In August 2003 a beautiful, blue stray appeared smack in the middle of my front doorstep. She was hungry and when I opened the door to bring out some food and water she walked in like she was home. I took Carmen in and eventually to the vet and learned Carmen was between 12-14 months and pregnant. Voodoo (solid black) and Gateway (tuxedo) were born in October. We kept the family together.
All were spayed/neutered, treated regularly by the vet, and up to date on shots. The one thing that was not addressed was testing for FeLV/HIV. This weekend, we lost Gateway to FeLV. It was all so sudden - he became symptomatic just last week! He was bigger and stronger than either Voodoo and Carmen and much more docile - he was the last one I thought anything would happen to! I wish I knew then what I now know about these diseases - I would have addressed this with the vet from the get go, especially with Carmen having been a stray. But you don't think of complexities when you do something simple like taking in a stray cat.
When Gateway became sick last week, I had posted some inquiries on the Health and Wellness forum. The responses were helpful as they were comforting when I posted the eventual loss of my beloved Gateway.
In the aftermath of Gateway's loss, I am a wiser and more knowledgeable cat lover/owner and glad to be a member of the catsite.com community. I am also loving my Carmen and Voodoo more so than usual and hoping when they get tested this week, their prognosis will be better.
All were spayed/neutered, treated regularly by the vet, and up to date on shots. The one thing that was not addressed was testing for FeLV/HIV. This weekend, we lost Gateway to FeLV. It was all so sudden - he became symptomatic just last week! He was bigger and stronger than either Voodoo and Carmen and much more docile - he was the last one I thought anything would happen to! I wish I knew then what I now know about these diseases - I would have addressed this with the vet from the get go, especially with Carmen having been a stray. But you don't think of complexities when you do something simple like taking in a stray cat.
When Gateway became sick last week, I had posted some inquiries on the Health and Wellness forum. The responses were helpful as they were comforting when I posted the eventual loss of my beloved Gateway.
In the aftermath of Gateway's loss, I am a wiser and more knowledgeable cat lover/owner and glad to be a member of the catsite.com community. I am also loving my Carmen and Voodoo more so than usual and hoping when they get tested this week, their prognosis will be better.
