Aries – April 5, 2007 – September 28, 2007
Shortly after Leo passed, I was helping someone move some furniture. We were driving down the main drag thru town and happened to pass by a very small, icky looking pet store. She wanted to go in. I said “No I can’t. I’ll get in trouble in there.” We went in and sure enough trouble I found. It came in the form of a cage filled with at least 3, maybe more, litters of sickly kittens. I took the smallest, sickest one. Probably no more then 4 or 5 weeks old, he was starving and dehydrated with pasty eyes. She took one of the others. We went from there straight to the emergency clinic. Sub-q fluids and a FIV/FeLV test were given to both. We were sent home with antibiotics.
Aries and I fell immediately in love. I couldn’t help myself. he caught me with a broken heart that needed his kitten healing powers. At the same time some very good friends gifted me a Bengal kitten (Michael) to ease the pain of losing Leo. When it came time for Michael’s last baby vaccine, my friends also offered to give Aries one too. I don’t normally vaccinate but I accepted anyway. What harm could one shot do after all. A month later I found out. Aries developed a low grade fever that did not respond to antibiotics. Then his right eye appeared to have blood in the iris. Off we went to the specialty hospital for the second time in a year. So many tests … all negative. Then came the diagnosis I never expected. FIP. What? Never heard of it. They said it’s fatal. OH BULL!!!
I called Dr Ross at UC Davis. She agreed to see him. More tears. More bad news. Looks like dry FIP. We got FDA approval and imported Feline Omega Interferon and started treatment. Supposedly there is someone somewhere who claimed up to a 30% chance of recovery. I now believe that is very grossly exaggerated. I tried everything I knew. FOI, homeopathy, acupuncture, online support groups. It all failed. Slowly Aries lost the use of his back legs. Still he tried to drag himself to follow me whenever I had to leave his side. So now, for the second time in a year, I had to say goodbye to someone I loved. As the shot was administered, Aries cried out and reached for me with both hands. He died in my hands. For the second time in a very short time I was faced with the fact that commercial ventures and someone else’s pre-conceived ideas about what is healthy for my cat is the the exact thing that killed him. Never again.
In the years following Leo’s and Aries’ passing, I dealt with incredible grief and sorrow. I spent a lot of time researching better diets and better health care for the rest of my cats. Because of that research, I have changed the way I do everything, I feed a true carnivore raw diet, use no vaccines, and virtually no antibiotics (anti = against, biotics = life), no pesticides, and rely on homeopathic care if any problems come my way.
The cats showed me in a dream that Food, Innoculations, Pesticides = FIP. I have dedicated the rest of my life on Earth to making things better for my feline brothers and sisters, I hope to be able to help myself, my cats and other cats and cat owners all over the world find their way to holistic care and optimal health.
Leo and Yoda