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Branden and Pantar enjoy a special bond

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Branden Fox with cat Pantar (Photograph by Akil Simmons)
Pantar, a blind feral kitten, before he had surgery to remove an eye (Photograph supplied)
Pantar after his surgery (Photograph supplied)

A blind feral kitten has found his “forever home”, with a young man who is visually impaired.

Branden Fox, 20, the son in the adopting family, says that a special bond was quickly formed between himself and his new pet, Pantar.

“He curls up with me and attacks my mum,” Mr Fox said of the spirited kitten who had to have one of its eyes surgically removed and is blind in the other.

“He sits on my shoulder and I can’t move when he and our other cat Nubia are sitting on me. I act as their battleground when they decide to fight.”

Pantar was found at Marsh Folly Composting Facility in Pembroke in May by charity Cats Bermuda Limited which has a feeding station there.

The charity put out a call on social media for a family to foster Pantar, who was originally named Peri, and in mid-June, the Fox family rose to the challenge.

When the kitten had to visit the vet to have its eye removed due to deficiencies caused by genetics and malnutrition, the family missed him so much they decided to fully adopt him.

Mr Fox’s mother Sarah said: “He was really missed and I realised I wanted to keep him. I thought he would be a good fit for the family because my son Branden is legally blind and Pantar is totally blind – I figured they would understand each other a bit more.

“When we got him he was very scared but he gravitated towards my son like a moth to a light – he stuck to Branden. We can’t let him go, he is part of the family – he fits right in.

“I have lots of scratches because all he wants to do is play. Branden loves Pantar to death but can’t see when he is coming to jump on him.”

Ms Fox said her house is perfectly suited to anyone with visual impairments.

“I don’t move stuff around much in my house – Brendan has muscle memory and it helps him to walk through more easily. It also helps the cat but you will still hear him banging into the fridge, stove or door … usually one of the two are banging into something.”

Cats Bermuda Limited is a volunteer-based charity launched in 2017 and is dedicated to caring for the homeless cat population in Bermuda.

The charity provides feeding stations, it traps, neuters and releases the animals, and runs foster and adoption programmes for tamed, unwanted, abandoned and homeless cats and kittens.

Rose Powell, its president, said the charity is looking for volunteers to help with trapping animals in order to neuter and release them in the east and west ends of the island.

For more information about the charity, to make a donation or to sign up to volunteer, visit https://www.cats.bm/

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Published July 21, 2021 at 7:56 am (Updated July 20, 2021 at 5:32 pm)

Branden and Pantar enjoy a special bond

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