Little Richard: Will you ‘send him some lovin’?

We’re truly hoping that this lovely little blind fellow will be as lucky as Tommy and Kitty in finding a happy home for life. He has a sad story, but one that happens every day, all over this city.

A mother cat had given birth in an abandoned house, and then disappeared shortly after they were weaned, most likely run over by a passing car while in season and being pursued by males. Only two kittens survived, and were fed by an elderly nearby resident. Both kittens were friendly and trusting of humans, but sadly the feeder did not realise or did not know what to do about one of the kittens’ eyes, which were infected and fast losing vision. The other kitten was healthy, and a neighbour decided to adopt it, but didn’t want ‘the ill one with the funny eyes’.

So little Richard was left all alone in the ruins of his crumbling home, enjoying dinner and a stroke every evening in the window of the building, but otherwise living a solitary and risky life, only able to distinguish between light and dark but with no further vision.

When he was about 4 months old, the neighbours received word that the old house was to be knocked down the next week. Where would its blind feline occupant find safety and shelter now? We received a desperate email, and thankfully one of our kind vets said she could accommodate him for a couple of days, so little Richard was caught and brought to the vet. He sat shyly in the corner of his cage, but as we gently reached a hand in for him to smell, and then started caressing him, he would rub ecstatically against our hands while loud purrs racked his little body. While he was at the vet, he was treated for parasites as he was literally crawling with fleas, had his vaccination, and was also neutered so that he wouldn’t have to return to the vet, we hoped, any time soon.

He was lucky enough to find a loving foster home with our new foster-mum Eleni C, who had just bade farewell to her first foster boy, little Philo (now Bo), a partially blind ginger-and-white kitten rescued with a severe eye infection from a colony in Plaka, who had just moved to his forever home with the marvellous Ann and Trevor at 4PoshPaws.

He needed time to adapt to life in a home, and was rather alarmed by Eleni’s gregarious resident cat Zappas (having never had contact with other adult cats before) but he loves to be stroked while purring his heart out, and is getting more adventurous every day in exploring the apartment and hanging out with Zappas.

We are searching for a permanent home for this charming little boy, where he can settle and enjoy lots of love and affection, after his very difficult start in life. If you are interested, we’d love to hear from you!