Homeless Cat Opens Eyes For First Time After A Month

Aug 12, 2020 by apost team

Cotton, a stray cat that was rescued by Animal Friends Project, finally opened his eyes after a month.

Homeless animals often struggle to survive. While some are able to fend for themselves and find places to hide out bad weather and other misfortunes, it can be even more difficult for others. For instance, one cat, affectionately named Cotton, was feral for quite some time.

When rescuers caught him, they realized he had a variety of diseases and was extremely malnourished — so much so the team was not entirely certain that he would survive. Unfortunately for Cotton, his primary issue was mites. For a stray cat, parasites like this are pretty easy to come by. Poor Cotton had scabs over his eyes that were impairing his vision.

He couldn't even open his eyes, making it difficult for him to take care of himself. Rescuers said he would often try to scrounge for food, but without being able to see, it was a nearly impossible task. Thankfully, Carmen Weinberg of Animal Friends Project saw Cotton's struggle and decided to open her home to him.

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Carmen explained to iHeartCats that Cotton couldn't see a single thing. Cotton couldn't open his eyes because of the scabbing from the mites. In turn, he was severely underweight because he simply couldn't see to find food. Carmen explains, "It must have been so scary for him out there not being able to see. He was all alone..." Thankfully, she took him in and saw to it that he started to recover.

Cotton had a variety of medical issues and needed quite a lot of care when he came into Carmen's home. However, he was eternally grateful that someone chooses to take care of him. According to a post that Carmen made on Instagram when the vet started to examine him, he started to purr and clearly wanted to be loved. She had to regularly feed him to make sure that he steadily gained weight without overeating. Additionally, he had a fairly severe mange around his face and ears. Carmen worked diligently with her veterinarian office to treat his mange, using a combination of antibiotics, cat safe creams, and coconut oil.

Initially, Cotton had a hard time so much as sitting still. He was scratching at his mange, bug bites, and other skin issues constantly. But, after several days of treatment, everyone started to see him relax. As Carmen explains, "Cats like Cotton depend on people to heal, because they cannot always ask for help... I'm sure so many people passed him by because of how sick he looked, but he was just waiting for someone to give him a chance."

Despite the fact Carmen and the rescue team were not certain that Cotton would be able to pull through, given all of his conditions, Cotton was determined. When he first started to be able to open his eyes, no one was certain that he would be able to see properly. As Carmen said, "We thought he was blind, and that he would be blind forever. The vet thought that even when his eyes recovered they might be damaged, but they weren't."

When Cotton finally opened his eyes, Carmen and the rescue team discovered he had gorgeous heterochromia. "It was beautiful," she said. One of his eyes is hazel, while the other was blue. Over time, they determined he could see again, and, as he was nursed back to health, he became a very affectionate, playful cat.

Ultimately, the moral of this story is to pay attention to those around you, especially those, like animals, who may not be able to ask for help. They're often friendly, affectionate, and scared — it's a lot like us going to the doctor. We're scared to ask for the help that we need because we don't know how to guarantee the outcome.

Let us know what you think of Cotton's recovery below! Have you ever seen eyes as gorgeous as his? Better yet, have you ever rescued a cat and gotten a lovely surprise?