Missy Dubuisson, who is the founder and director of Wild At Heart Rescue, received a call regarding a kitten who had just shown up one day with a strange eye infection. Although her foundation primarily deals with wildlife, she sometimes takes the odd domestic case too.
This is what happened in the case of Stevie, “the wonder cat”. Dubuisson called Stephanie Roberts, who is a wildlife rehabilitator with Wild at Heart, who mostly cares for squirrels but also fosters kittens, and asked her if she could foster the 3-month-old kitty. She said she definitely would, and Roberts said to The Dodo:
And then Missy exclaimed, ‘I can’t find his eyes, though. Please just find his eyes”.
Stevie was in such bad shape when he first arrived at the Roberts’ – severely underweight and a bad eye infection, but it was impossible to know for sure if he was blind or not because he never bumped into things.
They soon discovered, much to everyone’s surprise, that Stevie wasn’t only blind, but he had no actual eyeballs.
His eye sockets were completely empty. Unfortunately, this was due to a condition with which he was born.
Roberts went on to explain that you wouldn’t be able to tell he didn’t have eyes if you just met him because he goes everywhere he wants without a problem!
Stevie is now one-year-old and still resides with Roberts, who explains that he is by far the smartest of her four cats. He even has his own special stroller when he goes out on walks and loves playing fetch with Roberts’ daughter by listening for the ball.
Stevie is a true living testament to disabled cats everywhere, proving they certainly can do everything an abled cat can do and even more.
