The Blind Kitten with Many Names

As one of our volunteers reported “Out of the hundreds of messages we have received at Kotor Kitties over the tourist season, the one that was attached to the photo on the left was the most memorable.

I was so upset that this poor kitten’s right eye was so infected that I actually couldn’t respond to the message for a while. After feeling able to reply to Olga, the Australian tourist who had found the black kitten, I reeled off my standard response about our vet, contact details and the availability of a cat carrier. Olga was very good and was committed to helping the kitten the following day (It was about 10pm at this point).

Olga named the little boy Barsik.”

With the help of a ride from a contact in Kotor the poor little kitten was taken to Vet Port, to visit Dr. Relja.

Whilst on her vacation Olga visited the kitten and cried at the news that he would have to have his eyes removed. Now identified as a girl, Barsik became Barsika!

Whilst Olga couldn’t adopt her and transport her home to Australia, because of their ultra-strict laws regarding bringing pets into the country, she instead vowed to raise the money for her care and was successful.

After her operation and recuperation at Vet Port, Barsika was lucky to find a place at Zhanna Kaganovskaya’s Faithful Heart private shelter in Podgorica (the only one in the Western sense, in the whole of Montenegro).

Now renamed Vanga, she thrived with Zhanna and was offered for adoption as a completely blind cat.

This is where Vanga was especially lucky. A wonderful family in Moscow, Russia offered her a home where she now lives. Vanga became Kenya and she is loved and adored by her new family. She has completely adapted to having no sight and lives happily as a Moskvichka.