Meet Ivy, the little beauty with a brain disorder

Ivy is a beautiful and loving cat with a developmental disorder.

Ivy is a three-year-old cat with a neurological disorder called cerebellar hypoplasia”.

It is neither painful nor contagious but it does mean that Ivy processes things quite slowly compared to his other cat siblings since the developmental part of his brain is compromised. It also means that his balance and coordination is oftentimes a little off.

Despite his condition, Ivy is very intelligent and answers to his name.

“With his condition, he is quite a blur. He processes things quite slowly – at his own pace,” says Shazwina Manmohan, Ivy’s Mama Cat.

“Say there’s a loud noise. The other cats would react immediately, but it takes Ivy two to three seconds before he shows any reaction.

“Despite his condition, he is very intelligent. He recognises voices and is very attentive. He will come to you, if you call out to him,” Shazwina says.

All that hectic playing can tire out a cat.

Ivy absolutely loves to spend his time playing but he has a very short attention span. “He will play with just about anything, but does get bored only after a few minutes.”

Although he likes to tear around the house, he can only do so for a short distance. “He can’t run or walk straight, so when he does run, he tends to run into things and that just blurs him out even more. He does run very fast though, it’s just never in a straight line,” Shazwina says.

Ivy will play with anything he comes into contact with – yes, even a pen.

For a small cat like Ivy, he sure has a big appetite. “My dinner time is his dinner time too. Just recently, I had to stop giving him human food as it has way too much salt content for a cat. More so for a cat like Ivy,” she said, adding that he was recently diagnosed with a kidney condition as well. He’s now on a very strict diet.

Shazwina says that Ivy is the perfect example of a “cool cat”. “It might be due to his condition that he’s slow to react to most things. He is frightened of fireworks though, poor fella.”

Ivy taking one of his power naps.

Unlike some cats who are moody or who will hiss or swat at you if you try to pick them up, Ivy is the exact opposite. “He is extremely friendly. You can pick him up any time and he will just purr his life away – instantly!”

At night, Ivy has a special spot in Shazwina’s room when he lays down to sleep. “It has been the same spot since the first day I took him in. Day or night, if you can’t find him anywhere else in the house, you know he’ll be at his favourite spot,” Shawzina says.

Ivy looks adorable even when he’s fast asleep.

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