I lost a good friend today.
Not long ago I wrote about Morpheus my cat and his infection of the feline immunodeficiency virus. While telling people that my cat had AIDS was all fun and games, recently it has become a harsh reality. Since he was diagnosed Morpheus hasn’t been the same, it’s almost like he knew what was going on and while he definitely didn’t lose hope his crazy lifestyle got the best of him.
No matter how hard we would try to keep him in the house Morpheus would always manage to find a way out to enjoy the nightlife and every time he would come home it seems that nightlife came with a price. He had scratches, gashes, lumps, chunks of his ear missing, it was almost as if he joined a fight club and he would run off to a basement in a bar somewhere to battle the other neighborhood animals. I could see it, I guess I never put the pieces together until now. I mean when I’d ask him where his latest cut or bruise came from he would only say that the first rule is he couldn’t tell.
Maybe my theory is farfetched, I guess I’ll never know what really happened but I do know the results. Morpheus illness meant any damage he retained would become more of a problem then it rightfully should. When that problem is a serious infection with little chance of recovery there isn’t a lot that can be done.
At approximately 1:30PM today I lost a friend and a family member of 5+ years, he was put to sleep never to awake nor experience the pain and suffering of his recent months again. Morpheus was a strong cat, he would have fought until the very end despite being in a vicious cycle of a weakened immune system. While us intervening today may have ended his life early, I know he would have thanked us for saving him from the harrowing future that was to come.
Morpheus the cat will always be in my thoughts and while I hate myself for not spending as much time with him as I should have in recent times I do hope he knows he will never be forgotten.
Posted in: Life
March 27th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Markus,
I am so sorry for your loss. We had a cat die of FIV and feline leukemia years ago and each time we lose a pet it is more painful. Focus on the good times to help you get through it.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Thank you for your condolences Drew.
Morpheus’s legacy will live on through his beautiful newly born kittens, his loss is hard but with the circumstances it was somewhat expected.
March 28th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
That’s sad, I can’t imagine how upset I’d be if out cat died
(inevitable, but I’d still be upset).
Just a question though, was Morpheus infected prior to the kittens birth or after? Could the disease be transmitted to those kittens otherwise, or have you tested them?
March 30th, 2008 at 1:47 am
He was infected before the kittens, the kittens have a very slim chance of not carrying the FIV virus.
March 30th, 2008 at 5:19 am
Well make sure you give the surviver (if any) a cool name if they don’t need to be put down :).
March 30th, 2008 at 9:49 am
The kittens have a 50/50 chance of having it being the mother was not infected. If kept inside FIV cats can live a normal life of up to 12 years, we can’t get the kittens tested until 6 months due to false positives. So we will see, but I have given Markus the option of keeping Steve, his personality is just like his fathers.