That’s what Jet-Eye said this morning when I went in to scrub his wounds and greet him. The affliction on his skin seems to be growing under his legs. The vet says it’s not ringworm- hopefully today the results will be in and we will find out what it is.

Last night, late I got a phone call. The woman said the cat had cruised into their life about 2 weeks ago and was now trying to get into her home. Her husband a daughter were highly allergic and they had small dogs and a dog door that had to stay open 24/7. She said she had called everyone, but no one would take this black cat and now he had a really bad eye that looked gooey and nasty.

He is in isolation and I have a bad feeling about this beautiful, friendly boy. I think his eye is the least of his problems, and I hope I am wrong but I suspect either FeLV or FIV onboard of this young tom because of his appearance and he is riddled with ringworm.

Ringworm in the cat world is an opportunistic disease, generally preying on the weak and immune compromised and the young. He is (I would guess) about 7-8 months old and I will take him in this morning to be tested. I suspect, I won’t be bringing him back  home. You do this so long, sometimes you just know that something isn’t quite right.

But I am not a vet and truthfully not in a good positive place in my life at the moment, so I will hold onto the hope that this is just a nasty case of calici  or felineherpes and go from there. Time will tell. At least he is anything but feral! I am calling him Jet-

Update 1:42- Just got back with Jet-eye. This poor sweet kitty has been put through the wringer! He tested negative to the nasties which was a pleasant surprise for me BUT he has a raging URI a fungal infection that is NOT ringworm- a bacterial skin condition on his belly of unknown source (tests still pending) and he only has one good eye. They also detected a heart murmur but are hoping this is just a result of the high fevers he has been running, the stress he has been under and the upper respiratory. He also has a really bad case of ear mites that rival the ones Pan had. Poor kitty. He is almost a year old and not neutered. …and won’t be for two weeks or so once the URI is under control.

Through it all, even being a tom, he was a perfect angel. He is home now and kind of grumbling at me (can’t blame him there). I would grumble too. He’s been de-flead and de-wormed no vaccinations, they say he isn’t strong enough yet. I was going to call him Jet but finding out he only has one eye- I added to it- Jet-eye.

He was given a shot of covenia, they used the one-time treatment for ear mites on  him (even though I did put Revolution on him last night). They cleaned and shaved his fungal patches and washed him down with special soaps, clipped his nails (he was digging at his eye) dewormed him gave him fluids to help the fever come down further and sent him home. I have to be very careful handling him because his fungal infection and bacterial infection on his skin might be contagious to people as well as other cats. Won’t know until Monday when the results come back- but to transfer that to Mike would be devastating. I have gloves, scrubs, shoe covers and mask ready at the door for every time I have to go in there to take care of him.

Here he is after the vet visit. Totally exhausted but keeping his good eye on me. (I think he feels I might snatch him up again and put him into the carrier) for another go-around.

The other morning, I went out to the enclosure to feed Morgan and found her lying so still, I thought she was gone already. I ran into the house and grabbed my fluids and pumped them into her and for a cat who would have rather run 100 yard dash over my head then to ever let me touch her- she barely moved. Damn I hate FIP.

I called a friend, and gathered her in my lap and we raced to the vet. She died on the way. Anne if you are by chance reading this, I am so sorry for this final outcome. My feline specialist when I reached out to her to help me get through all of this said she was sad, but not surprised. Just my early emails to her made her fear that the kittens were fighting an infectious disease or something worse. I know Anne, when you dropped them at my door you did tell me that they weren’t very healthy kittens and we did all we could to try and bump up their immune systems and reduce stress.

I received the family in November and was really hoping that at least one would beat the odds. I need to share the tunnel they managed to build in their spare time before they got sick. The way that the catio was built, George left a space of about 9 inches between the catio and the wall. The cats were dropping into the space and tunneling to freedom- and the only way to stop them was to block the access to the catio itself. It is a clever tunnel, I have to give them that- but they never actually tunneled which they could have done. It was just where they went to hide.

So Sweet Morgan, you could hide from the eyes of people who loved you but not from the disease coursing through your veins. You are now with your mom and your sister in a glorious place where there are now no walls, no tunnels, no barriers- just peace with no pain.

I went in this morning to talk to Mike’s PC and it was the most frustrating conversation I have had in a long time. I explained how my husband is now twitching, moaning, groaning,  mumbling and complaining about pain in his leg for the first time in years. How when he falls asleep in his lift chair, he has such deep spasms that he almost falls out of his chair and his pain keeps me  up till about 4:00 a.m. when his body finally succumbs to exhaustion and he falls asleep. I asked them to please give him some sort of muscle relaxer, and new pain med anything and this is what was relayed to me:

They do not believe that what I am describing is pain. Therefore, they want to explore this new development before describing any new medication so I have to take him in on Monday to be seen and “explored.” I believe I know my husband well enough to know when he is in pain and now when I am carefully washing his leg, he is almost in tears because he feels the pain. His leg is now like a snake shedding skin- but it’s not skin according to the “experts” but a wall of bacteria that builds up within 24 hours. He’s never complained before now so it is all pretty unsettling.

So for right now, when it comes to new rescues, I am going to be a bit selective for awhile and only take one instead of four- or try to help the caller out in other ways without taking any. Too much on my plate right now- too much sadness in my heart at all the recent departures. I just need to step back and figure out how to breathe again-