Hello there! It’s been a while since I wrote a more personal post. The last month or so has been a bit of a whirlwind and I’ve just really wanted to get my thoughts down on it all. We have some very exciting news to announce in that we adopted another cat, Nicky! The road hasn’t been typical or straight at all with our new little guy. After this post and knowing our history with cats (you can read my 2019 post on our cats), you’ll be saying, wow, she really knows how to pick ’em…
We had dabbled into getting another cat for awhile. It’s been over a year since we lost Pebble. We had signed Max up for some Feline Behaviour Courses through the Toronto Humane Society as we noticed he was having some aggression problems. Among other things, one of the suggestions was to look into getting another cat so Max could continually let off some steam. I was of course overjoyed at the suggestion that another cat could be possible. We signed up to be foster parents through THS along with some other places. I had begun looking more closely at adoptables, but we were pretty sure we wanted to foster to adopt to ensure Max would be okay.
We had reached out to a shelter (not THS) just to inquire about one of their adoptable cats. Once they learned about Max’s FIV, they said their shelter policy was that they would not adopt an FIV negative cat to a FIV positive household. I was dismayed to hear this response as it’s pretty well known that FIV positive and FIV negative cats can coexist in the same household. I responded my disappointment and moved on. They had said that if they had any FIV positive cats come through, they would let us know as FIV positive cats can be hard to place. I didn’t think much of it.
We were contacted a week later by the shelter that they had a new arrival, Nicky who was FIV positive and if we were interested. That was a Friday and we ended picking him up Sunday. The shelter had said that they don’t do foster to adopt in these situations, but with the opportunity, we decided to go for it. Other than his FIV status, we were told that he was healing from a neck wound (what brought him to the shelter) and that we may see some hair loss around where they treated it. Like most shelter cats, they didn’t have much other background on him (he had only been with the shelter for about a week before we adopted him).
I dusted off my cat introduction books, set up Nicky’s sanctuary room, and we picked him up. He’s a one year old, tuxedo male. Right when we brought him home, he was friendly and very chatty. Totally comfortable with being pet anywhere and picked up. We weren’t sure if he’d be in any way feral, but he was totally and 100% comfortable with us. His first few days were a complete joy. No interaction in anyway with Max as we wanted to make sure the vet cleared him of anything before meeting. With FIV the immune system is lower and we wanted to make sure Max was ok.
The Wednesday after we picked Nicky up, we noticed mid day that he was breathing extremely quickly and very lethargic. He was super food motivated and we noticed he wasn’t eating his lunch at all. We decided to take him to emergency vet. We had been through Pebble and you could say we are more than a little cautious compared to maybe the ‘regular’ cat owner.
Nicky ended up staying 2 days overnight at the emergency vet. At first the options were either heart disease or pneumonia. They were thinking more so heart disease. They had a flurry of specialists seeing him and many tests done. After the second day they were able to rule out heart disease (which was a huge relief because a cat of his age with heart disease would give him months to live). We were facing a flurry of emotions at this time. We had literally just met him and he was just getting settled in. The vet bills were pretty large (to be expected with overnight stays and the amount of tests they were doing on him). My fiance and I are lucky to be in the position that we are in to be able to pay for all the bills. After the first day, our decision was that we’d take the vet’s advice, and try to advocate as best we could for Nicky. After the first day, euthanasia was mentioned briefly. It was all very intense.
When he was ready to come home, the diagnosis they thought was most likely was feline asthma. When I heard that a huge relief washed over me, cats can get asthma? Apparently so. The prescription for puffers I had to fill at the human pharmacy. I wonder if I could get these under my insurance plan I thought (apparently the answer to that is no because that’s fraud boo hoo). When I started to research more and more though, my excitement turned to trepidation. Feline asthma is a progressive disease that has a lifespan around 6 years (significantly lower than a normal indoor cat). I read articles about people hiring vet techs to come into their home to provide dosages of medication when they were at the 9-5 job. Again, the feeling of an overwhelming unknown was hard to rid.
We’ve had Nicky for since February 7th. He’s doing a lot better. We just finished an antibiotic he was on in case of pneumonia (the vets didn’t think he had it, but it was as a precaution). He’s been on two puffers twice a day. Our introductions with Max have unfortunately taken a back seat until we could get Nicky feeling physically ok. He has coughing attacks daily (almost like he’s trying to cough up a hairball. Apparently an asthma attack is very similar looking to a hairball).
Nicky’s temperament is amazing. He’s playful with the toys we interact with him, his healthy appetite has returned, and he loves to meow! We still haven’t had a full wellness check yet (teeth, full vaccinations, etc.) so we are taking things with Max very slowly. We are starting the scent swapping and eating in front the door though!
So there we have it! Really, we do know how to pick them eh? FIP with Pebble, FIV with Max, and FIV with Asthma with Nicky. What can I say though, the amount of joy that these little creatures bring to life makes it all worthwhile. It’s hard to say how long we’ll have with Nicky (even with Max really with his FIV), but I look forward to enjoying their company. 🙂
