Intentionally Blinded in Her Right Eye and Justifiably Scared to Death of People, Candy Cane Is Saved by the Combined Efforts of a Fosterer, a Shelter, and Her New Guardians

Candy Cane Was Robbed of Her Right Eye by an Unknown Assailant

 "When Candy Cane came to me, she'd lost her trust in humans and was very nervous. She would run and hide when I'd come into the room..."

-- Wendy Penfold

Contrary to what an awful lot of people in this world believe, injured, homeless, and frightened kittens are not for killing. On the contrary, all of them can be treated, socialized, and then fairly quickly placed in loving homes.

All that is needed is for individuals of good will to throw away their bottles of sodium pentobarbital, change their ways of thinking, and to be willing to invest the funds, time, and effort that are required in order to put back together the fractured lives of these cats and kittens. The stellar job that Blue Cross animal charity did with a brown kitten with black markings named Candy Cane is a rather poignant example of what is preeminently possible.

Absolutely nothing is known about her previous life before she wound up at Blue Cross's Rehoming Centre in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, sometime earlier this year. It was painfully obvious from the outset, however, that she had been horribly abused.

For example, her right eye had been ruptured and that necessitated that the charity's first order of business was to surgically remove it. That in turn automatically made her a member of this world's burgeoning legions of one-eyed cats.

None of the specifics have been revealed, but it is difficult to fathom how that a kitten could wind up with a ruptured eye unless she had been attacked by an assailant. Typically, the individual responsible for robbing her of her right eye never has been so much as identified, let alone arrested and punished.

The punks, ornithologists, wildlife biologists, gardeners, and other assorted low-lives who get their perverted kicks by blinding kittens and cats thus have gotten away scot-free with the commission of another of their heinous crimes. (See Cat Defender posts of February 26, 2022 and July 10, 2022 entitled, respectively, "Intentionally Blinded, Crippled, and Abandoned to Freeze to Death in a Locked Cage at a Rest Stop on Interstate 95 in Connecticut, Highway Not Only Perseveres but Now Has Hope for a Brighter Tomorrow" and "Unspeakably Mutilated and Then Dumped to Die All Alone with His Pain in the Bitter Cold, Highway Amazingly Defies the Odds and Now Has a New Guardian, a Home, and a Second Chance at Life.")

Although to have been robbed of the vision in her right eye was tragic enough in its own right, the attack and whatever other abuses and deprivations that she may have been subjected to also left her psychologically scarred on the inside as well. Blue Cross accordingly realized that before it could place her in a new home it first had to help her to overcome her, albeit totally justified, fear of humans.

Toward that end, it handed her over to Wendy Penfold of Kent who graciously consented to foster her.  "When Candy Cane came to me, she'd lost her trust in humans and was very nervous," she confided to Your Cat magazine of Bourne in Lincolnshire on June 9th. (See "One-Eyed Cat Finds New Forever Home.") "She would run and hide when I'd come into the room...")

The measures that she therefore undertook in order to draw Candy Cane out of her shell of fear and social isolation serve as a layman's primer on how to socialize kittens and cats with a minimal amount of effort and in a relatively short span of time. Her efforts also serve as a repudiation of all those who falsely claim that previously abused, abandoned, frightened, and standoffish cats cannot be socialized and therefore must be killed.

Candy Cane in Her New Home in Hampshire

First of all, she became a part of Candy Cane's environment. "...by the end of her time with me, she became more inquisitive to know what I'm doing and staying in the same area as me," Penfold disclosed to Your Cat.

Despite whatever proponents of TNR may claim to the contrary, such an approach also works with those cats that belong to managed colonies. It does require, however, that caretakers be willing to invest substantially more time and effort in them than just merely dropping off kibble and water once a day and then hightailing it back to their human retreats.

Au contraire, they need to spend several hours a day with the cats under their care. For instance, they could spend three hours with them in the morning when they feed them and an additional three hours with them when they feed them again in the evening.

They also could bring along with them treats and toys in order to keep the cats interested in them. The more time that caretakers spend with them, the more sociable the cats will become and the quicker that they can be moved into homes. For those individuals who become easily bored, they could put the additional time that they spend with their cats to good use by catching up on their reading; listening to a radio and gassing on the telephone is not only rude but demonstrates a lack of interest in them.

The fault that more of these deserving cats are not adopted rests with caretakers who are unwilling to spend time with them. Being actively involved in the colonies that they are supposed to be watching over also would help to substantially cut down on the myriad of crimes that are perpetrated against their charges by both humans and other animals, such as dogs, coyotes, fishers, raccoons, skunks, and foxes.

