Quote:
That's funny. Maybe he was. Funny thing is Rex never seemed to know that Joe hated him. Rex thinks everyone loves him and runs to greet every stranger, serviceman, visitor with a ball to play with. Even after 6 years he would run up to Joe to try and lick him or sniff him and say "hello" only to get whacked or slashed. Then he would just continue wagging tail and go his way. Rex is the only one that continued to try and get near Joe and be friends - everyone else learned to always go the other way if they saw him.
We finally, as a last ditch desperate measure, had Joe declawed about two years ago. It was that or have him put down because it had become what I called "Hell House". He would chase everyone of the pets, except Gizmo, through the house while they ran for their lives, knocking over furniture and jumping onto mantles and bookshelves and tables knocking everything off - just trying to get away from him. It was amazing but the declawing worked. After that Joe began to really calm down - didn't go after someone else just because they were within sight. He would still swat at anything that got too close to him, like Rex's daily greeting, but at least it wasn't hurting anyone and everyone began to calm down and happily co-exist.
I guess I'll never know exactly what was wrong with Joe, maybe he always had some kind of brain tumor, maybe he had been seriously mistreated before being dumped at the pound - I do know there will never be another one like him.
Rebecca - my heart goes out to you and Bailey - what a sweetie. I pray he recovers. We had a Yorkie that had seizures - lived to be 14, was deaf, blind and toothless before he finally passed.
Thanks to all for your kind words. I love all animals and strays and the sick and crippled always have a way of finding me and I take them in. My husband jokes that all of our pets are "special needs" animals and that we don't have any "normal" cats. We still have Morris (a stray cat), who has a severed spinal cord, at base of spine, just before tail, that left the tail dead and hanging down useless and who sometimes has trouble peeing and pooping in litter box since nerves are severed - and Simba (a stray cat) who has a crooked neck and is partially deaf. When I found him as a tiny feral kitten he could not walk forward, could only spin in circles and go backwards and was totally deaf (white cat/blue eyes). I have a chicken with a deformed leg and wing that gets around by hopping on one leg.
But I believe the Lord teaches us many things through other animals - loving and caring for something that needs you.