Some special needs cats are cats that we support for their entire lives; we call those cats “Lifetime Cats”! These cats are not up for adoption because they’re already home! There is 3 types of Lifetime Rocket Cats:
Lifetime Residents (Catstronauts)
“Lifetime Residents” are cats who stay with us here permanently.
Sponsored Residents
“Sponsored Residents” are cats who reside here under certain conditions (ie: until their head sponsor is ready to adopt them).
Lifetimers
We also have some special needs cats are too special for us to ever lose track of or for us to ever stop supporting that we have agreed to help with lifetime medical care even after they have been adopted and these cats are simply called “Lifetimers”.
Click on a cat to learn more!
Rocket Cat’s Lifetime Residents:
Rocket Cat’s Sponsored Residents
Rocket Cat Lifetimers:
Current Lifetime Rocket Cats:
Space Ghost aka “Space“
Sex: Male
Age: Adult
Eyes: Blue
Coat: Long haired blue lynx point snowshoe siamese
Breed: Ragdoll mix
Special Needs: FLUTD/FIC w/ complications from a botched PU surgery
Space is a big puffy cloud of love and fluff. He has had multiple surgeries to fix his poor urinary tract. He has to eat his own special food and we have to take extra care in making sure he doesn’t get urine scalds because of how different he is down in his nethers from having a Perineal Urethrostomy. UTI’s are a common occurrence for him despite constant attention being given to his diet and medications/vitamins. His favorite pastimes are cuddling people, cuddling cats, being cuddled by people and cats, sitting in laps, looking majestic, and staring lovingly at people. He will sometimes even lay on Cat Dad’s face at night and try to sleep there… He is a talented musical meower with a beautiful little voice! Space was the first special needs cat rescued by Paula, so he is Rocket Cat Number 1! Space is also who the Rocket Cat mascot and cat depicted in our logo is based off of!
Preeety boyyy~~
Cuddle Extraordinaire
He knows he is the king of the house.
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Watson (Also a Milo’s Cat!)
Sex: Male
Age: Adult
Eyes: None
Coat: Short haired brown tabby
Possible Breed: Short haired Bengal x Tabby mix
Special Needs: Blind
Watson was born with deformed eyes and eyelids (microphthalmia and entropion) and was very sick as a kitten which stunted his growth. As a result, here is a small shy blind soft boy. Eye problems are common in inbred/badly bred bengals. He likes to walk around like a raccoon with his head facing forward and his butt in the air. If you watch him closely as he gets around the house, you’ll notice that he moves ears around like a BAT! He is using his crazy 6th cat sense to get around. He loves the cat tree and when he is on it, he considers it his “safe space” and does not want anyone to pet him; however if he is on the bed or the couch, he LOVES being pet. He has a curly tail tip and will curl it more the happier he is. Every cat in the house absolutely loves him, even the cats that don’t typically like all other cats, so you will commonly see him snuggling or hanging out with other cats.
Art of Watson!
Baby Watson hiding in a tiny Strawberry Bed and Watson now rolling on the floor for pets!
Baby Watson fun times with Keanu
He thinks he is sneaky.
Tiny watson and Watson now! He is the self-appointed prince of the house.
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Flapjack aka “Flappy“
Sex: Male
Age: Adult
Eyes: Blue
Coat: Short haired snowshoe flame point
Breed: Siamese mix
Special Needs: Neurological Issues/Deformed Pelvis
Flapjack is a wonderful wobbly pancake boy! He has a forever “kitten brain” and is literally made of love. He wants nothing more than to snuggle, purr, play, and be pet all day. Paula and Venus saved him from the streets of Pittsburg, CA. When he was caught he actually couldn’t even walk and was extremely emaciated. The way he was moving, we originally assumed he had CH, but then he improved a ton over time. He still walks oddly but it’s now assumed to either be a deformation in the pelvis or possibly that his pelvis broke and healed on it’s own before he was found when he was an infant. He now runs all over the place now and plays all day. He loves to talk to his toys and makes adorable chirring sounds all the time. We call him the sheriff of the cats because he walks around like a cowboy (swinging his legs) and is constantly checking up on the other cats. Over time he has grown enormous which is promising since both his brothers were dwarven. Sadly despite doing everything thing we could, both of his brothers had weak lungs and passed away while being infected with the Feline Calicivirus. He likes to roll around in litter boxes like a weirdo and doesn’t mind wearing a harness so we want to take him to a beach in the future!
