Lounge of Tomorrow - Charlie the Lonesome Sweetheart

Cross Posted from my Live Journal - the executive summary, Charlie lives and has moved in with us, and we all have breathed a collective sigh of relief:

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So last night was awful. We resolved that we wouldn't euthanize Charlie, but would find a way to move him into the back yard. Melia, my nice was visiting for the day, down from the bay area to visit family during the Thanksgiving Holidays. We had breakfast at Hoff's Hut and since the stores we originally had in mind to visit were closed - we decided on Pet Smart to see what we could find for Charlie

At Pet Smart and we bought a medium sized dog house to use as a temporary shelter, since things are rather open in our backyard. We looked at cat trees and other toys that we might eventually outfit the garage - our long-term solution to housing Charlie, along with higher fences and a magnetic controlled cat door.

We returned to set-up a temporary place for Charlie, food and water bowls, moved his bed to a chair by the bedroom door. We took him back, sat with him and realized it was getting much colder outside. So while we watched a DVD, we closed the bedroom door into the house and opened up the French doors to the back yard, so he could come in, apart from the other cats and get out of the cold for at least a little bit.

Of course Charlie snuggled into our bed quickly and seemed content to stay there. We were watching Wim Wenders Until the End of the World, the directors cut - which is a 3 DVD movie spanning something like 5 and a half hours. I was fortunate enough to attend a screening at the Harmony Gold Theater many years ago with an apologetic Wim Wenders providing coffee and pastry to the audience who endured the trilogy. It was great to see it again, and we took frequent break to check in on Charlie who was more than happy to keep the bed warm while we watched a marathon of cinema.

Of course, it eventually came time to call it a night, and it wouldn't be fair to lock or cats out of the bedroom for the night - not that they would ever stop knocking had we tried going that route, so we put Charlie into the back yard, fresh food and water, and attempted to go to sleep. Though of course we couldn't. Lisa was up every two minutes, "Is he still back there?" "has he gone into the doghouse yet?" "Is he in his bed?" I think even Charlie was getting a bit neurotic as we kept turning on the backyard lights to check on his progress and to make sure he was okay. Eventually he climbed into a chair, a little bit out of our line of site, and slept there for the evening. Likewise we had our own restless sleep.

By the time I got up, I realized the backyard thing wasn't going to work. We'd drive ourselves crazy each night trying to figure out what was happening next. Add to that Charlie's casual leap over the back gate after his breakfast where he went round the house and planted himself once again on our front porch. If we were going to keep him, he would have to join the rest of the cats indoors. I set out to research FIV vaccine, the vet had already told me it wasn't 100% effective, but are any vaccines? If we could at least protect our cats, Charlie should be able to join him.

With my research came a new anger. FIV affects 1 - 1.5% of the cat population, generally spread among outdoor cats who get into fights. It's transmitted through deep cat bites. Having spent a month with Charlie, we knew he didn't fit that profile at all. Next up was the real problem with the vaccine - once a cat has it they test positive for FIV on all know tests. So, it may well be that Charlie - well mannered, neutered, had been vaccinated for FIV and that's why he's positive. As healthy as he is at the moment there's nothing to indicate that he really has FIV - Okay perhaps that's me being overly optimistic.

But as my research continued we stumble across this create website from a cat hospital in West LA which had tips for raising an FIV positive cat. In their site were the words:

Isolation of an FIV+ cat is not necessary in a stable household

unless the FIV+ cat is likely to fight with the other residents.

Huh? A completely different story than what we got from our vet. So Lisa gave them a call and talked to a vet that had an FIV cat in a household of 12 cat, with no transfer of infection - the cats didn't fight. Hell, we've already introduced Charlie to our cats and with much sniffing and an occasional hiss, they're been rather cool with each other. Add to that some other anecdotal stories of FIV cats living to their late teens, by just keeping them indoors and in a healthy environment.

So this morning we brought Charlie into the house. And after showing him the cat box when he wanted to go back outside, he's been happily inside all day. Perhaps we are putting our cats at risk, but seeing them together today, there is none of the behavior that would lead to trouble. The vet we talked to liked the misinformation about this disease as similar to the early days of HIV. It's easy to be overly cautious when you are talking cats and dogs. But there was no way we'd make Charlie pay with his life to protect the ignorance or irresponsibility of others.

Charlie's a wise one to have picked us out in the neighborhood. His purrs sitting by my desk are all the reward I need from him.