Like so many people who come to the Lort Smith Adoption Centre, 13-year-old Neisha and her mum Leonie had their eyes firmly set on who they wanted to adopt. But something unexpected happened.
"We've always had rescue cats and so we naturally looked online to adopt," says Leonie. "We found two cats, a bonded pair, at Lort Smith that we went to meet, but we found they weren't suitable for us, they were just too shy for our family."
After being encouraged to meet some of the other cats available for adoption, they met five-year-old Albie. Or more accurately, Albie introduced himself to them!
"He wouldn't leave me alone!" Neisha laughs. "He was just meowing and rubbing his head against my legs."
But Albie wasn't just your run-of-the-mill smooch.
Barely a night has gone by where I haven't gone to sleep with a white mass of fur right next to my head.
Neisha
A difficult start
Albie had a very difficult life before coming to Lort Smith. He had been living with a painful eye condition called entropion for years. Entropion is where the eyelid rolls inward, causing the eyelashes to irritate and inflame the eyeball.
Before Albie was put up for adoption, our vets performed delicate surgery to remove a thin strip of excess skin from his eyelids.
Our team is always very cautious with this procedure, removing only a small amount of tissue to avoid causing the opposite problem, called ectropion. While this avoids over-correction, in a small number of cases it can mean a second surgery is needed to completely fix the entropion.
Albie was significantly better after his surgery, but his entropion was so severe that he was one of those rare cases.
Two surgeries and some time in foster care later, he was ready for adoption.
Right where he wants to be
Leonie says learning about his condition, and knowing eye infections were something Albie would likely live with forever, wasn't a deterrent for them at all.
"It would've been so painful, living with ulcerations on his eyes for so long," Leonie says. "I'm really glad we are now able to look after him and make sure his eyes are ok for the rest of his life."
"He's really easy to handle and treat, and so easy to give medication to," she says. "He has such a sweet nature so it's sad to think he might've been put down just because of his eyes if he hadn't come to Lort Smith."
Now Albie gets to spend all day, and night, right where he wants to be: with his favourite person, Neisha.
"Barely a night has gone by where I haven't gone to sleep with a white mass of fur right next to my head," Neisha says. "He sounds a bit like a mild asthmatic when he purrs, which is a bit annoying but still adorable."
Without the support of our donors and community, Lort Smith would never have been able to dedicate as much time, care and resources to Albie's recovery. By donating today, you'll help more animals like Albie.