2009 Ray and his brother came to us from a shelter in Kuwait.  Holly is a US contractor there and wrote us asking for help for Sylvester and his brother.   Below is a letter from the shelter telling us their stories: "Thank you for you willingness to take on two special boys from our shelter. The boys came into our care in March 2007, so we have them almost 2 years. Although they are perfectly healthy boys, only thing "wrong" with them, is that they can't see. Ray has slight vision in one eye, but Sylvester is completely blind. The cats have wonderful senses and we have seen Sylvester sitting in front of the window, peering outside and following birds with his head movement. Both boys are very quick to find a lap and absolutely love to sit on a lap. They have never allowed their eye issue to prevent them from climbing on top of the cages either. And, touch wood, so far, they have never injured themselves when getting down. The only time Ray is irritated and he will attack other cats, is when (we suspect) his eyes might be painful. He still has eyes and sometimes gets eye infection. Both boys do mix with many other cats (with full vision). The other cats know to sidestep the brothers, but sometimes it is not possible and then a slap from the brothers are the result and sometimes fur flies all over ... but, as you know, sometimes cats with full visions also fight, so we never see the blind brothers as "trouble makers" .. they just defend themselves ... as normal cats do. They have wonderful, sweet personalities and will surely be a great asset to a home where the people will understand and accept their disabilities." As you can imagine there are very limited resources for "normal" animals to be adopted in a war torn country like Kuwait, imagine how little there is for a blind one!    Holly was coming back to the states for a visit and flew them back here with her.  Then she drove almost 24 hours from Chicago to hand deliver them to us! Ray is a HUGE fellow, super nice, loves to be pet.  Both of them immediately got sent to the vet  to get their  eyes taken care of, dentals etc.

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1/1/2016 We took Ray to the vet today because he was bleeding from his rectum. Ray has been to the vet several time in the last few months because he was losing weight. He had irritable bowel disease and was having a problem with nutrition absorption. Today his x-rays showed a small mass in his lungs, one kidney that was huge and several more things going wrong with him. His blood work was not great. Ray did not eat this morning (that was not like him) he was not talking (that is not normal for him) He looked tiny, frail and exhausted. The vet and I discussed many different options but the bottom line was we could do XYZ but we shouldn't. It was time to let him go. He had the look that clearly said, let me go.. Doing any more treatment would have been for us and he would have continued to suffer. He went very quickly and peacefully. He was a really nice fellow and will be missed by all that knew him