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| Name: |
Boo
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Age: |
Eleven months old
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| Gender: |
Male
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Kind: |
Turkish Angora mix
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| Home: |
Dallas, Texas, USA
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Boo was born deaf, so because he has to find alternate ways to communicate he is very animated. He is lively, and loves to go into public places meet new people and see lots of activity. He feels safe as long as his human mama is near.
I use to foster feral cats and get them ready for loving homes, I have had many many cats, some for longer than others and a few for life. When I first got together with Frank, he had two older kitties and I had a kitten, Sophia. He had a large back yard that was totally catp=roofed and Sophia loved it. His kitties had health issues that we dealt with for two years and in the end they passed a week apart. Sophia was devastated. She began to stay at the back of the yard, stopped wanting affection and seeking a way out. She needed another cat around. We went to the shelters and searched for that special baby who called to our hearts. Frank spotted a tiny spotted kitten in a cage alone and my heart melted. She was sickly, had healing sores and was missing half of her tail. The people at the shelter couldn't believe that she was our pick and one recommended that we take her to a vet immediately because in truth they didn't expect her to live. We took her to the vet and gave her medicine and vitamins but the poor baby was bored. Sophia hissed at her when she came near. Now we had a sweet two-year-old who was happy again silly girl wouldn't let that kitten out of her sight but she refused to get near it). But now we had a sad kitten named Dot who needed a friend. So we began our hunt ... again.
The lady was asking for a rehoming fee because she couldn't afford to take the kittens to a shelter and she planned to use the money to have the mother fixed. I asked specifically if they were deaf, I was interested in the one female. She told me that the little girl showed no signs of being deaf, vacuum cleaner tested and everything. When I arrived at her house she insisted on meeting me outside with the kitten. The mother followed her, she was a beautiful Turkish Angora (very skinny but of course she was still nursing). The lady said she had been a gift to her. A tiny little white ball of fluff was placed into my hands, swollen, watery, blue eyes looked up at me and I was lost. As I got in the car, I was dialing the vet to see if I could bring it in right away. I realized on the way to the vet that the baby did not respond to claps or noise at all. The vet confirmed this along with the news that our new baby girl was a boy. We were both scared to raise a deaf kitty. We didn't know what to expect but as sickly as he was, there was no way I was taking him back to his birth home Never having dealt with a deaf kitty before, I began reading and researching and joined a Deaf White Kitty Group. Frank and I would just have to learn to communicate at the same time as Boo learned.
Because Boo is deaf is expresses himself through exaggerated facial expressions and actions. Everything he does is expressive. When he plays, he plays hard and swings himself from shelf to shelf on his tree or darts from garden to garden only to stop and chase his own tail. Shadows are one of his favorite things to chase. He keeps us laughing all of the time, even when he sleeps he sleeps in the oddest positions. Keep in mind that his world is silent and so every movement or flash of light catches his eye more than it would someone who could hear. To avoid that light he may sleep with his face flat down into a pillow or sleep on his back with a toy laid across his face. He has little to no fear, he is cautious but he is mostly curious. He insisted on finding a way out of the yard and we consistently patched holes, wrapped trees and topped fences. I finally realized that the other cats heard the commotion of traffic and thought of their yard as safe from everything outside, but saw his yard as boring and wanted to see all of the activity. I now walk Boo every day so that he can see traffic, joggers, and dogs walkers and he never tries to go out alone anymore.
As for the other two kitties, he is the one who brought everyone together. He couldn't hear Sophia growl or hiss, so he just ignored it and snuggled right up to her or kept playing with her tail until she ran away. He and Dot are very close, but Sophia plays and keeps an eye on them both.
Boo responds to hand signals as most cats do to human voices. It is only when he wants but he does understand what the signals mean. Boo walks on his leash and enjoys seeing new things. He is not afraid of water and will lay in the stream between the waterfall and the pond if it gets hot. He loves to play in the bathtub with a small rubber ball (he can feel the vibrations as it bounces in the metal tub). He also loves a box with holes cut out for paws to stick through and his lighted crinkle tube, his sister Dot likes the crinkle sound, but he likes the vibration-activated lights.
Boo loves meeting people. He wants to be very helpful ... The man who came to clean the hot tub was amazed to see a kitty on the edge sticking his paw in the water to help clean the filter. The plumber looked over to see a kitty digging beside him. (We put him in the house for the electrician.) He wanders the vet's office on his leash, saying hello to everyone he sees. Outside on his walk, he spares a moment for all who stop to pet him but .... there's just so much to see, he does get distracted easily.
I can brush him, but after a few minutes he is done with the tools and wants mam's hand. I can bathe him, wipe his eyes and brush his teeth though.
He has his own social media presence - and we are glad to share him with the world! He has Facebook page, a YouTube channel and his own Twitter.
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