* Turtle found her forever home with lovely people! * 

When we visit the shelters we rescue from, sometimes we just can’t leave animals behind, even though we hadn’t planned for their rescue. Turtle was definitely one of those…
Turtle was found as a stray with a horrible injury to her eye. She was taken straight to the vet by Hamilton Animal Control officers and it was discovered that she had a microchip. Her owners were called, but they decided not to claim Turtle, and signed her over to HAC. She had some basic care while at the vet, and was then taken to HAC in hopes she would be rescued.
When HAC was gathering previous vet information about Turtle, they were told that Turtle’s owners had called their vet clinic to report Turtle missing back in July. This means, Turtle’s injured eye may have been like this for several weeks. She was very thin, so she likely didn’t have access to food while she was missing. We’ll never know for sure what happened to her, but we took her straight from HAC to the vet for surgery. There was some of an eye inside all that mess, but the eyeball itself had ruptured, likely from an untreated infection. So, our vets removed it and sewed her up. She was also spayed while she was under anesthetic to save her a second surgery down the road. As she recovered in her foster home, she started showing her sweet side to her foster family. Her eye healed very well, and now she is ready to find her forever home!

Here’s a note from Turtle’s foster home:

“Turtle is a very high-energy, funny, playful little girl. Because she only has one eye and some her whiskers had to be cut off during the surgery (they’re growing back now), she’s a little disoriented at times and doesn’t really have any depth perception… but she doesn’t let that slow her down! She will try to jump onto high surfaces and sometimes fail, as she is still acclimating to her one eye, but she just gets right back up and tries again. That’s the only way you can tell that she’s not like every other kitty, as she’s totally normal in every other way….having one eye doesn’t seem to bother her. She’s very active, and tears around our house like crazy…I sometimes get tired just watching her and I wonder where she gets her energy from.

She’s also a giant purr machine and loves rubbing against my legs as I walk. She follows me around the house wherever I go, and doesn’t like closed doors…whether I’m in the bathroom or the bedroom getting ready for work…she will sit outside the door and cry, quite pitifully, until I let her in. She also playfully attacks my legs (by batting them very furiously but gently) every time I walk down the stairs, which always makes me laugh. (She thinks she’s tough but she’s not.)

When we introduced her to our other cats (all adults) there was a lot of hissing and growling and swatting at first…I think it was likely because she was feeling overwhelmed (there were so many) and vulnerable (she was at a disadvantage with one eye), and she was trying to establish her dominance and place in the herd. She had been through a lot, so it was understandable that she was a little wary and on the offence. Although she still growls a little and sometimes swats at them, she’s calmed down a lot and seems way more comfortable. I think that now she is just really trying to engage them to play with her, as she’s not acting aggressively….I think by getting in their faces and swatting at them she’s saying “Hey, I’m here! Will you play with me? I’m going to smack you now…then you chase me. Okay?!” Unfortunately, most of our cats are older and not really all that active, so she’s not been successful in finding any playmates, and I can see that she gets lonely and a little bored. For that reason, I feel that she would be best suited in a home with another younger (or at least playful and energetic) cat to romp, play-fight, and run around with.

She doesn’t really like to be picked up when she’s in play mode (what cat does?), but the rest of the time, she loves to be picked up and smooched and she never stops purring. I also think she has the makings of a lap cat, but just not in our house because of the other cats. The only time she’ll sit on our laps is if we’re watching TV in the basement and there are no other cats around.

Overall, Turtle is a sweet, funny, and active little girl, would be a great addition to any family (as long as she has a play-mate). 🙂”

July 2021 – Turtle was our Forever Home Friday feature!
Here’s a note from Leela’s adopter:
“Leela has come a long way over the 6 years that we’ve had her. She is the sweetest and also the most mischievous cat I’ve ever met. She is a natural hunter and just wants to play all day. She still has the energy of a kitten! She is still quite petite but has the courage of a lion, I’ve never seen a bigger personality on such a small cat. When she is not knocking objects off coffee tables you can find her curled up on one of her many cat beds.”