Whoops a daisy

Most of the cats who come into our small shelter follow a routine pattern of neuter, microchip and then rehome.

Sometimes, however, we get a case that is slightly unusual. Such is the case with Smudge.

The lady who brought her in had originally found her as a pregnant stray, had then taken her in and found homes for the kittens when they were old enough to go and very responsibly had her spayed.

Shortly after her operation, her owner noticed that she was very unsteady on her legs and fell over if she tried to jump. Smudge continued to be her usual friendly happy self, but just couldn't balance.

Her owner felt that she could no longer cope with Smudge's disability and asked us to rehome her. The first thing we did when she came into our care was to have her checked over by the vets. Blood samples were taken, tests were run and we watched her carefully to monitor any improvement or deterioration.

All came back clear! Her condition - whatever caused it - is stable and all the tests showed that she had no diseases or medical conditions such as epilepsy.

So she is a mystery! The vets suggested that it might be a case of poisoning or an allergic reaction to something, or that she'd had a mild stroke, but feel that she is unlikely to get any worse.

She has very poor balance and often falls over when squatting on the litter tray. We've pretty much solved that by giving her a covered litter tray so that there is less mess if she does fall over, and she sometimes needs to have her back legs and bottom cleaned after she's been to the loo. On the bright side, she is not going to wander far and because she can't jump she won't go over a garden wall and won't jump onto kitchen work tops.

We feel that Smudge, a young friendly cat, deserves a home despite her disability, and we hope that a caring new owner will come along soon, fall in love with her and live happily ever after!