 | 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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Chewy  Charmed was such an easy cat to give supplements to. He was good with taking interferon and his C so with the new supplements added to his regimen he had no problem taking the new remedies, as long as I mixed it with some of the juice from his canned food. We had a routine where I would mix it on his special blue plate, go in and tell him he was a good boy, make a big fuss, put the mixture down, and leave the room. I would come back in five minutes and if he hadn't finished it, I would add a little more juice and do the same thing. If he had finished it I would tell him he was a good boy, make a fuss, and get him a treat out of the draw. Once in awhile he was difficult and I would have to syringe it down him to get him to take it. He was okay with that and I sometimes wonder if he was difficult because he liked the change in routine. After a few months he understood he got a treat after he licked up his mix. As soon as I came back in he would be looking at the draw where the treats were kept. However, there was one remedy he didn't care for called 'Colestrum'. It was a milky substance which I had to syringe to get him to take. In the end he would actually try to hold the syringe and he looked like he was trying to push it to do it on his own. I guess he knew he got two treats after he took that. |
Bamama
When Charmed was young and we went to the vet he was visibly scared and upset. He would put his paw out of the carrier and as long as I held his paw he didn't cry. But, as he grew up he changed. He no longer needed my finger for security and he found 'Jazz'. There is a local radio station that plays jazz and one day I put it on. Charmed was so content he fell asleep in the carrier. On one occasion when he was in his carrier a mellow song came on with someone singing instead of jazz. He got up and gave me this perturbed look from his carrier. I told him it was his radio station I can't help that there is someone singing. He rolled his eyes at me, let out a sigh, and sat back down in his carrier with his little pout face on.
The vet was always amazed with Charmed. After a few visits he seemed to be very interested in what she had to say. Whenever she spoke he would be looking around until he heard his name. Then he stopped looking around the office and he would stare intensely at her with his one paw on top of the other and his head tilted resting on his paws. He would even nod his head as if he was agreeing or understanding her instructions of whatever we were going to do next. On one occasion even she remarked "Gosh he is looking and nodding at me like he understands every word I say." Personally I don't know how much he understood but I do believe he understood some of the human language by the way he reacted. As time went by I found myself constantly explaining things to him and I noticed he would respond better after I would explain why I was asking him to do something. |
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Dewey & Little One  Five months had gone by since Charmed was last tested and it had been two months since our visit with the holistic vet. I thought it was time for another test. I was hoping for a negative test but I was so nervous I was already planning ahead for the next test date. We decided to do both the IFA and the Elisa tests but with the Elisa being done at the office. As I watched the test the red line indicating positive was moving. I said "Oh well" but the vet said not to give up and to wait until the processing time was complete. When I looked again after ten minutes I couldn't believe it. He was negative! Even the vet was in shock when she looked at it. She said she felt like crying. It was one the happiest moments in my life. When we got home I went through our routine but when I put down Charmed's supplements he looked at it then looked back at me and pranced away. I told him he was not out of the woods yet and that he still needed to take his supplements. He gave me a sigh and did what he was told. Here was a cat that had a ninety-nine to one chance to beat FELV and now with this test result (Elsia) I felt his chances were really starting to look up on turning negative.
The IFA test took three weeks to get back and unfortunately the results were still positive. But I didn't give up hope. I had read that if a cat consistently tested positive on both tests then still tested positive on IFA but negative on Elisa, the cat had a seventy five percent chance to be completely negative within three years. Once they tested negative on both tests, they were likely to never have the virus again. I believed that Charmed was going to be one of the few lucky ones. And if he still didn't test negative on his next IFA I thought with the results he had on the Elsia, he was at least fighting it and he would live a long happy life being positive. |
Carla & Chewy
Things didn't turn out that way. Only six weeks after my good news, Charmed developed a cough. It was the same cough as my cat Spider had gotten a few months before passing away with throat cancer. I brought Charmed to the vet for tests and she indicated it sounded like an asthma problem. She x-rayed him and found Lymphoma cancer. I was devastated to say the least. When Charmed came home he was very upset. Somehow he knew things were not good. Like I said before he seemed to understand what was going on. When he came home he was very panicky. He ran back and forth to his scratching unit which he would do when he didn't want to do what I wanted or was ignoring me when I spoke to him. I told him we needed to talk but all he could do was look at the ceiling and keep scratching. The rest of the day he just lay looking outside with a distant look in his eyes and face, something I had never seen before. He was okay for a few days but then he began to have trouble breathing. He was going to see the oncologist the following day so we brought him in the night before. He stayed there for a few days and had his first chemotherapy. He came home and he seemed fine. He had his energy back and he wanted to play. I tried to restrict his running in order for him not to over exert himself but he just didn't care. He was so glad to be home he just kept racing around. I gave him some herbal tea with some aloe. That seemed to help coat his throat but he really disliked the taste of the tea. He reminded me of a child taking medicine. He closed his eyes, wrinkled his nose, opened his mouth and choked. I said "Oh please Charmed, I didn't even give you it yet." He opened his one eye and looked up and opened his mouth again. I wish I had a video of his reaction, it was priceless. |
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