Motty the Cat
Trust between human and animal kind never felt so fragile. Yesterday Motty the Cat, our beautiful-hearted LHDT (long-haired domestic tabby give or take some dubious heritage) who appeared one day at my Dad’s and has stayed four years (so far) paid his first visit to the vet.
Tabby Cats
“Tabby cats have a distinctive coat that features stripes, dots, or swirling patterns, usually together with an “M” mark on its forehead. Tabbies are sometimes erroneously assumed to be a breed of cat. In fact the name relates to the pattern of their coats and is a naturally occurring feature that may be related to the colouration of the domestic cat’s direct ancestor, the African Wildcat.
The word is adapted from the name of a kind of textile. It comes from the French tabis, which was earlier atabis, and in medieval Latin attabi. The distant origin of the word seems to be from the Attabiyah section of Baghdad where a type of striped silk was made that was later used to describe cats. There are four tabby patterns that have been shown to be genetically distinct: Mackerel, Classic, Spotted and Ticked.”
My Dad is a very kind soul anyway and especially when it comes to animals. If I didn’t know any better I’d say he has a touch of the animal whisperer in him. He’s soft toward animals in ways that they understand even ‘wild’ ones. He’s also the reason Motty the Cat came to stay for as long as he has. It was my father who first showed him kindness again.
Motty the Cat
For the record, I don’t think Motty the Cat aka Scruff aka Motty Dotty aka Motley is a ‘wild’ cat. I believe he was simply abandoned by previous owners but at some stage in his lifetime, someone did love him. I know this because he knows how to cuddle. He does! Paws on both shoulders and snuggle-purr into the nape of my neck.
When he arrived all those years ago, my father described his condition and him ‘as a bag of bones’. His fur was tatty, heavily matted and he looked for the most part like the feline version of a street brawler. He’d have made a great All Cat prop forward. He was wary of humans. My Dad, simply put food out for him every day and there developed between them a convivial bond.
When I first met him, he had ears that only a mother could love. Torn, chewed and one looking suspiciously like a cauliflower ear (hematoma auris and Traumatic auricular hematoma) a condition most common among boxers, amateur wrestlers, rugby players, mixed martial artists, and grapplers. When I think about it, Motty the Cat falls into at least three of those categories!
A caulifower ear happens when the outer part of the ear suffers a blow and a blood clot or other fluid may collect under the perichondrium. This separates the cartilage from the overlying perichondrium that is its source of nutrients, causing the cartilage to die. This in turn leads to a formation of fibrous tissue in the overlying skin. When this happens, the outer ear becomes permanently swollen and deformed, resembling a cauliflower.
A Matter of Perspective
To look at him, he can seem a little lopsided. It’s a perspective thing. He’s missing whiskers on one side of his face more than on the other, his head seems too small for his body and well, looking more morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae) than cat though he’d make a jolly good caricature of a cartoon nightclub bouncer which I keenly suspect he would take to like a duck to water!
In any case, he’s home at my Dad’s after an overnight stay at the Vet Club. He’s missing a few ‘bits and bobs’, had all the right shots now, he actually looks none the worse for wear. He’d developed an ulcer which was somewhat harder to detect under his long fur but the ‘patient is doing well now’. Infact, he’s looking somewhat kittenish (but we won’t tell him that because he has a rep to maintain).
Responsibilities as Animal Owners
I use today’s blog to highlight our awareness of our responsibilities as animal owners for their care during this festive season. It’s the time of year when animals are more likely to be abandoned or maltreated by irresponsible owners or strangers.
Motty the Cat and Furball Fraser are being house-sat in their own home as we visit with family for a few days during the Christmas break. It’s the very least that we can give them for all that they give to us. That and fish or chicken (all de-boned of course) on Christmas day. They’ve already put their order in!
UPDATE: Motty the Cat died in 21 July 2010 from previously undetected cat cancer. He had been at the Vet two weeks earlier getting a flu shot. It was our regular vet that found the cancer during a hands on examination. We’d just learnt that his ‘dubious heritage’ was positively identified as a ‘Longhair Scottish Fold’.
The Scottish Fold is a breed of cat with a natural dominant-gene mutation that makes its ear cartilage contain a fold, causing the ears to bend forward and down towards the front of their head, which gives the cat what is often described as an “owl-like” appearance. Furball Fraser pre-deceased Motty the cat by some 2 months, we miss our boys very much. Motty the Cat is seen here in this picture on my suitcase as I packed to go up the Whanganui awa in March 2010.
