Health

"Cat Scratch"

I knew that there had to be a reason why I've always considered cats to be creepy critters. Turns out that 40% of them can blind you.

“I woke up one day and I couldn't see out of my left eye,” Janese Walters told WTOL. “I looked in the mirror and I thought I had pink eye or something.”

Without any warning signs, the vision in Walters' left eye went dark.

For more than a month, doctors were puzzled, until Janese told them about her pet.

"They discovered I had something called cat scratch," she said.

As the name suggests, doctors say cat scratch disease is caused by a bacteria passed along by cats and kittens, through their saliva or even fur.

"Anything that is exposed to the cat's mouth, including if you have a little scratch that the cat licks – that's how you can get it," said Dr. Kris Brickman.

I guess it's just a matter of time until a cat lover, in retaliation to this disclosure, comes up with some mysterious disease that dogs carry...

/fl

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