The day that I saw Otitis
I was on Petfinder,
and I always do the "special needs" checkbox.
And he popped up.
And I'm like, "This cat is earless.
I have never seen an earless cat before.
I -- I need this cat."
I finally put in an application, and the rest is history.
Otits externa is actually the disorder that he had
that caused his ears to be removed.
In his previous owners,
he started to develop ear infections.
And apparently they sought out care,
and didn't want to pay for it.
And it just kept getting worse.
He was in so much pain.
So finally, the family gave him up
to the rescue association.
They raised the money to get his ears removed.
As a result of the surgery, which is a very common side effect,
a cranial nerve was slightly damaged,
resulting in difficulty keeping his eye
completely open.
He should be completely deaf.
His inner ears were removed,
his cochlea was removed,
which is the part that will pick up the sounds.
He can hear some things.
He relies a lot on just vibrations.
In March of 2014, I was in a car accident
where I was unconscious for probably about an hour.
I had a lot of anxiety as a result of the effects.
It was just completely, completely ruining my quality of life.
I realized that a therapy animal
would probably be a great thing.
And I found Otitis, and I adopted him,
and it was almost an immediate change.
The first day I brought him home, I was a little nervous.
They, like, gave you this paperwork, and they're like,
"Well, keep him in an isolated room
so he can adjust,
and really slowly work his way into the apartment."
Brought him home, and immediately he's like,
"I'm King Otitis."
And he was like, running around, and he was playful.
And he--he adjusted immediately.
And honestly, he's always been that kind of a cat.
-How are you gonna get out? Oh, that's how.
From day one, he, like, trusted us completely.
If you'd come home from a bad day,
you'd see Otitis, like, running to the door,
and loving his treats.
And it just kind of made you put things into perspective,
being like, "These things are great.
Unconditional love is great,"
and it just completely just changed your perspective,
it made things a lot better.
Otitis has a very unique personality.
He goes from being the sassiest cat in the entire world,
and then he'll completely shift into just being
the most loving cat, most compassionate cat.
Otitis never leaves the room.
He's always right next to you.
He wants to be a part of whatever the humans are doing,
which is very different for a cat.
His party is about celebrating his ear removal,
he's coming up on his second year without his ears.
And just, that kind of just represents him being healthy
and happy, and celebrating his -- his home
and his life with us.
Some of the decorations we are doing
is the banner, that is just --
has my favorite picture of him with his mouth open,
'cause that always cracks me up when he does that.
Here's your cake!
-What? No!
We're gonna have cupcakes with his face on it.
He is also very well-known for his blue eyes
and his black nose.
And we have bag decorating.
His favorite thing is to be in paper bags.
So we want to see who is gonna make
the most attractive bag.
So, Otitis loves his ball toys,
so I had to put some of those inside.
-A sports bag. The simple sports bag.
-I did a puppet approach.
-A little obstacle course going on there.
-I figure, what cat doesn't like strings?
We all made you bags. You have to go find your favorite.
-Oh, ah!! [LAUGHTER]
-I have this in the bag. [LAUGHTER]
-I really thought he was going to like that puppet aspect,
but, you know, you win some, you lose some.
The bag game turned out really well.
We had a lot of fun.
I'm a little disappointed that he didn't go into my bag first,
but he ended up in my bag. So. I'll let that one slide.
It took a while for Otitis to finally find someone,
and I'm glad that person was Molly.
-It's probably hard in words to describe how much Otitis means to Molly.
After the car accident was a feat that I didn't think I was gonna be able to do.
I'm emotional.
They just -- they changed me.
And I'm almost back to where I was,
which I never thought I would be able to do.
So I gave him the home, and he gave me my life back.