untitled, 1946 [original]
© willy ronis
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» note from mezzaluna: dedicated to a stray kitten i found who died from cat flu today
i found him in my condo parking lot walking around bumping into things. there had to be something wrong with him so i decided to check him out. he was only a few months old and really underweight that he could hardly walk or stand upright. his eyes were red, swollen, and watery. and then he sneezed on me and when he did it was really wet. i gave him milk, but he
could barely swallow. it was already getting dark when i found him, so i decided to take him to the local vet tomorrow afternoon, figured he’d be ok.
he wasn’t. turned out the vet said that he had a cat flu,
secondary infection, which means the cat cannot deal with it. there are currently no drugs that can specifically kill the viruses, but most cats can recover. unfortunately, very young (or very old) and immunosuppressed cats who develop secondary infections are more likely to die. in this little guy’s case, he wasn’t going to live more than 4 days, give or take 1 day.
i knew it was too late, but i never give up. i wanted to give him a chance to survive. so i asked the vet to do everything he could to help the cat recover from this or, at least, feel better. he then went in the back to clean the cat’s eyes and give him the vaccine that might be useful in treating and fighting off the disease.
“i haven’t filled in the registered name of the cat. does he have a name yet?” the vet asked as i stood up to leave.
“errr… no, he doesn’t. i was terribly worried about him that i forgot to…”
“i understand,”
the vet smiled,
“as of this moment his name is Stray.”
i nodded and smiled back. “miracles do happen. i’ll come up with another name if he survives. maybe Lucky.”
Stray died 3 days later (aug 3, 2016) on the white blanket while i was at work. i was prepared for things to not work out, still hit me hard. the only thing that brings me comfort is knowing that he’s no longer in pain.
goodbye, Stray. you’re in a better place now.
edit: thank you so much for your kind words and sharing your story. those concerned about me getting the cat flu, i’m not. cat flu cannot be spread to humans. *phew*