Art of Flapjack!
Baby Flappy when he couldn’t really walk.
Growing Up!
PANCAKE FORM.
Growing even more!
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Mogwai, the Halloween Cat aka “Moggie“
Sex: Female
Age: Adult
Eyes: Yellow Orange
Coat: Short haired black
Breed: Domestic short hair
Special Needs: Deaf in one ear/deformed other ear, chronic eye & ear issues
Moggie is our little Halloween Gremlin of cuteness. She gets so happy and excited sometimes that she will “make muffins on” (knead) hardwood floors, tiles, tables, and other hard surfaces. She loves to play and will commonly be seen running around with her crew we call “The Black Cat Coalition” which consists of Louie, Mogwai, Bean (until he is adopted), and BB-8 (the honorary gray cat?) When we first rescued her from the local shelter, she was skin and bones and losing her fur. She also had 2 ear infections and 2 eye infections! Now she is a shiny beauty with a forever winky eye and permanent head tilt. She is obsessed with a mushroom cat bed in the house that she likes to lay on top of instead of inside of and will commonly be seen smushing it while she lays in it near the fireplace.
Art of Mogwai!
Moggie was a real little gremlin when we first got her!
Now she is a silky beautiful lady~
She can fully open both of her eyes, she just tends to prefer keeping the left one mostly shut.
She has beautiful yellow orange eyes. Smushin’ the Mushroom.
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Ann Purrkins (Lifetimer)
Sex: Female
Age: Adult
Eyes: Pale Green
Coat: Long Haired Brown Tabby
Possible Breed: Maine Coon x Munchkin
Special Needs: Permanent head tilt (neurological), partially deaf possibly in both ears, good at tracking poopies around the house with her magical wavy butt fur
Ann came to us straight from the streets; she was supposed to be caught, spayed, and released (CNR) but instead of being a feral cat as expected, she decided to show us that she was a gem that needed to be adopted to a good home instead! After being caught in a trap by Venus and Paula, she got out of the trap in the car, walked right up to Paula and immediately started acting extremely friendly. She was so friendly, we were convinced she must be someone’s pet! She hadn’t been spayed though and no one had reported her missing. So, after failing to find any owners for her, we realized she was just oddly friendly despite never living in a home. We have since found her brother and mom helped assess them for adoption and friendliness to humans seems to run in the Purrkins family.
She loves pets, being carried around, snuggling, playing fetch, and being around humans. When she came to us she didn’t know how to play with toys, how to interact with other cats, or how to eat with other cats. She has learned so much since we first got her and now even snuggles with other cats! (She used to hiss at any cat that got near her.) She learned how to play from Grey and Bean, how to play fetch from Keanu, how to snuggle from Rory, and how to talk to toys from Thunderbolt.
She has short thick legs and a very short tail which are traits common among munchkin mixes but otherwise she displays all the traits of being a maine coon mix with her long soft fur, big chin, and laid back personality. She has a bald patch of fur near her mouth which was determined by vets to possibly just be a scar and her permanent head tilt is most likely neurological. We love her too much, so she is going to be adopted by fellow Rocket Cat Human, Mandy, so that she can stay in the RCR family to become an ambassador for Friendlies as well as meet people at events!
Why is she named “Ann Purrkins”? Ann Purrkins had just become a recent intake to Rocket Cat, and Mandy was visiting so the they were both staying in the same room. Mandy suddenly became very ill, and had to be rushed to the emergency room. After returning, Ann attached herself to Mandy and helped nurse Mandy back to health with cuddles, loud purrs, kneading, and SO MUCH LOVE. Mandy named her “Ann Purrkins” after the character Ann Perkins from Parks and Rec (who is a nurse) and her penchant for loud purring.
Art of Ann!
She is purrfect.
