This is the story of Murphy, a neurologically impaired cat who meets everything head on, even though it rarely works out for him...Murphy's law, if it can, it will go wrong for him.
Murphy came to our family as a feral kitten. He was taken from his mother early to keep him from becoming wild and untamable....I'm not sure it worked.
Murphy was a rescue kitten, he was about 2 weeks old so he needed to be bottle fed. He loved the milk but could never really suck on the nipple...he just sort of bit at it.
He was as cute as could be (although he did spat at us in the beginning). He was playful, learned to use the litter box etc...
He seemed like a normal kitty and then we noticed the "bob" (which I wanted to name him). When he turned his head quickly, he lost control of it, (he looked like a bobble head doll). We also noticed him losing his balance, (walking sideways), falling quite often and his tongue was always hanging out.
We took him to the vet, an MRI was needed to pinpoint exactly what Murphy was suffering from. That was too expensive but there would be no cure anyway.
We were told he basically had cat muscular dystrophy. Eating would be his biggest challenge. Eventually most animals with this, end up on a feeding tube or choke to death on their own food. This is why his tongue always hangs out.
I researched some, and found exercises that humans do to strengthen the throat muscles. I worked with Murphy to do these....he didn't understand it, but he put up with me. I think between that and the work out his throat muscles got when he was drinking from a bottle something worked. Murphy has some difficulty eating, but he gets it done.
We have two older cats, Milo 14, and Max 13. We thought having a kitten around would help keep them young. They would not accept Murphy even as a 2 week old kitten. They will never accept him because they sensed from the beginning , there was something wrong with him. Survival of the fittest. You're out of the pack if you're not perfect. Murphy seems to know this, because he lives for a chance to drive them crazy.
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