Django sat motionless in his cage and stared into the middle distance. It was as if he was trapped in a bubble of sadness and had serenely accepted his fate.
 
Despite his coat of driven snow and hypnotic eyes - one blue and one yellow - Django was not the easiest rescue cat to re-home. When he was surrendered to a council shelter in 2018, Django was about 14 years old. No one knew his precise age but he was completely deaf, underweight and suffering from as yet undiagnosed hyperthyroidism.
 
As well as losing his home, Django’s brother, with whom he was one half of a bonded pair, had recently died. It was no wonder that he appeared to feel very alone and a little lost in his ever silent world.
 
At least Django was largely oblivious to the best efforts of his noisy neighbour to, well, rattle his cage. The jet black cat in the adjoining cage clearly didn’t like Snow White being in such close proximity and hissed and spat at him at every opportunity. Django could certainly sense the war of attrition but at least he couldn’t hear it.
 
I rescued Django and he now lives in Sydney’s eastern suburbs with a much bigger but not at all noisy companion; a black cocker spaniel, herself a rescue dog, who is the most gentle soul imaginable.
 
On his arrival, Django quickly adopted a routine that Count Dracula would have been proud of; hiding in various dimly lit recesses by day only to emerge after dark to converse with the night sky or perhaps the heavens. To varying degrees, this continued for several months. It illustrates the patience that is often required of adopters of cats with special needs or those whose often unhappy former lives can mean their confidence and trust in humans is low and requires careful reconstruction.
 
It’s well worth considering adopting a special needs cat including those, like Django, who are in their twilight years. He has well and truly pierced his bubble of sadness and is now bursting with happiness and confidence. Our house sitter has dubbed him ‘noisy boy’ as he happily chunters away as if addressing a large open air rally without a microphone. He’s certainly a cat whose life, post-rescue, has been turned up to eleven!
 
Gordon McDowall for FFARQ
16 May 2019

What’s black and white, has 2 hearts, 7 legs and 15 lives left? Give up? It’s our resident
besties, Tilly and Steve.

It’s a condition of adoption from Furry Friends ARQ that all cats are indoor only. Tilly is a
perfect example of why we insist on this rule. She was hit by a car, an accident that mangled her back legs so badly that one had to be amputated. She was surrendered to the Animal Welfare League (AWL), and then adopted by another family who also let her roam outside. Again, Tilly had another altercation with a car that saw the remaining back leg broken.

Due to the cost of the medical care, she was again surrendered to the AWL, who took a
chance to save the second leg with surgical reconstruction. After eight weeks in plaster and crate rest, Tilly the Tripod recovered and came into our care in 2016. 

It was when Tilly was moved to her new foster carer’s place that she met her partner in crime, Steve. Steve suffered a bout of cat flu at around six months old, so severe that the vet considered euthanising him. Furry Friends ARQ rescued him in May 2016 and he’s been with Tilly ever since.

Tilly required a lot of rehabilitation after her second accident, and Steve has been there for
her during this time. He gentle played with her, helped her when she needed it and was
always mindful of not hurting her. This might have backfired on him a bit – Tilly is now very
confident and surprisingly fast on her three legs, and not afraid to chase Steve and boss him around. She needs the occasional assistance getting onto sofas, or through the cat door to their outdoor enclosure, but apart from that is mostly self-reliant.

Both Tilly and Steve have defied the odds, and despite their past experiences are cheeky,
affectionate and playful. They are still young cats at around three years old, and with the
right care they will live together for a long time to come. They are looking for a special
family to adopt them as a bonded pair, to love them both and give them the care and
attention they deserve.

Find out more about their personalities by checking out their profiles.

Steve's Profile: bit.ly/Steve0516
Tilly's Profile: bit.ly/Tilly0516
​
#tilly0516 #tillythetripod #adoptdontshop #Steve0516

At a New York care home for people with Alzheimer’s disease, an elderly female resident tries in vain to find her long-deceased parents. She becomes increasingly distressed but rather than being sedated is given an elaborate toy cat that responds to her touch and purrs. As she pats the robot cat, a sense of calm returns to her recently imploding world.
​
In Australia, more than 62% of households own a pet. It’s not that long ago that the idea of companion animals making an important contribution to human well-being, especially mental health, would have been dismissed as, well, all a bit fluffy. Now there is a growing body of evidence that animal-human interactions can promote a sense of calm, improved self-worth and reduce anxiety, depression and loneliness. It’s perhaps not surprising then that the benefits of these interactions are gaining traction, not only in households, but also in various therapeutic settings such as nursing homes and hospitals. Animal-assisted therapy is helping to improve patients’ mental, physical, social and emotional functioning.

The terms ‘therapy animal’ and ‘assistance animal’ are often used interchangeably. While definitions and norms differ from country to country, fundamentally they are two different things. In general, assistance animals are dogs or other animals that are individually trained to perform tasks for people with disabilities. In Australia, only assistance animals are legally defined and protected under disability discrimination laws. Examples include guide dogs for the blind and, particularly in the United States, ‘psychiatric service’ dogs to assist ex-service personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Dogs have been used as assistance and therapy animals for some time. The role of cats as therapy animals is not yet at such a developed stage, probably by virtue of their independence, sharp claws and general reluctance to enter a cat carrier!

However, the tide might be starting to turn. In South Australia, a community based provider of psychological treatment programs has established “Australia’s first Cat Relaxation Room” in which three trained therapy cats complement mindfulness activities, mediation and yoga.
​
Over in New York, like many patients with memory loss, the distressed woman is only intermittently aware that her feline comforter is a toy. It might not be real therapy cat but it’s providing safe and real therapeutic benefits. And perhaps that’s all that really matters.