Khinkali

• Age:
• Location: Armenia
• Sex: ♂

Khinkali’s story is a frightening one—but also a fortunate one. And it is not over yet.

Khinkali appeared in a courtyard (that would later come under the care of Kotoprovod volunteers) back in 2020, when he was still a tiny kitten. Although he grew up outdoors, wonderful neighbors looked after him. He and the other cats always had plenty of food and places to shelter, and even the winters in this area are not too harsh. It was not a happy life, of course—but it was far from the worst a street cat can face.

Khinkali remained one of the last unneutered cats in the courtyard. We planned to trap, vaccinate, neuter, and return him, but catching him proved difficult. Then, one day, Khinkali disappeared. He stopped coming to his usual feeding place, where he had always been inseparable from Cheesecake, a female cat who had already been through Kotoprovod. We were terribly worried.

Then a resident of the courtyard sent us a message with a photograph. It was our Khinkali—but he looked awful. About a week earlier, he had left the relative safety of the courtyard at night in search of adventure. Unfortunately, adventure found him first: as he ran across a road, he was hit by a speeding car.

Thankfully, a night-shift employee at a nearby café witnessed the accident. He took Khinkali to a clinic, where the cat was placed in intensive care. Khinkali was diagnosed with a serious head injury that left him blind and possibly deaf in one ear.

The man did not know where a blind cat could go after leaving the clinic, so he began contacting everyone he knew who might have some connection to cat rescue. That chain of messages eventually reached a resident of the courtyard Khinkali had left on his fateful walk, and she contacted us immediately.

There was only one way we could respond. Khinkali came back under our care—but this time, he would not return straight to the street. We arranged another medical examination, which confirmed that he was blind. We also learned that some or all of his sight might return once the swelling from his head injury subsides. For now, he needs peace and quiet, medical care, nutritious food, and the correct course of eye medication. He also has an injured ear, which he made worse by scratching it severely because of stress.

Khinkali is now safe, quarantined in a foster home. He can walk around a room instead of spending another week confined to a cage. Little by little, he is beginning to recover. He is starting to allow gentle petting and flinches less often at the sound of human voices. Today, at last, he began eating well! He calmly lets his carers administer his eye treatment. And from his very first moments in the apartment, Khinkali found the litter box entirely by touch and has used it perfectly ever since—not a single accident.

It is still too early to say much about his personality or habits, and we do not yet know what his future will look like. An examination next week will help determine his prognosis by showing whether his pupils have begun responding to light. That response will tell us whether his sight is likely to return.

If his sight returns, our original plan will remain unchanged: allow Khinkali to recover fully, then vaccinate and neuter him before returning him to the courtyard. If his blindness is permanent or his sight returns only partially, we will not send him back to the street. We will find him a home.

But if you are already ready to give Khinkali a place in your heart and your home, please contact us. We can prepare our cats for travel to families anywhere in the world.

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