I have a lovely feline companion called Winston (see my previous posts here) who I love to bits.

A few months ago a new cat appeared. He was sneaking through Winston's cat flap and eating his food, and thus I saw him as a nuisance and chased him away several times. Once I even through a jug of water over him, I'm sorry to say.

However as the seasons changed and the temperature dropped, I began to feel sorry for the poor wee thing. Eventually my guilt was such that I allowed him to come inside, eat properly and ultimately live with us.

Winston hated him though, and for the first time in his life we heard him hiss. But still we couldn't turn away this poor mangy, skeletal wee thing, as we knew he wouldn't survive the winter.

So we had him checked by an SSPCA officer who warned us that should he be taken by her he may be put down. Thus we decided to take care of him ourselves.

That decision was undertaken around four weeks ago. We called him Monty.

Over the last four weeks we have had him castrated, given antibiotics and treated him for various conditions from which he had suffered. We were told that he'd been in a lot of fights and had suffered terribly and that a blood sample would be required to test for FIV.

He was a lovely wee thing and so grateful for getting fed and being able to sleep in a warm room. He purred when we stroked him and became very gentle. Watching him recover was a joy to behold!

This morning I took him to the vets and was sadly informed that he was FIV+. I cried as I signed the form for him to be euthanised.

R.I.P. Monty

How sad:

I thought you could keep an FIV cat as long as any others were vaccinated?
Its a shame the vets didnt find out he was FIV before he was neutered etc but at least he had a nice few final weeks. RIP Monty

How sad

I thought FIV+ cats could be kept as lone indoor pets or with other FIV+ cats though?

Indeed. Though as he was black there was little chance that he would've been adopted (I was assured there was no chance, in fact) and there is no vaccine for FIV, so we would have been risking other cats in the neighbourhood, as well as our own.

I have now discovered (thanks to a visit from the neighbour) that he belonged to a senile pensioner who suffered from dementia. He wasn't wilfully negelected, but was the victim of her condition.

How sad
R.I.P Monty

__________________

Black with white around his private area



Black Tortoiseshell




R.I.P Patch my well behaved boy dog
R.I.P. Abby and Rebel my beautifull litter sister cats

Folks,

Do you think I have done the wrong thing?

I ask because I feel very guilty.

Monty didn't mean much to me until he was euthanised. Since then I have cried, partly because of his sad life and also because of guilt on my part:

a) before we took him in I threw a jug of water over him, and ushered him away.

b) because we give our own cat a treat of prawns every night, which he adores. Because Monty appreciated eating normal cat food so much we thought it best to continue feeding him that at first. However, he could smell the prawns and on one occasion made a noise suggesting he'd love some.

We thought that he'd have years with him to treat him with such delicacies.

His FIV status wasn't due until the Monday, but arrived early and on the day he was due an anti-biotics booster (Saturday).

I'm now having pangs of guilt that occasionaly pulsate through my body and wake up in tears. They're such that they've made me pause for breath. I wonder whether I should have kept him on.

Don't feel guilty hun, you did the right thing - Big Hugs xx

You did what you were advised, he didnt suffer he died with at least someone caring and grieving for him. Whenever we have to make life or death decisions there is always feelings of guilt and uncertainties. Recently I had to make the awful decision to put my 18 month old cat to sleep after keeping him at the vets for over a week willing him to pull through. The vets said he needed to go but even now I wonder if we had hung on would he have pulled through? We can only go on what we are advised and our instincts. Please dont beat yourself up over it, you showed him love and compassion.