This Senior Cat Is Actually Happier Than Ever After Losing His Ears

January 30, 2017

There's an old nursery rhyme that some parents still sing to their babies when they're born: Ten little fingers, ten little toes, two little ears and one little nose. It goes on, but you get the idea; it's a reminder that everything is accounted for and in its right place.

After that moment, you generally don't think about your appendages unless there's a problem with them. Otherwise, they're the easiest things to take for granted. But if you were to lose something as basic as one of your senses, it can be devastating.

Otitis the cat didn't let that stop him, though. When he developed cysts in his ears—and veterinarians had no choice but to remove them—he lost one of the trademark features that makes a cat, a cat. But his story didn't end there. Soon, he would meet somebody that would appreciate him for the sweet, if unusual-looking, cat that he was!

Otitis was an ordinary house cat that lived with a loving family until cysts developed in his ears. He was in horrible pain, but his family couldn't afford the necessary surgery, so they had to make the heartbreaking decision to surrender him to the Feline Rescue Association of Baltimore.

"His foster family told me that he was in so much pain with his cysts that he never played and moved as minimally as possible," Molly Lichtenwalner, Otitis's new owner, said in an interview. "Now he's constantly running around and playing and loving life, so much happier without his ears."

Molly grew up with a deaf sheep dog, and she always wanted to care for a pet with special needs.

Despite being 10 years old and deaf, Otitis was still as active and affectionate as ever, and he loved being in his new home.