When Mahri, a two-year-old Maine Coon cat, gave birth to a litter of seven kittens in December, breeder Rebecca Hardy was overjoyed.
As the kittens began to open their eyes, the 27-year-old found that they all had convergent strabismus, a condition in which the pupils are directed inwards, towards the nose.
Six of the kittens shifted their eyes to the center as time passed and their extraocular muscles strengthened, but the seventh did not.
Red is the new name for the outstanding kitty, but Rebecca says his condition doesn’t appear to bother him.
“He’s a little bit more delayed while playing with the chaser toy, but he doesn’t know any different,” the Hillsborough breeder reveals.
“For a cat with crossed eyes, he has a ridiculous amount of confidence.”
Red was the second litter for Rebecca, who had been breeding Main Coon cats with Mahri for a little over a year.
On December 18, Rebecca and her four-year-old son Eli spent hours delivering the kittens.
The mother of one didn’t detect their eye problems till a few weeks later.
“They opened their eyes at around a week and a half old, and all the kittens were cross-eyed because the muscles had not grown sufficiently,” she continues.
“It’s not common, but it’s not hazardous; it’s extremely cute, and we’d seen it in our previous litter.”
“We only realized this young boy’s eyes weren’t going to straighten up about week six or seven; everyone else’s had about the fourth week.”
Red is likely to be cross-eyed for the rest of his life, but Rebecca emphasizes that despite being an outlier, he has such a wonderful personality.
He was also the heaviest of the litter at only 12 weeks old, weighing 2.2kg.
“He’d scream at me if I stepped into the room and petted another kitten,” Rebecca adds.
“If I bent down in front of him, he’d jump on my back and go around like a little parrot on my shoulder.”
Red was even chosen as the first of his litter to be adopted.
“As perfect as they are in our eyes if you had seen him among his littermates, he was the funniest,” Rebecca continues.
“People want a perfect kitten, don’t they? But perfect isn’t always the greatest,” says the author.
