After I adopted my blind cat, I scoured the internet for any information or advice on caring for him. All in one day I found out about Gwen Cooper's "blind wonder cat" Homer, his life story, of being deemed "unadoptable" because of his eyelessness, and that he had died in 2013. I was overwhelmed with emotions for my own blind cat, and I quickly realized (not just from Gwen's anecdotes, but from personal experience) that Dexter needed a lot less help than I initially thought. He amazed me with how quickly he memorized his environment. I was worried that he needed help getting off and on the bed, because he was afraid to get off for a while, unable to feel the floor when he reached out. Now he is jumping on and off the bed with ease.
People always ask me how he gets around, how he could possibly function without his eyes. And I must say, I never doubted him, but I thought I needed to baby him. I didn't need to do that. He is such an incredible animal, and really is just a normal cat. He navigates effortlessly, never bumps into anything, and memorizes his surroundings very quickly. He doesn't need any more help from me than my sighted cat does. He has complex problem solving skills, and never ceases to amaze me with his spirit, intelligence, and perseverance.
He is just as expressive and loving as any abled pet, and I cannot suggest enough that more people get disabled animals. They don't know they're different, and you probably don't need to treat them differently either (depending on the severity of their disability). The most I need to do for Dexter is consistently talk to him so he always knows that it's me making noise, and doesn't get scared.
Dexter was not "unadoptable" and shouldn't be treated as such. The ableism that abled people express toward disabled people, is being projected onto disabled animals and it needs to stop. I fell in love with Dexter the moment I met him, and the fact that so many others before me had said no to adopting him based solely on the fact of his blindness, really upsets me.
Dexter came from a cat hoarder. He had chronic eye infections that were left untreated for so long, that he was blinded. He is blind due to someone else's negligence. It is never the fault of an animal that they are disabled, and they are not "unadoptable" because of it. It breaks my heart that there have to be sanctuaries for disabled animals where they can live out their life, because nobody wants them.
Adopting Dexter was one of the best decisions I ever made, and he absolutely has improved my life since he has lived with me. He is not a burden, and he is not ugly without eyes. He is who he is, and I can't imagine him being anything else. He shouldn't have to be anything else to get a loving home. He is a revolutionary because he changed my world. He made it a little bigger and a lot more open.
The point of this post is to let you know how rewarding it is to have a cat, and if they have a disability, it doesn't change that. Please consider the pets at the shelter that you haven't in the past. They might just make your world a little bigger.