When Gwen Cooper first met Homer, a tiny kitten, he had been turned down for adoption repeatedly. But Cooper was smitten by the spunky little cat, and overlooked the challenges posed by a special-needs pet. Little did she know that Homer was about to change her life. Cooper tells the heartwarming story in her bestselling book Homer's Odyssey (Bantam), just published in paperback. TIME senior reporter Andrea Sachs, a fellow cat lover, had a chance to visit with the author in Manhattan:
TIME: How did Homer come into your life?
Gwen Cooper: Homer was found as a two-week-old kitten. He was wandering the streets of Miami and he was found by a couple who were planning to adopt him. He had a very bad eye infection. So they brought him to the vet who was treating my other two cats. And she, upon examining him, determined that the infection was far enough progressed that the only way to save his life was to remove the eyes altogether, at which point they pretty much begged her to put him to sleep. They just thought, what kind of a life will a blind cat have?
But your vet decided to treat him anyway?
She had the couple sign him over to her care. She performed the surgery pro bono, and set about trying to find someone to adopt him. She had a whole list of people who had said they would adopt a special needs cat, but nobody wanted this cat. She took out ads, she hit up friends from veterinary school, she put up flyers, the whole thing. And just got refusal after refusal. Finally she called me.
And what were you thinking as you were listening to your vet tell you this story?
I had two cats already. I had just broken up with my fiancé. I was staying in a friend's spare bedroom, while I sort of tried to figure my life out. So she called and she told me this story. And I am a sucker from way back. Just a typical bleeding heart; the more hard knocks there are in a story, the more susceptible I am. And she's telling me this story and I'm in tears, but also am thinking this is a really bad time for me to adopt a third cat, especially a cat with special needs. But I saw him and he was so little and happy and sweet. I just fell in love with him.
So how did you start to take care of him?
There were certain things that struck me as common sense. When I first brought him home and took him out of the carrier, I put him directly into his litter box so that he would know where it was, and as he walked around he could remember in a way that made sense for him where the litter box was. I did the same thing with the food and water. And even now to this day whenever I bring him to a new space that's what I do.
Did he get along with your other two cats?
Well, as you know, cats have very distinct personalities, and so Vashti, my middle cat, was just such a sweet girl and very gentle. Scarlett is a cat who does not like other cats or people, or pretty much anyone except me and food. She's just very reserved and very aloof. But it's interesting because Homer really wanted to hang out with Scarlett a lot more than Vashti, because Vashti is so sweet and so gentle and Homer is a very rambunctious, boyish cat. And Scarlett always gave him the hardest time.
But Scarlett's being aloof actually worked out to Homer's advantage.
I think he really learned at a very young age to do a lot more, to jump and climb and to be fearless in that sense, than he might have otherwise. He was just always trying to keep up with Scarlett. I'm sure he was thinking, well if Scarlett can jump up there then I can jump there. Or if Scarlett climbs, then I can climb it.
Do you think that, after reading the book, there are people who are more open to the idea of adopting a special needs pet?
I do hear from people all the time who have read the book and have chosen to adopt a blind or differently abled cat. Homer has a tremendous social network at this point. He has about 15,000 Facebook friends and fans and another 5,000 following him on Twitter. And I have a blog on my website at www.GwenCooper.com.
What would you say to someone who might have considered adopting a special-needs pet, but chose to adopt a more "normal" one instead?
There are no bad adoptions. There are so many factors that come into play when you're adopting a pet, and you have to make the decisions that are right for you at the time. And if that cat didn't get adopted, you adopted another cat who did.
You have a big heart! But taking in a cat that had problems would be difficult.
Things seem scarier in the abstract than end up being in the reality. I didn't end up adopting him because I became convinced it wasn't going to be a problem; I just, once I had met him, I felt I couldn't leave him. But there was so much that I had in my head that it was going to be potentially difficult with a blind cat and none of that has been the case. There were all these dire predictions that he would always be timid and there wouldn't be much he would do. He wouldn't be as able to jump and run and play as much as other cats do. He is an acrobat. He, of my three cats, is far and away is the most active, and the most adventurous, and the climber and the jumper. He even chased off a burglar that broke into my apartment.
Really! What happened?
I woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning to the sound of Homer growling, which was weird because Homer's a very friendly cat, and I turned on the lamp to see what was going on. There was this man I'd never seen before was at the foot of my bed and Homer, who weighs like four pounds, was all puffed up. His claws were out and he was growling and hissing, which I'd never seen him do. It was almost scarier to me than the burglar, to tell you the truth. I reached for the phone and the guy said, don't do that.
Homer was obviously very upset, and once the guy spoke it was like knew exactly where he was because Homer pinpoints things, pinpoints locations based on sound. He went at the guy's face. I mean lunged at the guy. Because Homer can't see, I don't think he understands how much smaller he is than most other things. And the guy was already sort of freaked. And I'm sure he's thinking, what kind of a freakish apartment did I break into? There's a black cat with no eyes! What the hell is going on?
So I called 911. He turns and runs and then Homer runs after him. And I'm running after the cat, because I can't let the cat run out of the apartment because he might never find his way back. I did finally catch up to Homer and that was the end of the burglar.