Does anyone have a deaf white cat?

I'm doing a blog for my new puppy, Castiel, a white great dane who is almost certainly deaf. I'm talking about deafness in animals, the training of a deaf dog, animals in general and breeders who 'cull' white animals for fear of deafness. In the future, I'd love to do a blog post on a deaf (or blind) white cat and I'm wondering if anyone has a kitty that they'd be willing to tell me about? I'm looking specifically for whites because of the issues of congenital deafness in animals who lack pigment.

I don't know much about deafness in cats, so feel free to enlighten me.

I hope this sort of post is allowed. If not, please delete.

I think WhiteCatLover has experience. Slight change of subject, have you read Amazing Gracie, A Dog's Tale, by Dan Dye and Mark Beckloff. It's about a deaf and partially blind albino Great Dane with sky blue eyes. Adopting her led directly to the founding of Three Dog Bakery - Gracie was also a very picky eater.

I thought it was a lovely, inspiring book - of course, I cried like a baby toward the end.

Haven't read the book yet, but I'm familiar with Three Dog Bakery.

I tend to avoid books about animals because the endings always make me bawl like a baby.

I know - and I agree - even Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul has me in tears every other page. But I did like this book about Gracie - she did as much for Dan and Mark's lives as they did for her life. And, truly, working to find something Gracie would eat was the foundation of what became Three Dog Bakery - that alone is an inspiring story of love, perseverance and the courage needed to take a chance on life.

Good luck with all your babies.

Well, so far, so good. Adding the newest cats actually fixed life-long behaviour issues in one of our older cats (not that I'd recommend adding new animals as a cure to behaviour issues, normally I'd recommend the opposite, but we'd basically given up on correcting Shini's issues with other animals and with people) which was a total shock. Sheer luck showed us MALP's allergy and Castiel's story is 100% pure serendipity. I think the current status of our animals is the most luck anyone could ever ask for in a lifetime (if only it would rub off on things like lottery tickets!)

We actually already had 4 cats when we adopted Clyde, our deaf odd-eyed white cat.

We certainly weren't looking to add another cat, but his buddy had died, and his owner said he was just not handling it well. His former owner works with my DH and I told her we would take him, because what he needed was other cats to be his ears. And we've had him for about 4 years, I think, and he's soooo happy now!!!

I'm really glad he's happy. How old was he when you got him?

I think he was about 8. He actually had been a stray, and the former owners returned from a vacation to him yowling in their crawl space. They got him neutered and fixed up, and had him for about 5 years.

He sounds like such a sweetie. Do you notice a lot of differences between him and your hearing kitties? Sorry to keep asking questions, but I'm trying to learn as much as I can about deaf animals and there's less out there about deaf kitties than deaf puppies, even.

The main annoyance from what I can tell would be that the animal never knows how loudly it is barking/meowing, and at times when the animal is out of contact with its people, it might make quite some noise until it finds its people. I would guess being around other cats would help alleviate that, both for a cat and your dog since he will grow up with the cats around.

Originally Posted by Thoenix

He sounds like such a sweetie. Do you notice a lot of differences between him and your hearing kitties? Sorry to keep asking questions, but I'm trying to learn as much as I can about deaf animals and there's less out there about deaf kitties than deaf puppies, even.

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I do notice that when he gets "lost" he puts out the panic call pretty quickly. If it's night out, I just flash the lights in the room I am in and he can find me. Or I stomp on the floor. About the only other thing is that he looks at FACES a lot more intently than the other cats. He will look right in your eyes to see what your mood is, apparently. Other than sleeping a lot more deeply, and snoring, there aren't a lot of differences. I love that he feels comfortable enough to just fall into a deep sleep.

Along time ago my Uncle had an all white cat with blue eyes that was deaf. They live on a lake, the cat never had a problem jumping in and catching fish. I don't really know much else, because this cat died before I was born. But I know the cat's always catching fish made my Uncle impressed.

I have 2 deaf white cats - deaf/white cats will always hold my heart.

Ophelia Rose is a senior who was a feral I got at 3 years of age....she's now around 9 - 10 yeas old???

Twitch is also a senior who I got as an 8 week old kitten, she was born on the farm here.

