The Other Light of My Life Finale

When I bring him home, I realize that I need to come up with a name for him. I went through the usual “black” names. Joe, Blackie, Blackberry, Java, Coffee, Blackbeard, etc….but nada.

None of them seemed right and he wasn’t responding to any of them.

I then started saying any male names I could think of. Bill, Dan, Bob, Richard, etc…

The minute I said “Mike”, he turned his wee head, stared at me with those luminous green eyes and meowed.

Swear to God.

He meowed.

So, Mike it was.

Mike and J.D. got along great. They played with each other and kept each other company.

During all this time, I noticed that his eyes were getting bigger and bigger. It was almost to the point that his eyelids wouldn’t close completely over his eyes.

I also discovered that the nerves in his eyes must have been dead or not there at all. Mike and J.D. were chasing each other through the apartment and Mike turned and swiped J.D. in the face and ended up scratching one of his eyeballs. With blood dripping from his eye, J.D. continued to chase Mike around the house. He was not even aware that his eye was bleeding.

That was my wake up call to take him back to the vet to get him checked out again.

The eye situation bumfuzzled the vet and she didn’t know exactly what was wrong.

She told me I basically had two decisions to choose from.

I could get some eye drops and drop them in his eyes 7-8 times a day to keep them moist or I could have his eyes taken out.

I looked at the vet long and hard and asked her what she would do if this was HER cat.

She said that she would have them removed. It would be the only way he wouldn’t suffer.

So, $2000 later, we had the surgery. J.D. was no longer just a blind cat but he was now an eyeballess cat.

He looked like a lion. They had to shave part of his fur around his eyes and so the fur around the cheeks stood out making him look all majestic. They also ended up cutting a couple of whiskers.

Poor kitty. For a few weeks, he walked around in circles due to the clipped whiskers! It was kinda funny.

About 6 weeks or so after his surgery, I was over at my mom’s house with the cats and J.D. was sitting near my mom or on her, I can’t remember when. Anyway, she shushed me while I was in the middle of talking and said “listen”. I strained to hear what she was hearing. All I could hear was purring.

Wait….purring….from J.D……who had NEVER PURRED IN HIS TIME WITH ME!

He was PURRING!

It was the sweetest sound I had ever heard.

About a month after that, he meowed for the first time. And cuddled and loved up on me and snuggled down.

When I went to the vet for a follow up a while later, I mentioned this to the vet and she said that his eyeballs were putting such pressure in his little noggin that he was probably in constant pain and didn’t feel like purring or being cuddly.

They did do a biopsy on his eyes and they were cancer free and glaucoma free. They were never sure exactly what was wrong. But, they gave him a clean bill of health which is all I cared about.

He truly is a miracle cat. It is so funny to watch him “watching” bugs that fly around (he can hear their little wings beating, that’s how he follows them). He is also very adaptable to his surroundings. I used to be afraid to move furniture or leave boxes and bags in his way, but, over the years, I’ve learned that it doesn’t bother him. He senses they’re there and will walk around them. The only times he bumps into things now is if he is running and not taking his time.

I found out in Christmas of 2007 that he has a heart problem. It’ll probably be what kills him. His heart is also throwing off clots to his back legs and for a while there, he wasn’t using his back legs AT ALL. He would drag himself around. It was to the point I was researching how to make a wheelchair contraption for him to get around in.

The vet gave me some meds and it’s pretty much under control now. However, I don’t anticipate having him much longer. I want to keep him forever, but I know that’s not the case.

So, I just enjoy every day that I have with my love.

That’s all I can do.

Thanks for reading.

Captain Dumbass…I’m done. You can come back now.

Later,

Mama Dawg