Remember the 2 posts I wrote about Oli, the stray cat, which I took to the vet and he had surgery? You can read the first part here and the second here. We had some happy days together, Oli became alive, sat on the sofa with us, encountered the other cats – most of them were very jealous and suspicious of the newcomer, but in time they began to live together well, keeping the right distance.
Time to say “Good Bye”
Last week, all of a sudden, he drew back into his room, ate less than usual – remember, he ate with unusual greed after surgery when he was free of pain? I changed antibiotics and for a few days he was alive again, being a lovely little creature, thankful for having been saved.
Then, last Sunday, he became silent again, seemed to have pain and on Monday I took him back to the vet. Oli had a swollen chin and the nose was thick and strange. Poor little thing!
Dr Elisabetta and Oli
The vet did some research on the cellular level.
The result was Aids and another infective illness (I will write more about the illnesses and what to do in a separate blog post)
The last travel to the vet
I left him at the vet for a day or two, and when they saw that Oli was in pain and wouldn’t eat anymore, it seemed to be the best thing to put him down, to not have him suffer too much until his inevitable death
The visit at the vet – watch this short video, the conversation is in Italian, but summary text in English is provided.
Oli hadn’t come too close to my cats – thank God!
The disease can be transmitted by saliva. Oli had eaten mostly in his room from his own bowl, but on his good days, when he came up into the living room, he also ate and drank from the open bowl for everybody. So my hope is now that all my other cats didn’t get infected. Pray for them!
Oli had such a loving and beautiful spirit, we were truly sad for several days that he couldn’t be with us and our pet family, but had to fly into the cat heaven. The help came too late for this stray cat, but sometimes things work out better, like with our blind stray cat which lives in our house for more than a year now. (Read her stories in this blog, for instance HERE.
The cat of the article,it looks like Oli
And here is another wonderful story, shared by Ella Falgren, a contributor to this blog. A family had adopted a twenty-year-old stray cat from a shelter who looks quite similar to our Oli. That cat was lucky and the family could enjoy his sweet nature for more than two years. Read the story and see the photos HERE. This could have been our Oli……
What a sad story. I feel so sorry for Oli and I hope that none of the other cats are infected. I dare not watch the video in case I will tear up 🙁
Yes, Yvonne, sad, but also good. The poor creature had some good days with us and he didn’t have to suffer until his secure death. Life is Life AND Death.
Poor kitty! I can’t imagine how hard this must be for you. I have a friend who fosters kitty’s with leukemia, I guess they can transmit this and so they have to be taken away from healthy cats. She loses about one a year and it’s very hard on the family!
Yes, it is hard. It is like losing a family member for us humans. And the separation from other cats is not easy. So for us it was time to say good-bye, unfortunately!