RIP Tommy

Too much has been going on here, too much to keep up with these days, it seems.  I'll jump right in...

This is a teary post, just a warning...

Well, I have some very sad news.  Its really hard to talk about still.  I had one of the stray cats, Tommy, put down this morning.  I took him to the vet for shots and a check-up - it appeared he had a cold.  He started sneezing.  The vet tested him and found him to have feline AIDS.  The vet explained that feline AIDS is like human AIDS, but only can be transferred to other cats.  She called it the fighting disease; she said it's most likely transferred when a cat is bitten.  Terribly, Tommy was bitten by Benji, another outside stray.  We had Benji tested when we got him his shots and Benji was negative for all diseases back then.  But if Benji bit Tommy, who had feline AIDS, then the vet said there's s good chance Benji will got gotten it.

Tommy was an amazing cat.  He was lean and tall, 11 pounds, all long legs and long tail.  He was jet black, shiny pretty black.  I called him Tommy Long-Legs.  I always said he was a black Siamese cat, as he looked Siamese, but was pure black with large slanted yellow eyes.  The vet said he was approx 5 years old, which was older than we thought.  He was such a calm cat, so gentle, so sweet.  He sat purring on my lap in the vet room as we waited for the test results.  He was calm as a cucumber.  The vet came back with the test kit that showed positive and explained my options as I cried.  She said we could keep a cat with feline AIDS, but it can spread to other cats by saliva and/or biting.  One of our indoor cats, Bobby, always plays rough with the other indoor cats, and Bobby has been known to bite them in his play.  And Benji the outside only farm cat always attacks Tommy and bites him.  the disease was bound to spread.  The best option was to have sweet Tommy Long Legs put to sleep.  I didn't want him to suffer for the remainder of his life.

The vet left and checked her databases for anyone who wanted a single cat.  A cat with feline AIDS can live happily in a single cat household.  I didn't remind her at that time that Tommy had a cold of some sort that probably was never going to get better.  Regardless, they could not come up for a home for Tommy.  And so I held Tommy while he was euthanized.  I rubbed his throat and he purred contently when he laid his head down on my hand.  I felt him purring as he stopped breathing.  It was one of the saddest things I've done.  Tonight when Randy comes home we will bury him.  Rest in peace, Tommy.

And next Benji will have to be tested again.  The stray cats keep showing up here, we don't ask for them.  Wish me luck in the future with Benji and Brindle.  And I promise my next post will be happy.  I'll talk about the chickens or something.  Or maybe I'll discuss the upcoming hurricane, or our well that recently broke and had to be replaced.  So much has been going on...