Blind Cat Finds The Cutest Way To Tell Dad She's Out Of Water

Winnie was taken in by Austin Pets Alive, along with the rest of her siblings, when she was just a kitten. She was the runt of the litter, and it didn’t take long before her rescuers realized she had been born blind. She was the only one born with any health issues, but that didn’t stop her from quickly finding the best family and growing into a sweet, quirky cat. 

Most days, it’s hard to tell that Winnie is blind at all. She gets around her house super well, and while she bumps into things occasionally, she never lets that slow her down even a little bit. She has two cat siblings and two dog siblings, and all of them are very sweet and protective with her, as if they understand that she’s a little different, but really, Winnie doesn’t need protecting at all. 

“She's actually the best in the house at catching flies, and I'm not sure how,” Kristopher Smith, Winnie’s dad, told The Dodo. “She meows normally but also has a chirp that she uses when she starts running around or when she gets excited, which makes me think she uses it almost like sonar or echolocation.” 

While her blindness doesn’t slow her down, Winnie does have some quirky ways of doing things because of it. Sometimes she likes to hang out in weird places because she can’t see where she actually is … 

… and she has weird ways of communicating with her family, too. 

One day, Winnie noticed that her water bowl seemed to be a little on the empty side. Just to make sure it was really empty, she climbed into the bowl … 

… and then decided to just sit there until one of her parents gave her more water. 

“She was sitting in the bowl for a few minutes before I noticed,” Smith said. “She hopped out and started chirping when she heard me coming for the bowl.”

Since Winnie can’t see her parents, she figured the best way to get her water bowl refilled was to wait inside it until they noticed her and came to refill it, and of course, it worked. She may be blind, but Winnie is VERY resourceful. 

Winnie’s blindness also seems to have instilled in her a calmness and compassion that many other cats don’t have. When her mom had to have brain surgery, her dad knew Winnie would be the best member of the family to comfort her — so he and Winnie found a way to make that happen. 

“I got the nurse to let me sneak Winnie into the ICU to visit her and she did amazing,” Smith said. “I would have never imagined a cat being easygoing in a situation like that, let alone a blind cat. She fell asleep on the hospital bed with her momma until we had to leave.” 

Since then, Winnie has also visited residents at the dementia care facility her parents work at, and did a fantastic job of bringing people comfort and joy. She may have weird ways of doing things sometimes, but Winnie’s quirks help make her into the sweet, unique cat she is, and her family wouldn’t have her any other way.

“She really is a special cat and everyone that meets her just loves her,” Smith said.