Kelly With Lime »

Many friends who have followed my recent adoption of my cat, Lars, and his subsequent health issues (as posted about on FB), have asked for an update on his condition.  First of all, thank you for asking!  To be honest, I have felt a little silly to have taken things as hard as I have, but those who have had pets reassured me that this is just how they are: in a short time they burrow their way into your heart and it’s soon hard to imagine life without them.  And that was just the way it was with Lars.  His sweet temperament and cuddly nature instantly endeared him to me so I would want to race home from a long day at work to see him. I loved how he would sit his furry body down on my head in the middle of the night or ‘meow’ politely when I made eye contact with him early in the morning as if it ask, “Are you ready to get up? No pressure.”

For those that hadn’t seen FB updates, in short, Lars’ appetite was poor when I brought him and he had lost several pounds while in the shelter for two months.  When it became apparent within the first few days of having him home that his appetite was not improving and in fact declined, I consulted both the shelter vet as well as my own private vet.  Monitoring and medication was the first response, followed eventually by x-rays and blood tests.  The private vet’s blood tests revealed that Lars has FIV, the cat equivalent of HIV, which he had likely contracted from some other infected mean cat who bit him several years ago.  (Can you tell I’m a little angry at the cat who infected Lars? I’ll process this in therapy. ;=P) Like humans with HIV, cats can live symptom-free for many years until something depresses their immune system.  Eventually, they don’t have the strength to battle whatever illness they contract (in Lars’ case, the flu), and it leads to a health decline.  Cats like Lars may bounce back for periods of time (a week, a month, they don’t know), only to decline further the next time, and the next time, and the next time, eventually wasting away.

For a little over a week Lars has been at the shelter’s hospital rehab unit where they were running a second, more accurate test and also monitoring his eating more closely than I can now that school, practicum/training and work are in full-force.  Yesterday I received a call from the shelter vet who confirmed that Lars does have FIV and that while he is comfortable and doing relatively-OK at the moment (he had resumed eating a little more), the prognosis was not good and the recommendation was for me to surrender Lars back to the shelter who would take on his care from now on. This is what I have decided to do.

We had two weeks together and I loved every minute with this sweet guy. Here are just a handful of photos taken with my cell phone camera in the time we had.

Eventually I will find another furry friend to invade my home but until then, Lars will remain, in my mind, the best cat ever.