Karen Hemza, of St. Anne, has been trapping stray cats for 12 years. She takes them in for medical checkups, gets them spayed or neutered, and tries to get them adopted into local homes.
Throughout those years, she's worked with hundreds of cats, but she never saw one like Stevie, a 6-week-old yellowish brown guy with a hesitatingly playful demeanor. When she took him to the VCA-County West Animal Hospital in Kankakee, Dr. Ed Holub's diagnosis came as a shock.
Stevie was born without eyelids. He can't blink. He can't close his eyes for a cat nap. To block out the light, he just squints.
"He would be blind by now if Dr. Holub and our friends at VCA [County West] hadn't stepped in," Hemza said. "Stevie's eyes would just get drier and drier. He would rub them. It would be a matter of time until he couldn't see anymore."
Instead, Stevie was taken in by foster pet parents, Joelle Warwick and Samantha Rich, of Momence. They've been applying an eye creme every three or four hours, and they've been waiting, hoping the staff at VCA County West could find surgical specialists who would take on the challenge of what is called Eyelid Agenesis.
The repair procedure has been done in some larger metropolitan veterinary surgical centers over the past eight years, but the condition is rare and expensive. The process involves taking tissue from the cat's mouth and connecting it with muscles that still are in place around the eyes.
Hemza, Warwick and Rich agreed that finding a willing surgeon at Purdue was a lifesaver for Stevie.
"They gave us a real good price, but we still need to raise some money," Hemza said. "People who love cats or people who know what it's like to have eye problems can just donate to Sunrise Center Animal Rescue.
"The surgery is set for Dec. 8, and we're going to need almost $1,000," she said, noting other surgical centers' cost estimates were much higher.
Meanwhile, Rich and Warwick will maintain Stevie's pre-surgery routine.
"He's grown a lot over the weeks he's been with us," Warwick said. "He eats good. He's good using the litter box. And he wants to be playful, but you can tell he just doesn't see things too good.
"We have other animals in the house, so he spends a lot of time in his big dog crate," she added. "He'd like to be out more, but it wouldn't be safe with his vision. He's got his crazy side, though. We found him hanging from his claws in the top of the cage the other day. We think he's part monkey."
For his part, Stevie takes his medicine without a lot of resistance. He tends to brush his paw across his eyes, apparently trying to clear his vision. But he quickly goes back to chasing his toys, and batting at Warwick's fingers.
Stevie will go back to Warwick and Rich's care when he's released from the Purdue clinic. When he no longer needs follow-up care, he'll be eligible for adoption.
