The cosmic kitty has garnered a lot of attention on
Instagram, where her human companions, who identify themselves only as
"The Bearded Man" and "The Lady," share photos and videos
of the special feline.
Matilda has a genetic eye disorder that's caused her
enlarged eyes, and she's now blind, her owners wrote on Instagram, but she
didn't always have her alien-like eyes, it turns out.
The celestial cat arrived on Earth on Valentine's Day in
2013 in a hoarder house in a small town, her owners said, adding that they
adopted her from a rescue society that picked her up.
Matilda landed in their home when she was only 12 weeks old
and that she "showed no fear when she met Dog, who was about 10 times her
size," said her owners, who also call themselves her servants.
Matilda was born with seemingly normal eyes, but as she
grew older and bigger, she started having "one squinty eye from time to
time, which earned her the nickname of Quasimodo," her servants said.
After multiple veterinary visits, The Lady said she
contacted the rescue society that Matilda came from to try and solve the
mystery.
"When she heard back from the rescue society there was
a surprise -- they had moved offices and had lost the contact information for
Matilda's servants, and had been trying to reach them for months!" her
owners wrote. "As it turned out, two of Matilda's littermates had developed
a mysterious eye condition, and they had been trying to re-find Matilda."
A veterinary ophthalmologist soon confirmed that Matilda
displayed signs of spontaneous lens luxation, just like her siblings, her
servants said. The specialist explained to them that Matilda's lenses had
spontaneously detached and that she also had a collagen deficiency, which makes
it difficult to heal from injuries and surgery.
The Lady and The Bearded Man wrote they initially decided,
with the veterinary ophthalmologist's support, that they would let Matilda's
eyes "do what they naturally would, and would not intervene with a
traumatic surgery that did not appear to be helpful."
"Lens luxations in cats are real and are usually the
result of other diseases going on inside the eye," veterinary
ophthalmologist Dr. Matthew Fife told ABC News today. Fife, who did not treat
Matilda, works at the Veterinary Ophthalmology Center in Orlando, Florida.
"From looking at her pictures, the main problem, in
addition to the detached lenses, is her glaucoma, which means the pressure in
her eyes is very high, causing the eyeballs to enlarge and stretch," he
said. "It's actually pretty painful."
Matilda's "progressive genetic eye problem"
requires her to take medicine to stay pain-free, but she will
"inevitably" need surgery in the future, according to the GoFundMe page
that has been set up for the starry-eyed kitty. "No matter what happens,
her servants think she's perfect and beautiful," they said, "and will
love and care for her the absolute best way that they can for however long this
little alien is here."
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