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Bianca Potato
Sex: Female
Age: Adult
Eyes: Icy Blue
Coat: Seal Point Snowshoe
Possible Breed: Siamese mix
Special Needs: Siamese Nystagmus/Wobbly (possibly very mild CH)
Yes, Bianca and Pixel are TWINS. Both her and her sister love have photos taken of themselves and will run up to you if you pull your phone or a camera out to snap a photo. They were saved from a dumpster in southern California with the rest of their litter. Their entire litter was very sick when they were found and had an abnormally hard time getting around as they grew. Bianca even fell off of a cat tree at a young age and decided to avoid climbing to the top of them ever again until recently. Bianca is the QUEEN of the house, and knows it. She sleeps in a crown bed, demands her own food bowl up on the counter in the kitchen apart from the other cats (except occasionally “princess” Shenzi), and when she wants love from Cat Mom, everyone else MUST LEAVE HER LAP. She is outgoing and friendly with people she knows but it shy at first, loves to lay in sunbeams, and has a cute little voice if you have the rare honor to hear it! When she is super comfy she will commonly stretch out with her arms in front of her like The Sphinx. If you pet or pat her butt, she will meow loudly in protest.
Art of Bianca and her twin sister, Pixel!
Happy ARMS, and the Queen’s Throne.
We like to put her in hats, she is less enthused about it than we are.
Laying in a sunbeam, and playing in a box!
Literally being a Queen.
Playing with Princess Shenzi and teaching Thundey to “Happy Arm”.
HOW DARE YOU SIT ON THE QUEEN?!?!
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Pixel Potato (Lifetimer)
Sex: Female
Age: Adult
Eyes: Icy Blue
Coat: Seal Point Snowshoe
Possible Breed: Siamese mix
Special Needs: Siamese Nystagmus/Wobbly (possibly very mild CH)
Yes, Bianca and Pixel are TWINS. Both her and her sister love have photos taken of themselves and will run up to you if you pull your phone or a camera out to snap a photo. They were saved from a dumpster in southern California with the rest of their litter. Their entire litter was very sick when they were found and had an abnormally hard time getting around as they grew. Unlike Bianca, Pixel is very shy unless she is around Mandy. She learned how to be LOUD from her adoptive sister, Goomba, and chats all the time when Mandy is around. She has an adorable high-pitched “beepy” voice. She loves to do “cute poses” and if you ask her about her cute poses while she is doing them, she will continue to do more and more cute poses! Pixel likes to lay in cool places, and doesn’t tend to like laying in sun beams like most cats. She has a fort made of 2 cat scratchers, a cat play tube, a blanket, a towel, and a box that she absolutely loves to spend time in. She purrs very loudly when she is happy and always purrs when cat food or treats are around. Unlike Bianca, she is not very sophisticated or “Royal”. Her favorite spots other than her “fort” are her cardboard cat bowl bed, and on her cardboard couch.
She has her own twitter account with her sister, Goomba, here: 
Art of Pixel! (And Goomba!)
Pixel is very proud of her magnet.
Cardboard furniture is THE BEST!!
I love the cat tree.
Cute poses!
Have you seen my adorable parti-colored paws?
Hangin’ out with Goomba!
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Chewbacca aka “Chewie“
Sex: Male
Age: Adult
Eyes: White
Coat: Long Haired Solid Cinnamon
Breed: Ragdoll
Special Needs: Hip Dysplasia/Nutritional Osteopathies (+Puzzle)
We found Chewie at a shelter that had marked him as “feral”. We immediately recognized in the photos on the internet that he was a purebred cat, you can’t get a solid cinnamon colored coat off the streets! We had to go check this boy out, there was no way he was a “feral” purebred cat, that just doesn’t happen. The shelter was wary to let us see this “feral” cat but an awesome volunteer that overheard this conversation and also did not think he was feral took us to go see him! The volunteer carried him out (with no issue) and put him in a room with us. He was extremely sweet and had a lot of things to say to us! He is a very chatty boy. We noticed he was limping, and that he did not like his lower back being touched and would try to gently bite you if you touched it. The mystery of him being marked “feral” was finally solved, the poor guy was just in pain!!! We adopted him and immediately took him to a vet. The vet found out that he had hip dysplasia which can be caused by “backyard breeding” (irresponsibly, for profit) ragdoll cats. We got him some pain meds to treat this. Then, we took him to a specialist to have x-rays done and they saw he had a bone spur on his front leg, and the rest of his bones looked like they were made of SPONGE. No wonder the poor boy was in so much pain! He rapidly started improving and clearly was in less pain as time went on and he walked around the house. We’re pretty sure now that he had been originally kept in a small cage with a terrible diet. He is extremely friendly, loving, loves attention, GOOD CAT FOOD, and sitting in laps! He also likes to “Smile” for photos sometimes. We like to make jokes about “how extremely feral” he is all the time since he is pretty much the polar opposite.
