I do not know as i would call Sparky "handicapped" - maybe more of a square peg...born into a world where he didn't quite fit. He was definately one of a kind. Medically, he had all sorts of oddities - mostly unexplainable - evenso that just a few weeks ago the vet and i agreed him to be ridden with some sort of autoimmune condition which we could only wonder at. Sparky was born into a very feral colony. But, where his littermates learned from behaviors of the older cats, Sparky just sat back and takes his surrounds in and interperts them in his own unique way. As a feral kitten, he decided to stand right out in sight and talk to those two legged creatures. My understanding has always been that sparky saw himself as a king or prince or one entitled to finer things and treatment. he had no desire to run about hiding from things, chasing things, living in dirt. He wanted to tell the people "hey. feed me. hold me. answer to my call." So, I obeyed Sparky and took him and his brother home. Sparky believed himself to have powers above royalty. He seemed to beleive he had the power of being invisible. Or maybe he was just so caught up in the wonders of his own artistic mind that he didn't relate to the world around him as others do. Anyway, he was one of those that once made, the mold was broken.
I fed Sparky on the window sill - he always wants to eat on a counter and always dumps the dish all over the floor- but the window sill was very wide so i did not put him on the floor this time and let him enjoy his dinner window-side. I went downstairs to tend to the outdoor cats some more. I returned upstairs about 30 minutes later to find Sparky lying on the floor, panting heavily. He survived the ride to the vet office but it was determined that he had thrown a blood clot and was suffering in pain and there was no possible treatment that would render a good outcome. At least it was while I was there and it was a day I was taking the time with the cats - not rushing about and saying "I cannot hold you now sparky..." Still, noone will ever fill sparky's shoes.
