Kenya

I must admit, it is often hard for me to distinguish between all the black cats here at the sanctuary.  I have a hard time telling one from another and so many of their names I cover with a generic “puss” till I can find something special or distinguishing about them.

A few weeks ago, I was introduced to Kenya, a feral girl who came to the sanctuary in 2004 and she definitely stands out from the rest of the black cat crowd with her odd but endearing head tilt.  Evidently, this is due to an old inner ear infection that has left her with permanent damage to the balance centre of her brain causing her to tilt her head in order to maintain equilibrium in the world around her.  Fortunately, she seems to manage quite well despite the head tilt – she was climbing and running well (mostly in an attempt to get away from me) and to see her run with her head off kilter is a thing that will make you smile.

Kenya has yet to completely surrender her feral tendencies and was very reluctant to let me get close enough to her to give her a stroke.  I’m told that with a lot of patience and perhaps a little bribery with some canned tuna I may get lucky with her one day, but for now she remains just out of my reach. As people shy as she is however, she is not so feral as to let her guard down and play with a leaf like a kitten with me looking on from a distance.