Chewie used to keep to himself mostly around the other cats and seemed to deal with a lot of hip pain, then he met Puzzle. Ever since he met Puzzle, his inner kitten emerged and he has become best friends with her. He plays way more and appears to have a lot less pain in his hips ever since meeting her. If anyone else in the house touches his tail or back legs, he gets a bit grumpy with them, but with Puzzle, he lets her climb all over him, play with his tail, pounce on his legs, he just loves that little kitty! We can’t bear to separate the two after the absolute joy she has brought to Chewie, so Puzzle is now a permanent part of this household.
Art of Chewie!
Posing for the camera!
“LAPS, LAPS, LAPS!”
SO FERAL.
::Wookie Sounds::
“This is what I think of BAFFS.”
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Earl Grey (Adopted Lifetimer)
Sex: Male
Age: Adult
Eyes: Emerald green
Coat: Long haired gray tabby
Breed: Domestic Long Hair (aka cat mutt)
Special Needs: Deaf in left ear (TECA Surgery)
Earl is one of our special needs cats that was adopted out to a close friend of Rocket Cat Rescue so he remains an official “resident” Rocket Cat, despite not living at the rescue or at one of the rescue founders houses. (Kind of like how Watson is still a Milo’s Cat as well as a Rocket Cat!) We keep an eye on him and visit him regularly. 😀
Earl is a snuggle-bug. Earl started off here as one of our bottle-babies that we got back in July 2018! Since he is hand-raised, he couldn’t be friendlier with everyone. He absolutely loves getting attention from people more than anything else. He has a passion for snuggling and comes to you for pets if he sees you looking at him or if you call him over. He is bonded with his brother Beans(aka Coffee Bean) who he was adopted out with and plays with him often. He gets along well with all cats and actually has also done well with the dogs we’ve tested him with as well! He doesn’t mind being picked up and is extremely easily handled.
Earl developed a large polyp in his inner left ear near his eardrum and had to surgically have his entire ear canal removed (TECA Surgery) in May 2019. This is why his ear is slightly floppy on one side in recent pictures, and that ear doesn’t have an “entrance hole” in it. Despite this disability, Earl has great hearing in his right ear and he is just happy to no longer have a polyp in his ear!!
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Serafina “Purrtato” Starsong (Also a Milo’s Cat!)
Sex: Female
Age: Adult
Eyes: None
Coat: POTATO (Calico Snowshoe Siamese)
Breed: Siamese x Domestic Short Hair (aka cat mutt)
Special Needs: Blind
Sera is an absolute sweetie. She is extremely serious about SNUGGLING and will push her face into your hand or face with love. She is almost always purring and has gotten the nickname “Purrtato” because she is great at becoming a tiny potato-loaf. She is a petite little cat and has a cute butterfly marking on her head! She was originally a Milo’s Rescue and was fostered at No Eyed Car Club until we adopted her as a Lifetime cat! She is in love with Chris (Cat Dad) and can often be seen clinging to him or snuggling all over his face. She gets around great despite not having eyes and her favorite other cat at the house is Nux.
Sera was left at a high kill shelter in San Diego. We don’t know her story before Milo’s rescued her but she had already been spayed and had her eyes removed before they found her. She had no microchip and her humans never came to find her. She was so scared and stressed at the shelter in the small cage that she chewed on the bars of the cage. She’s doing great now and we love her dearly!
Art of Sera.. as a PURRTATO!
Sera has a cute butterfly markings on her head! (extends up the ears and onto the face.)
Sera gets around without issues!
