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A tale of a rescue cat and autism.

66 replies

Hurr1cane · 13/10/2014 11:46

I have mentioned one if my cats briefly in random conversations but never really given him a full boasting. So I would like to tell you all about scruffy the rescue therapy cat.

Last year just before Christmas, my friend contacted me and said that she had taken a cat off someone who was threatening to dump it, it was a pure bred ragdoll but she couldn't keep this cat as it was in a terrible condition and she didn't have the time for it. At the time I was looking for a none rescue kitten to act as a companion for my little boy with autism, as the other 2 rescue cats were far too skittish to stay near him and his shouting, so I was reluctant as it would mean there was no room for a new kitten, but I couldn't leave this scruffy ball of fuzz.

So I went to collect him and he was disgusting! His fur matted to the bone, greasy and smelly, he had two eye infections and hadn't been neutered and so was spraying everywhere, he was also pretty timid and feral as he had just been left living in a shed.

So I set to work, I got a groomer to come round and shave off all his lovely fur (too matted to be worth trying to snip/ brush and it would cause him too much distress) got him neutered and fleed and got him some eye drops.

He hated me. With a passion, every time I got hold of him I was doing something else nasty with him. All his little life he had been neglected by adult humans and now another adult human was slowly torturing him (I was helping him but obviously he didn't think so)

Anyway, ragdoll kept hiding, every night he'd be gone, I checked all the usual cat places but couldn't find him anywhere, until one day I did. Cowering under DSs arm in bed with him. You see, quiet adult humans were nasty, but this loud shouty small species of human was actually quite none plussed about his existence, so he found his saviour.

DS named him (it's a rubbish name) and that was that. They were best friends.

He sleeps with DS, sits at the dinner table with him, gets in the bath with him, sits in his jigsaw boxes while DS does the puzzles... You name it and ragdoll cat was there with DS. This brought DS out of his shell, he started talking to the cat, stroking him, spinning him on his spinners (cat doesn't mind a jot) and just generally being sociable with another being. It was amazing to see. If DS was in meltdown, seeing ragdoll cat brought him out of it instantly and he smiled and giggled.

So... Worked out well, I thought, good job I didn't choose a kitten over him after all.

But that's not the end of the story.

DS has very strange seizure like episodes, which aren't epilepsy, but are seizures. They seem to be brought on my heat or stress, but also just come from nowhere. Sometimes he stops breathing and has to go to hospital. Anyway they're horrible.

One day, I was doing my hair and DS was playing in my bed next to me, when all of a sudden ragdoll appeared from nowhere, sat next to DS and howled. He howled and howled. I thought he was in severe pain, but the next minute, DS was down, jerking and unconscious.

What a strange coincidence I thought. But it wasn't, it happened again and again, before every seizure.

This cat, who I didn't really want, is so attached and in tune with a little boy who other cats are scared of, that he can pick up warning signs of a seizure that even I can't see in my own child.

This cat is worth his weight in gold, and he weighs a bloody lot.

Anyway just thought I would share because I'm a bit massively proud of the beast. As you were.

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IamFitzChivalry · 13/10/2014 11:51

Such a lovely story,well done you and well done cat