Was hoping he was just pretending to be sick to get in the house
Richmond, VA: this handsome dude showed up at our house back around October or November last year. He obviously belonged to someone at some point, he’s the sweetest boy just looking for pets and food. He fell in love with our TNR girls of our colony and became their little protector so we named him Strider (yeah, I’m a LOTR nerd). He’s been trying to come in the house lately but we were hesitant as we already have a whole crew of former ferals inside (7) and one of our boys is pretty territorial. He has his own climate controlled cathouse on the porch and we made sure he was fed and pet to his little hearts desire, as long as he tolerated it.
Well… 2 weeks ago we hadn’t seen him for a day or so and then he shows up for breakfast super lethargic, looking super skinny, not wanting to eat and just laying around. His normally beautiful coat was oily, and instantly we knew something was wrong. I had to go to work, and my husband called our vet immediately to get him in with our dog for her appointment the next morning, luckily they could squeeze him in. When my husband went to check on him again he was just laying in the woods far behind our house, something he never does, he picked him up and got him secured. Little dude was in bad shape. Fast forward $600 that I scraped together from god knows where, and despite a clear blood panel, he’s got a heart murmur and FIV. F*ck.
So now he’s living in our bathroom, putting on weight little by little, and making sure he yells at me like he runs the damn place every time I go in there. I know I can’t keep him long term, financially (my husband is disabled and I’m just a server) and for the safety of our other cats, but damn do I love him so much. And I feel so guilty not bringing him in sooner because I’m pretty sure I know when he contracted the FIV. We have a nasty tom cat who I can’t catch that tried to go after our colony and he fought them off, we made sure he got taken care of and healed, but I should’ve just figured it out then. Ugh. Sorry for the rant, it’s just been emotional over here lately and the fact that he’s FINALLY eating and improving is just so relieving and I’m so proud of him.