 | Did you ever need someone so bad? Did you ever need someone that you knew that you could not have? Did you ever try so hard that your world just falls apart? If you did, then you would know how I felt about Charmed and what happened to my world. But I didn't always feel this way. This story is dedicated to Charmed, the cat that broke my heart. |
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Charmed My Baby  To help cats in need, I volunteer with a pet rescue group. One day I met a wonderful person while I was bringing a neighbor's kittens to adoption. Her name was Diane, and she worked with the group but did her own rescues and funding. I have never met anyone quite like her. Diane feeds her homeless cat colonies Science Diet. She feels that they need a better brand of food due to their environment. Diane mentioned she had some kittens that she wanted to rescue but she had no room for them. She was getting worried because originally there were four but for the last few days they have only seen three of them. Two of the kittens were long haired and I have a soft spot for long haired cats so I agreed I would foster them when I came back from my vacation.
Right before Thanksgiving Diane set four traps to catch them but to her surprise there were five! She had to go back the next day with the fifth trap. Three of the four kittens (all black) were quit sick. The one healthy kitten was spayed and brought to my house. Diane named her Beauty. The other three black kittens had conjunctivitis so they came the following week on antibiotics. Two were short haired and one was long haired. The last of the five was a long haired tortie. She too was very ill and they didn't think she would make it through the night. But after a week on antibiotics she came to my house. She appeared to be the runt of the litter and had to stay on antibiotics for a few weeks. |
Spider
Two weeks went by and they began to allow me to handle them. I discovered the three that came together were boys. I had named one TC for Top Cat as he was the watcher of the boys. The other was named Velvet due to the softness of his coat. The last of the boys I named Charmed. He seemed to have a charm about him that grew as time went by. For sure he charmed me with his shy little ways. After a few days I noticed later that Charmed had lumps under his glands. He was put on antibiotics for a week but it didn't seem to help. I named the little torie girl Muiesette as she reminded me of a cat character from a book that my mom would read to me when I was a child.
I happened to have an appointment with my own vet and she said I could bring Charmed along. She looked at him and gave him a blood test for FELV/FIV and different antibiotics. Two days later I got that news he was "Positive for FELV" and he seemed to be getting weaker by the day. We switched him back to the original antibiotics and he appeared to get better. Having gone through FELV a few years back with my own cat, my first reaction was one of hopelessness and of being overwhelmed. Also, my FIV cat (Bamama) had almost died due to a bunch of sick kittens I had been fostering the last time with this group. Here I was again with another problem cat that had an illness that could jeopardize my sweet Bamama's health. I felt there was no choice, I had to get this kitten out of my house. I wanted no part of a kitten with FELV. |
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Charmed  I told Diane that there was a place that took FELV cats and that maybe Charmed could go there. But Diane said she never had a cat test positive in the thirty cats she found at this location. She convinced me that there was a chance this was a false positive in which case he would get better. She talked me into giving him a chance and not getting rid of him. I was still very skeptical since my last time with this group with sick kittens ended up in a disaster. The difference this time was I was fostering through Diane who so far had helped me one hundred percent. As time would later prove, she was much different than the rest of this rescue group.
In the back of my mind I kept thinking how is this cat ever going to be adopted with FELV. I was unable to stop feeling negative until I found a FELV support group on the internet ( http://www.felineleukemia.org). At the same time, Charmed started to get a little better and I started to think positive. The support group was made of owners who had FELV positive cats and had found things to help their cats live better lives. It was no longer a hopeless illness. I had new found hope. Diane, on the other hand was a little skeptical over this group. Her feeling was how could pet owners know more than veterinarians. Turns out they did. |
Mom & I
Charmed went on some supplements that some of the group recommended. I bought Ester C, Thymus, and Enzyme Q-10. He hated the Ester C. I found out later after I decided to taste it, it was bitter. I then purchased Mega C. That must have been much more palatable to Charmed since when I mixed it with some juices from canned cat food he would eat all of it.
The next time Charmed went to the vet he seemed to be doing better so the vet gave him his first vaccination. He became sick again so he went back on antibiotics and recovered quickly this time. The vet was new and I guess she didn't realize how dangerous it was to vaccinate with a live virus an animal with a poor immune system.
The vet recommended he be placed in his own cage so that he would not endanger his siblings. Charmed didn't seem to mind, everyone was still in sight. To occupy his time I gave him a triangular scratching post that I called his 'Buba'. He adored this thing. Whenever I walked into the room I would always find him propped up on it with his arm tucked around under the bottom of it. I tried to get a picture of him with his Buba but I never managed to. He would always get up before I could click the shutter. Charmed also loved a little ball on an elastic string that I had given him. He would go insane playing with it until one day he broke the string off the plastic. Then he just loved the orange stick that was left. I never saw a kitten get so thrilled over a piece of plastic. He would jump and flip over any time it was near. But then, Charmed loved any toy. He was like a kid in the candy factory. He would run from one toy to the other. He had to touch each one. |
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