Update: Bucky aka Kreach

Bucky (aka "4 ears", "yoda", "cutie", "kreacher", etc) has been on the road a bit lately and, as you can see, has acquired quite a few nicknames.

"Kreach", Bucky's most common nickname at my house (for the cat from Harry Potter), frequently comes to work with me since everyone loves him. Throughout the day, people come behind the front desk to ogle at and kiss this cute little guy. Kreach, of course, takes it all in stride.

A little over a week ago, we headed to our trusted vet, Dr. John at Tri County Animal Hospital, to get a better idea what was going on with this little guy. Kreach made quite an impression on Dr. John who said he had resisted the urge to do any research before seeing Kreach because he "wanted to be surprised." From the appointment, we gathered that Kreach definitely has some neurological issues which are obvious by the fact he cannot blink his left eye at all. Instead, Kreach has adapted by using his third eye lid to lubricate his eye. We are not really sure at this time what can be causing this or what else could be affected. Moving on with the eye issues, Kreacher also has cataracts already which could remain the way they are now or get progressively worse as he gets older. He also has limited vision, but since he's a just a baby, he seems to be adapting to this disability. He uses his whiskers a lot to feel around and those big ears to make up for his partial vision loss. On a good note though, his blood work came back well, leaving his stunted growth as a mystery for now. At our vet visit, he was less than 2lbs when he should be well over 3lb by now with his age.

More recently though, Kreach and I also went to a meeting recently for Joa’s Arc, which was much more along the lines of a gathering of the strange, special and unique. Oddly enough, it was the mostly "normal" cats at Jen S's house that seemed to intimidate Kreacher into staying put in his carrier instead of coming out to play. Apparently he'll take people coddling and cooing at him over his own species any day. Tweet This

Introducing Bucky

Meet Bucky!! Because of his little face and giant ears, people keep insisting I (Jen W of Joa’s Arc) name him "Yoda", but Bucky was the name I got him with and I like it more than "Yoda."

I first met this boy a couple weeks ago when he came into the Animal Welfare Association with his foster mom to be weighed and I just fell in love with his little face and squeaky meow (it's probably not a good idea for a "rescuer" to work for a shelter...). Within the last few days though, I've become Bucky's foster mom! His two "normal" siblings weighed enough to be spayed/neutered and put up for adoption, but this poor little guy was still too tiny. I more than happily offered to take him home with me.

Do you see anything a little off with this little kitten? No, not his tiny eyes. Keep looking! Real close! Ok, maybe I'm not being fair. It's a little hard to see the craziest thing about this kitten in that picture, so let me show you another and make it easier on you...

Four ears!

Yes, tiny little alien eyes (when he blinks, he doesn't really shut his eyes so much as he just folds his third eyelids over them), a little face, lots of fur and tiny little ear flaps behind his actual, normal ears!! Apparently, he's not the only one though. When first looking into this weird condition, I came across a fairly famous kitty who is named, surprisingly, Yoda! Upon further digging, I found this website which is really interesting and apparently Yoda is not the only kitty like my foster boy either: Feline Medical Curiosities: The Ears.

For now, Bucky's in foster care with Joa’s Arc because he seems to be a little slow developing. As I mentioned above, he had two siblings that seem to be completely normal and are an appropriate size for their age. Bucky on the other hand is still pretty tiny. Joa’s Arc is considering having a vet take a good look at Bucky and maybe take some blood work to see if he is maybe a bit abnormal on the inside as well.

Right now, like most kittens though, he likes exploring, wrestling and snuggling. He's a great little kitten! Tweet This