Hello! Meet Sugar... my fourth cat and the newest member of my family.

Last fall, an all white female kitten with blue eyes began visiting my patio. I keep fresh dry cat food and fresh water available on my patio, daily, year-around, for the neighborhood "strays", because I am sympathetic to their plight.

Sugar was afraid, mal-nourished, dirty, and ill (she had a cold). Based on her physical condition, I quickly surmised that Sugar was homeless.

Through observation, I soon learned that aside from her other problems, Sugar is deaf. Deafness in cats is often hereditary, and as such, is most commonly found in white cats with blue eyes.

Handicapped animals usually don't survive for long on their own. I had two options... I could rescue Sugar and release her to the local animal shelter or I could adopt her. Because of her handicap, I chose the latter.

Even if the local animal shelter was able to find a home for Sugar, I knew I could provide the safest home for her. My cats never go outside.

Unfortunately, our local animal shelter cannot cope adequately with the huge numbers of kittens and cats they take in each year. Most of the cats and kittens are humanely euthanized.

This fact, sad but true, is due to irresponsible pet owners. Once the many cute, cuddly kittens become sexually active adult cats... they are often banished from their homes to live out their lives on the streets. Being prolific breeders, homeless cats spawn new generations of homeless cats.

The solution to this problem is to spay and neuter all kittens and cats, except breed-specific kittens and cats owned by reputable, registered cat breeders.

After giving my veterinarian a "heads up", I managed to capture Sugar. I immediately took her to the animal clinic. My vet ran some tests on Sugar, to determine her general good health.

As soon as my veternarian gave me the "green light", Sugar was spayed, innoculated, de-wormed, and de-flead. Two days later, I brought Sugar home to introduce her to my other three cats.

Due to Sugar's handicap, I was anticipating some detrimental behavior problems... but so far, none have surfaced. Sugar is an intelligent, confident, well-adjusted, gentle, loving little girl. After a brief period of alienation, exhibited by all, Sugar and my other cats are now fast friends. Fanci, my other female, who also happens to be my oldest cat, was a little difficult, but she has come around. I just simply ignored them all, and let them work it out amongst themselves.

Sugar enjoys spending time with me (at her discretion), curled on my lap or chest, or resting on my shoulder, all while purring loudly. When she has not seen me for a while, Sugar meows quite loudly and sharply (I suppose, because she cannot hear herself) in greeting, and then she saunters over for an ear-scratch. Otherwise, Sugar doesn't have much to say. I have never heard her making the little, soft chortling noises most female cats make (such as when calling their kittens)... probably because Sugar has never heard these other, small, softer cat sounds before.

Sugar's ears twitch and turn, as if she is hearing sounds, but I believe she is simply reacting to vibrations in the air or on the surface upon which she is standing or resting. For safety, I taught Sugar two hand signals which are, of course, effective only if she is looking at me. One hand signal tells Sugar emphatically "no", while the other hand signal tells Sugar to "come" to me.

I don't pretend to know what a silent world is like for a cat, but because cats rely heavily on their acute sense of hearing... life for a deaf cat must seem somewhat foreign.

Occasionally, Sugar does things which seem out-of-character for a cat. I have concluded these out-of-character behaviors are in some way related to Sugar's deafness.

Sugar is easily distracted by her own shadow on the floor or on a wall or piece of furniture. As an example, if her shadow falls on the floor in front of her when she is walking or running, Sugar trips or stumbles over it, as if her shadow were an obstacle. If Sugar's shadow falls behind her, where she cannot see it, she walks or runs smoothly and gracefully. The correlation between Sugar's shadow and her hearing handicap eludes me, but I hope to figure it out one day.

After witnessing Sugar tripping over her own shadow, some visitors to my home have asked me if she has a "motor skill" problem... prompting me to explain about Sugar's hearing handicap.

If you are contemplating adopting or rescuing a physically or mentally challenged animal, please don't hesitate. Remember that all living creatures need love, kindness, care, and understanding to grow and flourish.

The rewards for adopting or rescuing a physically or mentally challenged animal far out-weigh any problems you may encounter. Go for it!