Meet Stevie

Stevie found us just before Christmas. I heard a ruckus in the back yard and opened the back door to find Breezy tormenting her, without spite mind you. She was torturing her in the name of good clean fun. This terrified, heretofore unknown cat, stood frozen in one corner of my small back yard, watching Breezy, who was running the perimeter of the yard repeatedly. Breezy would run away from the cat at full speed and then turn and pounce to face her, rear end in the air, tail up and barking. Breezy’d smile, then run full speed ahead straight for the cat, who raised up her back until she was twice her natural size, to no avail. Breezy knocked her down like a bowling ball tumbles a lonely, hopeless pin. In the 30 seconds I stood at the door with my mouth agape, it felt like this happened six or seven times, but it couldn’t have. I hope.

I shook myself out of it, grabbed a box from the garage and chased the animals around a bit before I was able to throw the box on top of the trembling cat. I put Breezy in the house and then set out to inspect her. She was small, seemed like a kitten to me, but then I don’t know much about cats. I figured I better take her to the vet. My plan was to just make sure she was ok, that Breezy didn’t injure her. And see if they could help me find a home for her, or at least tell me where to buy a duffle bag and some rocks, you know, because I am NOT a cat person.
I took her to vet . They ran some tests and let some time pass to rule out rabies. Indeed they ruled out the big problems, but Stevie is… special. They call it neurological, which apparently means to a vet that there is something wrong with her brain and they’re not sure what. We’re pretty sure she’s deaf. And she’s just kinda weird.
She moves her head from side to side, like Stevie Wonder. (That’s how she got her name.) Her blue eyes dart around pretty quickly from here to there. This may be something she does to compensate for not hearing. Other than those two things that Lena refers to as creepy (she does seem pretty abnormal), she’s a great cat. She’s incredibly affectionate. She uses the litter box. She comes when called. And she loves to cuddle. She doesn’t jump on the kitchen or bathroom counters, or she can’t it seems. She has some balance issues. As a dog person, I consider that a bonus.
So that’s Stevie, in a nutshell. Instead of the duffle bag and rocks, I opted to purchase other things. Vaccinations, a collar, several tests, surgery, a location chip. Four months and hundreds of dollars later, turns out I might be a cat person…