Lacey is a cute torbie (a cross between a tabby and a tortoiseshell). She has a striped tabby tail, and a mottled coat of orange, brown, and tabby elsewhere. She’s a polydactyl, too (extra toes). Lacey is good-sized, for a female, and our best guess is that she was born in 2004.

We think Lacey suffered some kind of injury before she was picked up by a shelter (she came to us from that shelter). She doesn’t seem to use her tail at all; it just hangs behind her. And she has chronic constipation issues, for which she’s on a special diet and a stool softener (she’ll have to continue on both for the foreseeable future). Due to her chronic constipation, she will occasionally poop outside her litter box.

With people, Lacey is gentle and affectionate (I saw a volunteer lie down in her suite, and she got up onto the volunteer’s chest and settled in for as long as the volunteer would let her). She’s generally OK around other felines, as long as they aren’t too domineering or excessively in her face.

As Lacey is one of our Special Needs crew, we know she’s not a match for everyone. But we also know there are people out there as special as she is, who can look beyond the usual viewpoints when it comes to cats. We’re hoping one of these people will walk through our doors soon; we know Lacey has a lot of love to give the right person.

Update, 2/26/12: Due to her apparent incontinence and chronic constipation we had Lacey evaluated by a neurologist to see if there was anything more we could do to treat her symptoms. After an MRI of her spine we discovered that Lacey does indeed have an old spinal injury that is causing the issues with her bowels. Unfortunately, the injury is not at all recent, and therefore, the chances of surgery correcting her issues are very slim. Instead, we’ve been able to better manage Lacey’s condition through some additional oral medications to help her control her bladder and bowels. We also now express her bladder twice daily because she has difficulty doing so herself. These changes have made a great improvement for Lacey. Although Lacey’s requires more extensive care than she did initially, we remain hopeful that her sweet, gentle personality will one day win over the right adopter.

Update: Lacey lives in the vet room now.