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My wife and I had just decided to start saving up money to adopt a kitten at the end of August. We had always wanted a kitten and knew it would take a few months of saving spare change to be able to afford an adoption. We were hoping to save up enough by Christmas. We live with very limited means; I am an aspiring musician, working retail part time to make rent, and she is a nanny. Having just moved to NYC and feeling a bit out of place in our neighborhood, we felt like a cat would really help us make a home for ourselves here. We didn't really have time to save up money when all of a sudden there was a very special kitten who needed a home.
Our friend Bonnie found a 5 week old kitten playing in traffic in the middle of Brooklyn, and she saved him. She is allergic to cats so she took him to the shelter to make sure he'd find a nice home. However, because of an irregularity of his skull, they were going to put him to sleep, despite his apparent lack of pain or discomfort at the time. He had an ugly callused knot on his head and an open fontanel, and the shelter explained that they couldn't afford to figure out what it was considering how there were so many kittens. He was in their opinion not adoptable. Bonnie saw fit to bring him home and post his picture on Facebook, and despite our lack of savings, we decided to give the guy a chance. We made him homemade toys and play structures out of old t shirts and cardboard boxes left over from our move (yes, we made sure they are safe!) and started buying groceries more selectively for the week in order to provide him with good kitten food and litter, etc. We grew concerned because his lump seemed to bug him occasionally, and wanted to make sure he went to see a great Vet when it was time for his first round of vaccines. Our vet friend from Maine helped us get an appointment with her friend at a great ASPCA animal hospital in Manhattan, and this is what we found out.
Sir Noggin has a cyst on his head, and he is very lucky to have it, despite the fact that it can get sore and bother him. Under the cyst there is a very large hole in his skull and without the cyst, he would have nothing to protect his brain. He would have died of brain damage easily. However, being that this cyst serves as an airbag of sorts, he is a neuro-typical kitten with a physical deformity that puts him at great risk. When he bumps his head in the normal course of play, it hurts him a great deal more than a normal kitten, and he is at risk for concussions or worse, so we are trying to create for him a helmet he can wear. We can't afford much, but I thought I'd post here in case anybody has any suggestions at all. He's a very frisky energetic kitten and I cannot fathom how we could get him to wear something unless it's very secure, but it's going to take us a while to raise the $4,000 to cover his CT Scan and surgery, so he needs something to wear in the meantime. He is a very happy, playful cat. Many people see a number like that and tell us just to put him to sleep now. We want to try our best to provide safety for him and hopefully raise the funds he needs to get better. It's a very treatable condition; the doctors already have an action plan. All we need is time & resources.
He is still very small but the bump comes far off his head, so many helmets we see online would put more pressure on the lump we fear.
I'm going to link a photo into the message, hopefully I am not violating more specific posting rules I may have missed.
The first photo is him on a day when his bump is not bothering him. He plays as much as a normal kitten his age, though we try to keep him more calm. That's not easy.
The next photo is Sir Noggin at the Vet's office, on a day where his cyst was bothering him more. You can see how big it is compared to his head.
We really don't know how to go about making a helmet. He hates having things touch his ears and he bites if you try to touch his cyst. So far we have raised $500 and when we get to about $1200 we'll be able to get him a CT Scan to really see inside if his surgery will work. You can find "Sir Noggin of Loxley" on Facebook if you're interested in tracking his progress medically, and he also has his own website, www.sirnoggin.com. You can see lots of photos and videos of him there if you are interested. Sincerely, though, I am not posting in order to raise funds here, but for advice on fashioning a helmet.
We bought a ladybug hat for a cat at Target (in the Halloween costumes) and tried to see if he would wear it. The bug forms a sort of pillow on top of the cat's head. Aside from being too big, he worked to get it off so forcefully he seemed more likely to hurt himself. I know it's a long shot that anybody here happens to a kitten epic helm expert, but just in case, help!
Thanks for your time!
The Masters Family
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Sir Noggin and family
