Dora's story begins on March 15th, 2018. Her mother, a feral cat named Cora, arrived on that day. She was far along in pregnancy and was ready to pop any day! She finally had her kittens on April 1st, 2018. One of those kittens was a special little girl named Dora.

   Dora was born with Cerebellar Hypoplasia, a disorder in which the cerebellum (the part of the brain that controls movement and muscular activity) is not completely developed at birth. In severe cases it causes animals to not even be able to stand on their own legs, shake violently and constantly fall on their side or back. It can also lead to seizures in some animals if they fall and hit their head too often, but it isn't a common occurrence in most cases. Dora, luckily, had a relatively minor form of CH where she was able to keep her footing most of the time, but she just shook and wobbled back and forth when she walked. This wasn't too much of a problem in itself, but in May there was a stray cat that came to the shelter with ringworm, a very contagious fungal infection of the skin. By the time we had realized the stray had ringworm it was too late, and had spread to most of the cats in the same room as it. A few of those cats happened to be Cora and her kittens. It took months for us to finally clear all the cats of ringworm, but by the time Dora had finally cleared, she was just over 6 months old. 2018 was a hard year for the shelter, as treating the ringworm was a long and expensive process. Seeing the cats finally confirmed clear, especially the young kittens that had literally been raised in the one room with minimal human contact, made it all worth it. Even only being able to see a few people a couple times a day, she was one of the sweetest and loving cats you could ever meet.

   Dora was finally adopted to her forever home on December 22nd, 2018 to a family that had heard about her, and came in to specifically adopt her. Her Christmas came a bit early that year!