Is Your Cat Brain Damaged or Just Being the Eternal Kitten?

As you know, one of my cats is called Charm. It’s a silly name but one that she came with from the rescue centre.                 I was overruled by my husband and daughter, when I suggested changing it.

(I wanted Flossie….)

However, four years later, I can see that it suits her beautifully, as she is one of the most ‘charming’ and good-natured cats I have ever known.

And why?

Well, she is the eternal kitten and very endearing in her wide-eyed innocence.

But there is a downside to all this kitten-like lovliness. The reason that she has never grown up is that we strongly suspect that she was brain-damaged at birth - probably due to oxygen starvation.

Our vet has confirmed that she is ‘not quite right’ - she has an odd, barrel shape to her body and her legs and tail are definitely shorter and stubbier than you would normally expect to see in a cat. However, she has a beautifully symmetrical face and big, trusting eyes to compensate.

We very quickly learned that poor Charm has double vision, as she will consistently try to catch any toy or ball by pouncing two inches to its left and simply cannot following a moving object with any accuracy at all. It is quite obvious that Charm needs minutes (yes, minutes, not seconds…) to process data as it enters her not-frightfully-efficient brain and if something hasn’t ‘clicked’ in the first 60 seconds or so, she simply forgets what she was trying to do and wanders off to find somewhere soft to settle down and sleep.

Another side effect of poor Charm’s brain damage is that she doesn’t seem to have much of a sense of smell.

Now, smell is vitally important to a cat and their sense is much more highly developed than ours, but Charm seems to have missed out there too.

As a consequence, Minnie will eat all her own food and then pinch Charms as Charms simply hasn’t ‘computed’ the information that her meal is in front of her and needs eating. Poor cat!

Life with an intellectually challenged cat is both a frustration and a joy - just like having a kitten to care for but without ever getting to the time when, as an adult cat, independence and aloofness set in.

Is anyone else blessed with a brain damaged cat? Leave a comment letting me know what the best and worst things are about dealing with this particular affliction - I’d love to know that Charm isn’t alone in her less-than-perfect world.