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- Jul 9, 2019
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Today we said our final goodbyes to Gizmo, an intact male domestic shorthair kitty who had FIV. We figure he was somewhere between 3 and 5 years old.
Gizmo came into our lives about a month and a-half ago. Apparently he saw our two cats (Puffin, a fluffy black cat with a white ruffle on his chest and Smokey, an all-grey domestic shorthair) using the cat door in the kitchen and figured it out. One day my wife was sitting on the couch with our two kitties nearby, and suddenly she heard the plastic cat door flap being used, and then a cat appeared on the short counter where we keep cat bowls. The cat began devouring all the food in the bowls.
I tried to find out if our new visitor belonged to anyone in the trailer park, but had no success. We live in an area where it is not uncommon for people to dump off cats, so we figured that might be how Gizmo showed up in our area. It took us a few weeks to get Gizmo into the vet due to scheduling issues and a cancellation due to the lady vet having a baby. Finally, when we did get Gizmo in, they checked him for a chip (didn't have one) and they verified that he was still a "fully equipped" male. Gizmo did have the habit of overgrooming and biting/scratching his skin and had several sores on him. We had bought some stuff through Chewy that did seem to help a little with that issue. They tested him for feline leukemia and FIV (basically HIV for cats). Of course, in the meantime we had made Gizmo part of our family. We had to watch things when he and the other two kitties were around, as Gizmo tended to be aggressive toward them when inside the house. Outside it wasn't a real problem, just in enclosed areas. Anyway, Gizmo and I really bonded. I often sleep on the sofa in the living room due to my wife and I both being snorers. Many nights, I would wake up and find Gizmo snuggled up next to (or on top of) me. On weekends, if I was hanging out at the house in the spare bedroom/office, Gizmo would be snuggled up on my lap or chest. I fell in love with that cat. He reminded me a lot of Nemo, the cat I lost some time ago and posted about on these forums. The difference was, Gizmo was younger and should've had a full life ahead of him.
So we got the news that Gizmo tested positive for FIV. The vet said that a cat with FIV can still live a relatively good life, but must be kept away from other cats and must become an indoor-only cat so as to minimize exposure to things that his immune system could not handle (as well as keeping him away from other cats that he could potentially infect). That wasn't something we could do, given our situation. So I put out some feelers to see if anyone would be interested in taking in little Gizmo. Nobody was interested. I contacted our local humane society and explained the situation. They said that they could not promise to take him in, given his current state of health, and that likely they would end up declining to take him off our hands.
So my wife and I had to have a hard conversation about Gizmo's fate. It wasn't responsible to keep letting him out into the general population of cats in our area--many of whom have families that love them, just as we love our kitties--and it wasn't fair to the cats we already had or to my wife to keep trying to wrangle things in order to keep them separated. The whole "wrangling" thing was taking a toll on my wife's emotional health (she deals with clinical depression and has some physical issues as well).
So, today, which was supposed to be the day Gizmo got neutered, ended up being the day that we ended his life. The deed was done around 11:30 am Pacific Time--just a little over two hours ago as I write this. I have been a mess ever since. On the way home I stopped at the liquor store and got a bottle of 12 year Balvenie single malt Scotch. I'm not much of a drinker, but today I am. One one hand, I kinda wish Gizmo had never found us, as he would still be alive. On the other hand, I suspect that he had probably the happiest month and a-half of his life with us.
I raise my glass, with tears in my eyes. Goodbye, sweet Gizmo...You were loved.
Gizmo came into our lives about a month and a-half ago. Apparently he saw our two cats (Puffin, a fluffy black cat with a white ruffle on his chest and Smokey, an all-grey domestic shorthair) using the cat door in the kitchen and figured it out. One day my wife was sitting on the couch with our two kitties nearby, and suddenly she heard the plastic cat door flap being used, and then a cat appeared on the short counter where we keep cat bowls. The cat began devouring all the food in the bowls.
I tried to find out if our new visitor belonged to anyone in the trailer park, but had no success. We live in an area where it is not uncommon for people to dump off cats, so we figured that might be how Gizmo showed up in our area. It took us a few weeks to get Gizmo into the vet due to scheduling issues and a cancellation due to the lady vet having a baby. Finally, when we did get Gizmo in, they checked him for a chip (didn't have one) and they verified that he was still a "fully equipped" male. Gizmo did have the habit of overgrooming and biting/scratching his skin and had several sores on him. We had bought some stuff through Chewy that did seem to help a little with that issue. They tested him for feline leukemia and FIV (basically HIV for cats). Of course, in the meantime we had made Gizmo part of our family. We had to watch things when he and the other two kitties were around, as Gizmo tended to be aggressive toward them when inside the house. Outside it wasn't a real problem, just in enclosed areas. Anyway, Gizmo and I really bonded. I often sleep on the sofa in the living room due to my wife and I both being snorers. Many nights, I would wake up and find Gizmo snuggled up next to (or on top of) me. On weekends, if I was hanging out at the house in the spare bedroom/office, Gizmo would be snuggled up on my lap or chest. I fell in love with that cat. He reminded me a lot of Nemo, the cat I lost some time ago and posted about on these forums. The difference was, Gizmo was younger and should've had a full life ahead of him.
So we got the news that Gizmo tested positive for FIV. The vet said that a cat with FIV can still live a relatively good life, but must be kept away from other cats and must become an indoor-only cat so as to minimize exposure to things that his immune system could not handle (as well as keeping him away from other cats that he could potentially infect). That wasn't something we could do, given our situation. So I put out some feelers to see if anyone would be interested in taking in little Gizmo. Nobody was interested. I contacted our local humane society and explained the situation. They said that they could not promise to take him in, given his current state of health, and that likely they would end up declining to take him off our hands.
So my wife and I had to have a hard conversation about Gizmo's fate. It wasn't responsible to keep letting him out into the general population of cats in our area--many of whom have families that love them, just as we love our kitties--and it wasn't fair to the cats we already had or to my wife to keep trying to wrangle things in order to keep them separated. The whole "wrangling" thing was taking a toll on my wife's emotional health (she deals with clinical depression and has some physical issues as well).
So, today, which was supposed to be the day Gizmo got neutered, ended up being the day that we ended his life. The deed was done around 11:30 am Pacific Time--just a little over two hours ago as I write this. I have been a mess ever since. On the way home I stopped at the liquor store and got a bottle of 12 year Balvenie single malt Scotch. I'm not much of a drinker, but today I am. One one hand, I kinda wish Gizmo had never found us, as he would still be alive. On the other hand, I suspect that he had probably the happiest month and a-half of his life with us.
I raise my glass, with tears in my eyes. Goodbye, sweet Gizmo...You were loved.