If not for one detail, Raeleen McArthur is certain that her foster cat, two-year-old Weslee, would have been adopted long ago. “I got a call from the Vancouver Orphaned Kitten Rescue Association [VOKRA] a little short of a year ago,” she recalls. “They said, ‘We have a cat. He’s really sweet but afraid of big spaces, he can’t be placed with other cats or very young children, and he also has seizures.’”
Fortunately, Weslee’s epilepsy didn’t deter McArthur from taking him on. As an ER nurse, she thought, “It can’t be that bad.”
As it turns out, it isn’t. While epilepsy, as misunderstood as it is, can seem daunting, Weslee’s disorder, which is easily treated with lifelong medication (that he takes willingly, albeit with a treat) and regular veterinary checkups, includes seizures that are “not typical.” “They only happen when he’s asleep at night, and it’s very limited to muscle twitching – it kind of looks like he’s having a dream, except the way his muscles are firing off, you can tell there’s something else going on,” McArthur explains, adding that she prefers to have Weslee sleep with her so she can “feel” a particularly bad episode.
“When it’s worse than usual, I wake him up, simply because his tongue may be blocking his airway,” she says. “But he usually wakes up by himself. And when he does, it’s over.”
His condition aside, McArthur calls Weslee a “fun and happy guy” whose dominant trait is playfulness. Show him a feather wand, she says, and “it’s on – he will jump and twist with no regard to how he’s going to land. Luckily, he’s a cat, so it’s usually on all fours!”
Best of all, in the nine or 10 months that she’s had the shorthaired orange tabby, she’s seen him “slowly but surely come out of his bubble. He’s still cautious of some spaces – my porch freaks him out a little – but he does get used to them, so at this point I don’t think being in a bigger house would be a problem,” she says, adding that Weslee having been found as a kitten – alone in a boot factory – may contribute to his wariness.
“He’s just a really sweet, easygoing, affectionate guy with beautiful stripes and markings, white boots, cute markings on the sides of his face, and a nice, soft, white belly who is looking for a forever home,” says McArthur. “He’s a great companion and a really great friend to have around.”
Can you look past Weslee’s epilepsy and give him the loving forever home he’s been so patiently waiting for? Read his full profile on the VOKRA website, orphankittenrescue.com, where complete adoption details can also be found.
