But Zimes wasn’t always a happy-go-lucky meowmer. When the kitty was just 4 weeks old, he became the victim of a guy who released his pitbull dogs to kill stray cats. As a result, Zimes was left permanently disfigured. Fortunately, he found a new loving mom, Margot Tamar Riemer from Israel, who has cystic fibrosis herself and understands what it’s like to be different. Now, they’re real soul companions sharing this wonderful journey called life!
Margot Riemer told Bored Panda in an interview that she got this bleppy cat from a girl named Lea who rescued him and put an ad on Facebook. But the kitty in Lea’s post looked heartbreaking: “you could see a severely injured cat in that advert, and I knew people would not want to adopt a cat like this.” Margot felt she had to take him even when “some people said he was gross at the beginning.” Unsurprisingly, such people are not a part of her life anymore.
The cat’s appearance was the result of a brutal and planned attack. Margot told us: “This attack was not an accident. This person just released his dog to kill stray cats for fun.” She explained that the scene was “like a horror movie with missing body parts and dead cats all around. I really cannot imagine someone doing something so horrible.” Then 1-month-old Zimes had to go through multiple surgical procedures. His tongue started to hang out only after adoption.
But Margot always knew that her furball was super cute anyways, and in fact, “when the tongue started to come out, he got even cuter!” Zimes has amazing character, said the girl, and “he loves everyone, he lets everyone hug him and love him.” In fact, Margot believes that there are some things she could learn from Zimes, especially when it comes to living with a traumatic experience. “As a person who went through rape and sexual abuse, you can see the trauma in my behavior, I don’t let people get really close. But I try to learn from him,” she told us.
This huge compassion towards animals and people with special needs comes from Margot’s personal experience with a life-threatening illness. “I have cystic fibrosis. I do therapy everyday, take antibiotics and 20-40 other pills everyday, and need to go to hospital once a month.” The woman believes that “if I was an animal, no one would want to adopt me.” That’s how Margot found beauty in Zimes, who in turn gave her “a pure love that healed me.”
