Rescue Journal

i am just going to say it just like it is.

Carol  ·  Jun. 2, 2013

there is no doubt that right now I am a bit of a freak over maybelle. and I will tell you why.

a lot of the animals come here with really sad tales..can't get much sadder than what happened to cc or rose or pops or cole.

but maybelle is different.

maybelle breaks my heart more than any animal here. with both she and Ollie, I could literally weep over the utter sadness associated with them.

maybelle has been profoundly physically and mentally disabled, almost mutilated...and it was done intentionally by human beings. she was bred specifically to have a concave face that she can only eat, drink and breathe with not only great difficulty but with great risk to her overall health too.

in order to achieve a certain breed specific look, her genes were manipulated to the point where she is not even close to a normal functioning cat..she absolutely could not survive an average cats life.

I tease her and Ollie too when he was alive and called them mushrooms with eyes. and I am not far off the mark on this,,these cats because of their pancake flat faces, because of the limited space to house their brains, because of the hydrocephalis bred into them to achieve the cute smooshed in faces and bugging eyes are functionally no different than severely affected downs syndrome children.

the difference is we don't breed down syndrome human children on purpose..but we do with some breeds of dogs and cats.

maybelle is as utterly vulnerable as a cat can possibly get and still be actually alive.
and she is so purely innocent, gentle and kind.

she is a cat who at great continued risk of aspiration and pneumonia, can barely ON A GOOD DAY eat or drink on her own..on a bad day when she is sick, she can't do either. she is a cat who pees where she sits and lays, she has no bladder control. the signals from her brain to her bladder just do not exist or at least not in any way that she can decipher.

it sucks that someone bred a cat who mostly cannot function in any normal cat way. it sucks she was purchased by people who did not understand what buying a cat bred like her meant. and it sucks that she had her toes amputated just to make her difficult life that much more difficult and challenging to live.

maybelle is a cat who needs to be carefully protected not from some outside harm but from the harm of being so intentionally and socially acceptably damaged...she was bred to be a purebred cat who is incapable of living like a cat.

our race bred her to be as broken as she could possibly be. our race bred her to make every single day of living her life as difficult as it could possibly be. our race chuckles when they see her alien, malformed face and head because she is so unnaturally homely that in our twisted eyes, she is appealing exotically different.

poor thing we might say in sympathy if we learn how difficult it is for her. but where is our outrage that as a society we continually mutilate other creatures thru breeding to achieve some totally nonfunctionable yet trendy and fashionable animal look?

what was done to maybelle is disgusting...we allow the breeding of a purebred, breed standard cat whose adult mental and functioning capacity is at the level of an infantile cat. she eats, she drinks, she breathes at great risk, she empties her bladder wherever she is. we have legally de-clawed her so she can't climb or jump to protect herself, and she can barely walk or run with any stability either.

all of it..absolutely every single bit is our INTENTIONAL doing..not one speck of it maybelle's own fault. she got exactly what we decided we wanted to deal to her...we have consigned her to being a living mushroom with eyes because we liked the look.

I am so ashamed of us.

love you maybelle, sweet, sweet girl.

Comments

Leila

Persy, being a Persian, has difficulty breathing because of his smooshed in face. His has little pin holes for nostrils and I can often hear what sounds like him struggling for breath. He can't even eat properly. I don't even know how he sleeps at night. It pisses me off that someone breed him so that he can't eat and breath properly. But I have to say, Persy is a very clever cat although I hate it when he poops in my tub or maybe he is being a clever cat there too.

pollyb

I wish i could just scream about this! So not an option to breed them. i would rant but it would not be good' poor critters ...
cheersPollyb

Fiona

I loved petting Ollie and Maybelle when I was working in the MP building. Breaks my heart to see how they suffer, so cruel.

Mo

I had the opportunity to hold and love up Maybelle on Sunday...what absolute darling..hope she is feeling better soon.

Debra

Maybelle (and Ollie) are such sweet affectionate kitties. I adore her. Actually I wasn't there this weekend to see the state she is in. Would bring me to tears. Hopefully I get to see Maybelle next week.
Carol, where did they come from? SPCA? Or ....

Maggie

I saw a documentary on the unprecedented weakening of the human male sperm. With any luck nature has had enough of us and is organizing a preemptive strike, the sooner the better.

Curt

She enjoyed a bit of brushing today. I noticed she is/was the worst I have seen of her (poor little gal)

Bridget

it makes me think of Lil Bub's owner, who flatly refused to breed her in spite of her unique look (caused by dwarfism. there is low bone marrow in bone cavities of her legs which have grown crooked, wide eyes, tiny body, no teeth). i think he was encouraged to because of how people reacted to how cute she can be.
nope. he openly supports and encourages spaying and neutering. but unlike Maybelle, it was not done deliberately- she was the runt of a litter whose genetic differences emerged as she grew. she will have problems, be arthritic early, and who knows what else.
as he says, there will only be one Bub. i think that's a good thing.

Penny

So tragic. It broke my heart today when I was petting Maybelle - to see her in the state she is right now. She doesn't understand why she's suffering. You just look in her precious little face to see the sweetness and innocence. Please get better, angel.

Sandi

Cows with udders so large they can barely stand when the udders are full, turkeys with breasts so large they can't breed & their legs can't hold them up, horses bred for racing with legs so fragile they easily break...

As a species, humans leave a lot to be desired.

Helga

These days more and more breeders are taking what are genetic abnormalities and playing around with them. Munchkins with their short legs are one example. Hairless Sphinx cats. One breeder on a documentary that aired a while ago compared breeding her oddball cats to a painter playing with a palette of possible combinations. No thought about quality of life her artwork would have. Just 'Hey, I can do this. Isn't it great!' It is disgusting.