Day 002: Cody Bear

Cody is one of my foster cats. He is almost three years old, with pure white fur and ice-blue eyes. He's a domestic medium hair, which means his fur is longer than your standard moggy's but slightly shorter than a Persian's...although you wouldn't know it thanks to the rocking haircut I gave him on Christmas Eve. ;P

Like many blue-eyed white cats, Cody is deaf. He really enjoyed his haircut, to be honest...he kept wanting me to shave his head. He also likes to be vacuumed. Since he can't hear the buzz of the clippers or the roar of the vacuum cleaner, he doesn't get scared. Instead, he just enjoys the vibrations from the clippers or vacuum...I suspect they feel like a big purr he can wrap himself up in.

I am a foster carer for Brisbane Valley Cat Rescue (via the Cat Rescue Network).  Besides Cody, I currently have another three foster cats in my care: another nearly three-year-old named Wendy (commonly referred to as Wendy Darling), and two 10-month-old kittens, a brother-and-sister pair called Luc and Lea. I also have a cat of my own, 15-year-old Mitzie.

Like Cody, Luc - a white domestic short hair with a golden right eye and an azure left eye - is deaf. Lea, however, is not, despite being almost identical to her brother in appearance. The incidence of deafness in white cats breaks down thusly: if the cat has two blue eyes, there is a 65-85% chance they will be deaf; if the cat has one blue eye and another coloured eye, the odds of deafness go down to 40%; if the cat has two non-blue eyes, they have only a 17-22% chance of deafness. These numbers apply to pure white cats; if there is another colour present in their coat, their chances of deafness decreases.

The picture for today is of Cody cuddling on my lap. Cody grew quite ill just before Christmas and had to go to the vet on Boxing Day. Since he came home, he's mostly returned to normal, except for the occasional bout of skitziness and a new-found tendency to actually sit on people's laps for cuddle-time. Cody is very affectionate, but pre-Christmas Cody restricted himself to tummy-rubs and head-scritches; now, it seems, he's a lap-cat. :)

Until tomorrow!

C xoxo