tell you how amazing of a cat he was. It breaks my heart that there are wonderful, loving cats like Red Dog and Esther that are waiting to be loved, but there's a little something wrong with them. Maybe they're too old, or they're blind, or they're diabetic. Maybe they're just shy or were abused, and need to learn to trust again. And I understand that a special needs cat comes with a potential risk and more medical cost than a regular cat. But if you have the resources, and you're willing to take a chance, they're waiting.

Even if you can't adopt, GO HUG A CAT. <3