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Shiloh's Story
In spring of ’96 I was delivering sandwiches for a local
sandwich shop. On one of my runs, I was delivering to a trailer in a trailer park. When I
rang the doorbell and a little boy answered, I noticed a pretty little cat standing behind
him. And of course, me being me and all, I said,’ oh, what a pretty little
kitty!’ and the little boy says, ‘she has kittens!’ Me being me again, I
say ‘ooooh, can I see them?’ the little boy says ‘yes, and one has a
crooked head!!’ ‘A crooked head??’ I say. Then him and his mom walk me over
to where the kittens are and sure enough here’s this little kitten with his head
hanging over to one side, and every time he tries to get up and walk he falls down. I
say’ what are your plans for this little kitty?’ they say’ we are going to
take him to the humane society.’
Well, you all know what I said at that point. I went back the next day and picked up
‘Sherrie’. Barbara came over later on and examined him, and ‘Sherrie’
turned out to be ‘shiloh’. She also discovered that Shiloh is Deaf (we’ve
not had any problem with his deafness). This is the day I learned all about cerebellar
hypoplasia. Barb and I went through all her veterinary books looking up everything we
could about it. Never once did she suggest that this sweet little kitty should be
euthanized. We discussed all the pros and cons of raising him, problems I would have along
the way and what to expect as far as his life expectancy was. I felt very strongly that
this kitten deserved a good life just like any other.
Shiloh has been a wonderful cat, he actually became very balanced and does much better
than when I first found him. I would have to classify him as ‘mildly affected’.
Although when he was a kitten it was not obvious. Barbara told us to give him lots of
stimulation, lots of toys and play time, and that would help him become more steady on his
feet and he’d do much better. I can’t really say if that helped or not, but
Shiloh is doing great. He turned three in March and he is one of the sweetest cats
you’d ever want to meet.
When Shiloh gets excited he will run around in circles quickly. The more excited he gets
the tighter the circles he makes. His feeding habits are also unique. He uses his paws to
eat his food. This does make a bit of a mess, especially with the dry food. We have to use
a deep baking pan for the dry food. This way it doesn’t make its way all over the
kitchen floor.
I never for one minute have regretted letting Shiloh share my life.
My regrets come later in part two of Shiloh’s story.
Bette & Randy
reddish@catfamily.com
omerna@catfamily.com
Shiloh is very hard to take a picture of. You wouldn't believe how hard it was for this
one.
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