Secondly, since Candy Cane was prone to run and hide from her, Penfold improvised a clever way of making herself an indispensable part of her environment but in a non-threatening manner. "After the first week of hardly moving from her hiding hole, she discovered the benefits of the tall cat climber in her run where she was out of reach and could watch everything going on at a safe distance," she continued to Your Cat.  

Thirdly, Penfold artfully employed the services of her own cat, Rita, in order to help socialize Candy Cane. "I think Rita helped lure Candy forward in the pen as I would sit and stroke or play with Rita in a corridor so Candy could see I was a nice person with to be around cats," she explained to the London Metro on May 23rd. (See "Adorable One-Eyed Kitten Finds Forever Home.")

There are, of course, far more sophisticated and quicker ways of socializing cats but most of them involve bending them to their caretakers' will through starvation. That is a common tactic used by circuses and stage performers but it is cruel and exploitative.

With cats it is far preferable to gain their trust over an extended period of time by dealing with them in a caring and forthright manner. It is slower and more work to be sure, but the rewards are greater.

Candy Cane Has a Playmate Who Will Not Talk Her Ears Off

Penfold's stratagem has worked so well that Candy Cane has been adopted by an unidentified couple that resides somewhere in the county of Hampshire, located on the English Channel in southeast England, roughly one-hundred- twenty-three kilometers south of Hitchin. No other details regarding either them or Candy Cane's new life have been publicly disclosed.

"Candy's new owners are happy to give her the space and time to see how she can settle in a family home," Penfold added to Your Cat. "They understand she may never be a lap cat, but want to love her and let her know this is a safe place for her."

Although very appreciative of Penfold's fine work, the Blue Cross's Sarah Miller is a bit more cautious. "Wendy has done an amazing job for Candy Cane and even though the steps might seem small, they have been huge for her," she acknowledged to Your Cat. "We hope that over time she will build up a relationship and trust with her new owners."

In that same vein, hopefully both Miller and Penfold have impressed upon Candy Cane's new guardians not only that adoption should be forever but, just as importantly, that there are adverse consequences associated with bandying a cat about between multiple failed adoptions, various foster homes, and frequent return trips to a shelter. For example, a few years back Yorkshire Cat Rescue in Keighley, West Yorkshire, transformed Harvey's already traumatic life into a living hell through its inability to place him in a permanent home. (See Cat Defender posts of August 31, 2017, March 12, 2018, July 29, 2019, and October 27, 2020, entitled, respectively, "With His Previous Owner Long Dead and Nobody Seemingly Willing to Give Him a Second Chance at Life, Old and Ailing Harvey Has Been Sentenced to Rot at a Shelter in Yorkshire," "Much Like a Nightmare That Stubbornly Refuses to End, Harvey Continues to Be Shuttled from One Home to Another at the Expense of His Health and Well-Being," "Repeatedly Shunned, Maligned, and Bandied About from One Place to Another, Harvey Is Now Engaged in the Most Important Battle of His Life," and "Noble and Courageous Harvey Who So Desperately Wanted to Go on Living Is Instead Unforgivably Betrayed and Killed Off by His Foster Mother and Yorkshire Cat Rescue.")

Although the importance of proper socialization cannot be underestimated, all cats have their own unique personalities and past histories and consequently individuals need to learn to love them on their own terms. For true aficionados of the species, whether or not a cat is loving is of little consequence; just having it around is more than sufficient.

C'est-à-dire, keeping a cat magically transforms returning to an empty house each evening into a homecoming. "There is something about the presence of a cat...that seems to take the bite out of being alone," is how that Louis J. Camuti, who holds the rare distinction of being America's first cats-only veterinarian, once summed up the matter. (See his 1962 tome, Park Avenue Vet and his 1980 autobiography, All My Patients Are Under the Bed: Memoirs of a Cat Doctor.")

That which is difficult to comprehend is how that fosterers, such as Penfold, are able to so readily relinquish custody of their charges. They surely must realize that considerably less caring and knowledgeable individuals are destined to adopt them and, in many instances, to undo not only their meticulous work but also to fail to take proper care of them.

Perhaps they rationalize that by fostering innumerable kittens and cats they are therefore able to save many more lives than they ordinarily could do by adopting only a handful of those that so desperately need homes. Regardless of their motivation, fostering has become an invaluable tool in not only the socialization and healing processes of kittens like Candy Cane but, much more importantly, in saving feline lives.

Candy Cane has had a cruel introduction to this wicked old world but, hopefully, the worst is now behind her. All that she really needs in order to make a go of things is time and the fidelity of her new caretakers.

Photos: Your Cat (Candy Cane in an Elizabethan Collar and in her new home) and Blue Cross (Candy Cane with her new playmate).