The Blind Cat

It had all the makings of an ordinary weekend. Sweetie had to work on Sunday and that left the boys and I to hold down the fort. Earl and Heather had a get together for all of us living in the trailer park on Sunday afternoon. I guess Heather had gotten most of the numbers right on her lotto ticket and thought it would be fun to use a little of it for a party.

Corlis and his new fiancé were there having trouble keeping their hands off of each other and I met our new neighbors Chris and Sondra that are living in the Hubert’s old spot, down past the community lodge. They seemed nice enough and all but my mind wasn’t too focused on the party to tell you the truth.

Zane, our old cat lost her sight this weekend. We noticed it on Saturday when we were trying out a new vacuum Sweetie found at a garage sale down on Carr hill. She had been hiding under the bed and when sweetie started up the vacuum she took off like a shot. Only she couldn’t find the way out, she just kept bumping into the wall right next to the door where the sun had come in through the window. After that we noticed her tripping over things at her feet that she couldn’t see and kind of going about the trailer by feel. Her pupils were dilated and didn’t seem to respond to changes in the light.

She’s an old girl, going on fifteen this spring. Sweetie and I got her right after we finished school and found our first apartment together. She was a nice cat for the first year or so. In fact we liked her so much we thought we’d get another cat as a friend. Unfortunately we forgot to get her opinion on the matter and she spent the next six years pissed off at the two of us for bringing another cat into the fold.

She had just about gotten over this indiscretion when Sweetie got pregnant with our oldest. Zane took to peeing all over the place after the baby was born. In fact it started getting so bad that she would do it right in front of us yelling at the top of her lungs. After that I threw her outside for a week straight, moving her dish and water to the back porch. She seemed to get the hint. After that she just chose to avoid the kids all together, she co inhabited the space with them but that was it. At least that was the case until our second boy came home from the hospital after he got his new liver.

The youngest boy has a lot of complications left over from his first disease. He doesn’t have use of his hands much, doesn’t walk or crawl or anything like that. Somehow after he came home Zane just took to the boy. Now she lets him drool on her and yell at her and will sit still while he tries to pet her. The boy thinks Zane it the greatest thing in the world and will work as hard as he can just to grab a fist full of fur. She doesn’t seem to mind as far as I can tell. Sweetie calls it “Cat Therapy” and that seems about right.

Monday, Sweetie wanted to take the cat to the vet to see if there was anything we could do for her. There wasn’t. The vet just said that her pupils weren’t responding to light and that sometimes in older cats this can happen. I wish Sweetie had given me the thirty-five bucks instead.
After we got home though, the strangest thing happened. Zane is standing in the middle of the room having figured out that that we were home again when Sweetie says. “I think she can see” and sure enough Zane’s eyes were little slits looking up through the window past the deck and out into the afternoon sun.

The littlest one is lying on the couch, both legs kicking in the air and yelling as loud as he can. The older boy has found some long lost piece of Lego that vanished after a robot war with his friend from across the way. Sweetie and I are a little confused as we wave our arms back and forth trying to get the cats attention to see if she really can see again and Zane, taking it all in stride, makes her way into the kitchen to see if there’s anything left in her food dish from breakfast.