The Cookieless Mouse: Adopting a Cat with Paralysis (we use cat first pronouns here)

It was the best of times and it was the worst of times...well actually it was summer of 2024. I had just sold my house and moved back into my friends house in the upstairs bedroom he kept for me. I had rescued cats from Saudi that I helped re-home the previous summer and was glad that they had all found homes with the help of rescues including the Specialty Breed Cat Rescue in Wisconsin and the Whole Cat Caboodle in Seattle, Washington. Enjoying lets felines to clean up after I had become familiar with a cat in Saudi that a Filipino had rescued who was paralyzed after it was run over on the street. I wasn't sure if I should adopt it, after all I had never had a paralyzed cat before nor had anyone I'd known but I inquired curiously anyways. The rescuer, knowing no one else was interested and feeling overburdened with other cats with paralysis, special needs, or deformities was eager for me to take her. "But what if she has kidney problems and has to be put down eventually?" I asked as my research had shown that was a strong possibility. She assured me that was alright and she was just happy for her to have a home. So, along came Primrose. This time I didn't have to fly to Saudi to get her but rather another Filipino transported her to the U.S. along with some other cats and I picked her up in Washington, D.C.

Initially I kept her in a live-in cat condo, not sure if she would ever live outside of it. She was apprehensive of my dogs at first who were too eager to be her friends but eventually she proved she wanted to live outside of the cat cage. So....I transported her to the cat room upstairs where she could crawl around freely, use a litter box that was low to the ground on her own and prove to us all that she was eager to live a live full of cat happiness. Primrose would climb up and down the cat stairs, pull herself up cat trees, and one night when all was calm and the pups snored away, Primrose snuck through the puppy gate, climbed down the stairs and pulled herself up the ramp to the second tier of the cat tree. I was astonished to find her down there the next morning and that soon became her routine. She even meows at the bottom of the stairs when she wants to come back up as it's a bit too many for her to climb.

It's been two years since I've adopted Primrose and it's been quite the learning experience. It's not the same as having other cats as she does seem to treat me like her personal handmaid, expecting me to open the puppy gate for her so she can go inside (although she will slide through the bars on her own as well), but I've never regretted adopting her for a moment. She's loving, kind, spoiled, mischievous, adventurous, overcoming, brave, and strong (literally, that's some serious upper body strength to pull herself the ramps and stairs). In fact, I love her so much that had it not been for some unknowns with my job I would have adopted another special needs cat this past January. All in all, I hope that people know that special needs isn't a death sentence. Her rescuer was shocked that she didn't need diapers. Nope...Primrose will use her litter box and even has learned from the dogs how to use puppy pads (although I don't recommend it b/c she drags them with her). I love Primrose and it's only too obvious that she loves me.