Conference misery::feline_v1

Do (s)he have blue eyes by any chance?

 I'm falling, I'm falling, if so. Egads, how do I tell my husband this one?

    re: .1
    
    She probably does have blue eyes -- there's a genetic connection 
    between blue-eyed, white cats and deafness.  I hope you take her.
    Take it from me, you won't regret it.  If you take her and have
    any questions about living with a deaf cat let me know -- Tristan
    is a blue-eyed, deaf, white cat and he's a riot.  If you want to 
    know the truth, he's my favorite, and we've had him for almost 6 
    years.
    
    Go for it!!!
    Karen, Tristan, Tenzing and Max.

                            -< blue eyed beauty... >-

  I've been cautioned that bringing a deaf cat into the household with 5
other (active)cats may cause some problems -- that may make things difficult for
the new cat and also for the other 5.  Cindy has given me her input and
now I'm leery.

  Voicing your experiences will help tremendously.

  Thank you.

		Marian

    One of my friends has 17 cats, one of which is deaf.  There are
    no problems at all with or because of the deaf baby.  Jonathan
    thinks he is the only cat in the house - he sits on the vacuum
    cleaner and rides around on top of it when it's on - guess he
    like to "hear/feel" the vibration.  His sense of feel and smell
    more than makes up for his loss of hearing - Affectionate?  He
    is something else - a real love baby!  Cuddly and friendly - he
    has no fear and wants nothing but to love and be loved!  I have
    one cat that is blind in one eye and I worried that that would
    be a problem.  Worrying was a waste of time - he gets on exactly
    the same as all the others, including managing to sleep on top
    of the cabinets over the refrig.  How any of they get up there,
    I think is amazing, but they ALL do, even the youngest, VikiiToria.
    She uses the Monkey-See/Monkey-Do method of growing up - gets her
    into the same trouble as all the rest!
    
    E.T._17_and_counting_or_holding !!
    

    Since I talked to Marian, I guess I should write something here.
    I have a deaf white persian, in fact, I have been considering entering
    her here to see if someone might be interested in providing this
    baby with an Only Cat home.  
    
    Anyway, Tricia (the deaf white kitty), has had a terrible time
    adjusting, and she came from a cattery.  I took her almost two years
    ago because another breeder, with a larger cattery, was having trouble
    with her.  She was afraid of everything and was spending her life
    hiding under things.  Because I have a much smaller amount of cats,
    but could probably still make use of Tricia's fantastic pedigree,
    I decided to take her.  
    
    I feel real bad for Tricia (right Kate!), she always seems to be
    confused and defensive.  She is happiest when she is in a cage or
    small confined area by herself.  When she is out with the other
    cats, she often will go after them, and attack.  I think it's simply
    because she doesn't know if she's being threatened or not.
    Unfortunately, the other cats can't figure out what's going on....their
    not being agressive!!!  
    
    She isn't afraid of things like the vacuum, or loud noises, but
    she is very defensive.
    
    cin
    

    re: bad times with deaf cats...
    
    Tristan, on the other hand, isn't afraid of anything.  He joined our
    family as the fourth animal.  We had Tenzing, her sister (named
    Hillary), and a large dog named Aisha.  Tristan stole his way into
    all our hearts by simply being himself.  He was somewhat untrusting
    when we got him because his prior home had a child who would pick 
    him up and (accidentally I hope) drop him, he was very sick (fleas,
    ear mites, coccidiosis), and he'd been hit (lightly) by cars twice
    because he couldn't hear them coming.
    
    He's been very affectionate from the start.  However, when we got him
    he was afraid to be picked up.  His little legs would be stiff as a 
    board, with all claws extended.  Waking him unexpectedly does startle
    him, but he doesn't retaliate in any way.  After a few months he 
    learned that no one was going to hurt him and he's now over-trusting.
    Picture a full grown cat jumping to my shoulders, then doing forward
    rolls across the back of my neck, assuming that I'll catch him if he
    falls!  ;-)  What a riot!  The problem is that I'm usually brushing 
    my teeth when he does it, and haven't any hands free.  But I'll turn
    somersaults to catch him because I want him to trust me.
    
    The only problem we ever had with the other animals had to do with the
    fact that Tristan likes to sleep in a deprivation chamber  ;-).  He
    likes to crawl under something soft, like a blanket, towel, or clothes.
    Since he's deaf and he can't see through it, he's incommunicato.  A
    couple of times he got stepped on by our dog which didn't make him too
    happy.  It took him about a month or more to trust her again after each
    incident (I believe it's happened twice). 
    
    Our experience has been *VERY* good.  Whether this is due to our 
    treatment of him, his personality, or some other factors, I don't know.
    I just know that his trust in us had to be earned, but it was earned
    painlessly, and it's been more than worth it.
    
    Oh, another interesting thing is that his meow can be deafening.  I
    think this is in part due to his oriental heritage.  We don't know his
    background, but he has the huge ears and short, dense fur of a Siamese.
    And since he can't hear his own meow he doesn't know how absurd he 
    sounds -- that's anthropomorphising, I know, but I really don't think
    he'd be so loud if he could hear.  
    
    We use hand signals, body language, and floor stomping/tapping to 
    communicate.  We had to get kind of creative to find ways of saying
    "no".  And in recent years we learned the squirt bottle trick which
    works wonders.
    
    Karen, Tristan, Tenzing and Max.

    
    
      Fluff doesn't have blue eyes as one of you hoped. Instead she has
     yellowish eyes. Spec below
    
      All White
      Female
      fixed
      2.5 yrs old
      medium to long hair
      5-6 pounds
      light eater
      snores (no joke)
      stone deaf
      real real lovable
    
    
    Brian

    I don't have any children (except for the furry foursome) so this
    may sound like a dumb comment but:
     Can't you teach your child not to squeeze the cat?  Teaching a
    child that animals feel pain too is a lesson they all should learn.
    
      Nancy DC    :-)
    

    
    So has anyone decided to take this cat?  I have a white cat also
    - male - but he has tabby markings on his head and tail (he looks
    like a raccoon), yellow-green eyes - and he can hear.  I also have
    a dog (about the same size as the cat) and they get along great
    - I have considered another cat, but I'm not sure about an adult.