Truffles the Kitty inspires visually-impaired children

Truffles the Kitty doesn’t just look good in glasses–she helps children with vision impairments feel good about themselves, too! This optics-loving feline is changing the world one pair of glasses and eyepatch at a time. Truffles spreads awareness of childhood vision needs in-person and online, in addition to raising money for children whose families cannot afford the cost of eyeglasses. Dedicated to de-stigmatizing eye conditions, she has been featured on dozens of YouTube channels and amassed hundreds of thousands of social media followers. To learn more about Truffles and her impact, we interviewed her owner, optician Danielle Crull.What is your background in optics? Have you always specialized in the vision needs of children? What is your favorite part of working in that field?I’m a Master Optician and I’ve been an optician since 1988. An optician is the person who fills the doctor’s prescription for glasses. I opened my own office in 2002 where I specialize in the fitting of glasses for children, infants and up. My absolute favorite part of working in the field is seeing kid’s faces when they put their glasses on for the first time. It’s amazing to see their reactions, while all different, it is unmistakable that they are truly seeing for the first time.What inspired you to create the first pair of glasses for Truffles? Was it difficult to make a pair of glasses fit a cat?Within a few weeks of having Truffles, I found out exactly how smart she is. She started to learn tricks like, sit, high five, up, paw bumps, jumping through hoops and waving. Because Truffles had become one of our office kitties, I just wondered if I could teach her to wear glasses as another “trick.” I approached fitting Truffles, just like my little human patients. I considered what would fit and how to make them comfortable. I wanted her to be able to remove them whenever she wanted to and I made sure to keep the glasses out of the way of her whiskers. The glasses I ultimately decided to use are a real pair of frames that we use to fit preemies. It was light, flexible and could be curved nicely around her head. She since grew out of those and now, as a full-grown kitty, wears newborn sized glasses.

Can you tell me a little bit about Truffles, such as personality, age, or how long you’ve had her?Truffles is seven years old now and I’ve had her since she was about 12 weeks. She was born to her mom who was a stray cat and Truffles was the last kitten to find a home. Lucky for me, because I became that home. Truffles is extremely smart and her personality is very chill; however, she does not like to be pet more than about three times. If I try to keep petting her, she takes her paws and holds my hand down. She gives me a good staring too, lol. She ALWAYS wants to be near me. I am never out of her sight, mostly because she thinks a treat could pop out of my pocket at any time and treats are serious business for Truffles!Is there a story of how Truffles has helped children at your office that you’d like to share?It’s so hard to pick one story. She has helped countless kiddos at the office. Mostly small ways that make a big impact. My favorites are always the three-to-four-year-olds who proudly proclaim, “Truffles is like me!” It’s so powerful to see yourself represented and Truffles does that, every time she puts her glasses on or wears her eyepatch. You can see their confidence growing!What are some of the challenges that vision-impaired children face? Are there medical conditions or challenges the public is often unaware of?Vision develops during the first seven to nine years of life. So many things can interfere with the development of the visual cortex in the brain. One condition that affects nearly 4% of all children is amblyopia! Amblyopia is decreased vision in generally one eye because one see better than the other. This often requires kids to wear an eye patch. They cover the “good” eye in order to help improve vision in the “not so good eye.” This is a very successful form of treatment, but it is also difficult. Much of the difficulty is because the child can’t see well and also because there is a stigma associated with wearing an eye patch.I heard that Truffles has started wearing glasses with lenses designed for children with color blindness and that she really enjoys wearing them. Do you know if the lenses are able to improve Truffles’ color vision?I made these special glasses for Truffles because one in 12 boys are colorblind and I wanted to create awareness. What I didn’t count on was that Truffles would love them, too. I had no idea what her reaction would be like, but when I put them on her, it was unmistakable. It’s impossible to know if she sees color like we do, and she probably does not. But she definitely sees things differently and without a doubt she likes it!

I read about the amazing work of the Truffles the Kitty Organization! Are there any stories from the organization that you’d like to share?Thank you so much! Starting the organization seemed like a natural direction when Truffles went viral on social media. I was so excited to see that Truffles could help kids all over the world. She had been such a powerful influence in my little office, I knew she could help so many more kids. Helping kids wear an eye patch is something I’m very passionate about because I know that doing it well can save a child from blindness. And most kids just need some encouragement and a little help being brave.One of our most successful programs is a web application called “Patching with Truffles.” Kids wear their eye patch every day with Truffles! They watch Truffles put on her eye patch and then they put theirs on too! These kids get to collect virtual stickers and participate in challenges to earn more stickers. But the best part is, they can send messages to Truffles. Truffles hears the sweetest stories from kids. She’s there for them on the good days and the hard days too.Also, one of my favorite letters Truffles got was from a little girl whose glasses were broken and Truffles through the organization and the help of a few opticians were able to replace her broken frame.Her note said, “Dear Truffles and the other people, Thank you so much! I needed new glasses frames, but we couldn’t afford it! It’s nice to know that people like you are still here, and you have no idea how much it means to me that you people helped me by giving me new glasses!” This little girl was 10 years old.I also love that we were able to encourage a little boy to patch who is deaf. We made a special package for him that included encouragement in sign language. We love being the kind of organization that can really specialize our help to meet needs in whatever way we need to.

What ways can people get involved with the Truffles the Kitty Organization? How can they support the cause?We’d love for you to follow Truffles on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, as well as sharing our content. You can find out more about our organization at www.trufflesthekitty.org and make donations right on the website. You can even sponsor an encouragement package for a child!What events or online activities is Truffles and her organization planning?Our community initiative for October is the Pumpkin Patch Project! We ask families to put an eye patch on one of their pumpkins in the month of October to help spread awareness of amblyopia!

To stay updated on Truffles’ journey helping kids, visit www.trufflesthekitty.com and follow Truffles on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. To learn more about Truffles the Kitty organization, visit www.trufflesthekitty.org.

Do you have a cat question you’d like answered in our blog? Email rmniels [at] gmail.com.