Her famous “Purrtato” form! Kneading the floor happily while “looking” up at me. BIG YAWN.
Cat Mom and Cat Dad with Sera!
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Puzzle
Sex: Female
Age: Adult
Eyes: Yellow-Green
Coat: Calico
Breed: Domestic Short Hair (aka cat mutt)
Special Needs: None, she is Chewie’s companion!
Puzzle was found alone on the side of a freeway exit. She has a tail that is kinked into a perfect curly-Q! We aren’t sure if she was born with it as a birth defect or if it was from an injury that healed and doesn’t cause her any pain. We later found Jenga who we are 99.9% sure is her sister since they look so alike, seem to know each other, and are both such ridiculously friendly little sweethearts. Puzzle was originally just going to be a foster cat, but she connected so well with Chewie that he pretty much “adopted” her as one of his own “special needs”. We’ve figured out recently that Puzzle was partially raised by a very sweet homeless man who found her litter as very small kittens which is why they’re so friendly! If we find anymore of these cuties when we have space, they will definitely be up for adoption if they’re all just as sweet as her.
Puzzle has the most endearing, inquisitive, sweet, eyes.
She is a pro snuggler…
…and a good lap kitty!
She love.
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Jenga
Sex: Female
Age: Adult
Eyes: Yellow-Green
Coat: Calico
Breed: Domestic Short Hair (aka cat mutt)
Special Needs: Missing 1 front leg
Jenga was found near a freeway (in the same general area her sister, Puzzle, was found.) She was already walking around on 3 legs despite having 4 when she was found. It appears that she was involved in some sort of accident (most likely involving a car) and it was broken, then it healed itself back up… very awkwardly because she was not given immediate medical attention since she was living on the streets as a stray. When we found her we figured out she had extensive nerve damage in the arm and multiple breaks so we immediately planned on getting her the best medical attention she could have for it, which ended up being amputation. She is now recovering from surgery and doing well! We can’t wait until she is healed enough so that she can meet her sister’s best friend, Chewie!
Just like her sister, she loves laps!
She is also really good at making adorable faces with her big round eyes!
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Odin aka Odie
Sex: Male
Age: Adult
Eyes: Yellow
Coat: Gray Tabby and very soft
Breed: Domestic Short Hair (aka cat mutt)
Special Needs: Chronic upper respiratory issues (possibly allergies), partially blind, partially deaf, permanently deformed ears
Very friendly! We’re trying to figure out if we can cure his upper respiratory issues and rid of ears of ear mites. He is otherwise a very very sweet cuddly guy!
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Yokai
Sex: Female
Age: Adult
Eyes: Yellow-Green
Coat: Calico and extremely FLUFFY
Breed: Domestic Long Hair (aka cat mutt)
Special Needs: Chronic upper respiratory issues and allergies
Extremely friendly! Loves to run on a cat wheel. FLUFFIEST TAIL EVER. A perfect lucky cat, but also a little menace. She loves to team up with Lyra and wreck havoc.
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Buckthorn aka “Bucky” (Sponsored Resident)
Sex: Male
Age: Adult
Eyes: Cool Green
Coat: Gray and White
Breed: Domestic Short Hair (aka cat mutt)
Special Needs: None but is shy at first
Sponsored Kitty~
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Krampus (R.I.P.)
Sex: Male
Age: Went over the rainbow bridge as an old man~
Size: Medium
Eyes: Yellow
Coat: VOID Black
Breed: Domestic Short Hair (aka cat mutt)
Special Needs: 3-Legs, Feral
Krampus is feral, but he is special needs, so he needs a human to look after him and a place to call home. For now, we are that home. He was found with a very broken leg which was broken for weeks (or months?) before someone was notified. Rocket Cat Rescue immediately caught him, paid for the surgery to amputate his leg, nursed him back to health, and has been working on socializing him for over a year now. As a feral black cat, with 3 legs, it had been extremely hard to find him a permanent home, if you are interested please contact us! Other shelters & rescues would’ve given up on him and euthanized him a year ago, even though he is perfectly healthy. We think he deserves a chance to thrive. He has a very cute habit of blepping his little tongue out, has huge round yellow eyes, and loves CHURU treats!