Both are very different, yet so alike. They do not relate well to *most* other cats to different extents.....yet both live in my household w/ 11 cats. Twitch is crabby towards other cats, but not too bad. She likes to yowl at them. Ophelia Rose is bloodthirsty - she has serious injured several other cats in her lifetime (like put stitches in them). She doesn't mind certain cats, but takes a very long time to warm up to newbies (dislikes females, tolerates males).

Ophelia still spooks a little bit when petted, Twitch hardly even wakes from a nap. Overall, with all the fosters (cats & dogs) over the years coming & going, they've done well.

When Twitch yells at other animals - she is REALLY loud. She never purrs & rarely lets out loud meows when playing. She also had genetically bad teeth (bad when she was 1 y.o) & has had them removed.

Ophelia Rose will scream bloody murder at night, she "talks" when she plays at night. While she is lonely being alone, she is very picky about her feline friends. Simply because she cannot her them coming (IMO), from living on her own she freaks & attacks when they "sneak up" on her.

ETA: Both are blue eyed.

You may want to PM Kiwideus - she also has two congenitally deaf white kitties (I think it's two of them - at least one).

We have a deaf white cat, though as she can hear some frequencies, we think hers is due to a severe herpes infection prior to her rescue (feral kitty rescue), not that she was born deaf.

She's the opposite of Nat's in that she is really good with other cats. She doesn't go out of her way to be nice to new additions or fosters, but no cat has ever disliked her. She's also VERY playful, and she runs and romps around like nuts with our two other playful cats. We rescued her at 7 or 8 weeks old, and she turned 7 this past summer.

Flowerbelle doesn't spook very easily. When we get out the vacuum, the others run - she doesn't notice them running (she also only has one eye) - and if she does, she seems to wonder what the fuss is about.

And while she does have the cutest trills and merps and sounds she makes, I'd have to agree that sometimes she isn't aware of how loud she's being, because she can really belt it out when she wants attention.

She talks with her paw ALL the time. She waves it at us for attention, she pokes it at us to wake us up, she uses it very expressively. She's ambidextrous.

She also LOVES to be very high up. Especially in the corner of a room or up against a far wall. When we noticed this, we made sure to have places for her to go "up" at room edges and corners where possible. I always assumed this was because of her deafness. My theory is that she likes to be able to see all the comings and goings because she can't hear them.

Some with deaf kitties have "stomp" trained them (to call them or say "no" with various stomp combinations). As Flowerbelle can hear certain frequencies, we're able to get her attention with a kind of high-pitched clicking noise.

I'm sure there's a deaf kitty Yahoo group - you may want to look into that.

Flowerbelle talking with her paw:

My sister has a deaf white cat. She got him from her local animal shelter as a kitten. She didn't believe me at first when I told her that her new kitten is deaf. I know she stomps on her floor sometimes to attract his attention.
All I know when she brings him here he is a big PITA!! This christmas he broke three things at my house. Since he doesnt hear anything he knocks over to reinforce or scare him from doing it again. He just seems to slink around my house being evil.....

Flowerbelle loves to push things off of tables. She may not hear it hit the floor - but we do. It's another one of her ways of getting attention.

Originally Posted by LDG

Flowerbelle loves to push things off of tables.

She may not hear it hit the floor - but we do. It's another one of her ways of getting attention.

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Ophelia & Twitch, too - they watch it fall & you can just see them thinking "huh - so gravity DOES still apply!".

Oh wow! Clyde knocks things off of horizontal surfaces too. And very deliberately, too!

Originally Posted by kluchetta

Oh wow! Clyde knocks things off of horizontal surfaces too. And very deliberately, too!

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It usually goes like this @ my house.

1) shove object off counter/table/etc
2) look at person
3) look at object on floor
4) look at person
5) walk two steps further
6) shove next object off counter
7) look at person
8) look at object on floor

I'd keep going but you get the picture. It's like gravity is the single most miraculous thing in the world.

Originally Posted by white cat lover

It usually goes like this @ my house.

1) shove object off counter/table/etc
2) look at person
3) look at object on floor
4) look at person
5) walk two steps further
6) shove next object off counter
7) look at person
8) look at object on floor

I'd keep going but you get the picture.

It's like gravity is the single most miraculous thing in the world.

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Look, Mom, I discovered gravity!