Remembering Herman

 Karen Jo: This is Herman's birthday and I try to do a post like this at least once a year, so new posters who come across this blog will know what's going on here.  A new reader might wonder: "Who's Herman and why is this blog still named after him if he's gone over the Rainbow Bridge?" The main reason that this blog is still named Herman's Hideaway and always will be is that I can't bear to change it.  It is also a tribute to Herman, the founder of my present houseful of kitties.  Without him, this wouldn't be the home of FeLV+ kitties.  This is an early photo of Herman, taken shortly after he arrived.

Let me start at the beginning.  I have always loved cats, but could never have one because my mother was extremely allergic to them.  After my mother died, I decided to get the house the way I wanted it and get rid of the cat unfriendly stuff and get a cat.  It didn't work out that way.  I saw a poster with that face on it saying that Herman really needed a home, but he was FIV+ and FeLV+ so he had to be an inside only only cat.  I went home and looked up the diseases and decided that I could live with the limitations and called to say I was interested in adopting him.  First I had to pass an interview and meet Herman to see if he liked me.  He did.  His foster mother said that he had reacted more positively to me than he had to any one else who had come to see him.  A few days later, Herman moved in and stole my heart completely.

 This is a much later picture of Herman taken after he had put on his weight.  He got really sick a few months after he moved in and lost a lot of weight and almost died.  After he recovered he put on quite a bit of weight and ended up at 14 pounds, as you see him here.  His ideal weight was 12 pounds.  He was a big cat.  He is  in full floof here.  He used to get the most awful matts and had to get a summer haircut every year.  Once I had adopted Herman, I could only adopt other FeLV+ cats.  Herman let me know that he wanted some feline company so he wouldn't get so lonely while I was working, so I brought home Emma one day.  That didn't work out.  Herman liked her, but she was a tiny little thing and never got over being terrified of him.  This made him unhappy and he started bullying her by backing her up against the bathtub and just staring at her.  She would scream and I would go break it up.  He also wanted her to know that he didn't appreciate her trying to take his place in the bed at bedtime.  Emma ran off to the Rainbow Bridge after only 8 months of living with us.  Then something wonderful happened.  Spyro moved in.

 Spyro:  I didn't want anything to do with the safe room when Mom brought me home.  I demanded that she open the door and I ran into the living room to meet Herman.  We sniffed each other over and were buddies from then on.  He was my rasslin' buddy and my nap buddy and my everything else buddy.  Here we are rasslin' in the living room.  I am very grateful to Herman, because without him, Mom would never have adopted me.  A few months after I arrived, Oja moved in.

Oja:  It took me a month to get the nerve to come out of the safe room and get to know Herman and Spyro.  I had already met them, as they would sneak into my room almost every day, but I would hiss at them and Mom would eject them.  Once I got over being scared of Herman, we became cuddle buddies.  I would groom him until he was sopping wet and he would groom me, too.  This is the last good picture Mom took of Herman.  I am very grateful to Herman, also, because without him, Mom wouldn't have adopted me, either.  Herman is the reason that Karen Jo's house is the home of the FeLV+ kitties.

Serious Sunday

When the director of Felines and Friends New Mexico gave me permission to blog about Austin and Rocio, she said that she hoped it would encourage other people to adopt cats with FIV or FeLV.  That got me to thinking and I decided to make a post based on things I have heard people say about adopting FIV+ and FeLV+ cats.

1. A cat with FIV or FeLV would make the cats I already have sick.

This one is mostly true.  Though it is not recommended to mix FIV+ and cats without the disease, the only way that it can be passed from cat to cat is through sex or a bite deep enough to bleed.  FeLV is much more contagious and it would be irresponsible to bring a FeLV+ cat into a household without the disease.  There are reported cases where a FeLV+ cat has lived with other cats for years without passing on the disease, but it would still be a very bad idea to mix them knowingly.

2.  I want a normal, playful cat, not a sick one.


How about these cats?

                                                                      Herman

                                                                             Emma

 Spyro

 
                                                             Oja        

Rocio and Austin

                                                           
All of these cats had/have FeLV and Herman had FIV as well.

3. Don't they get sick all the time?

Not in my experience.  Herman is the only one who got sick and recovered before his final illness.  The others have remained well and happy.  Because they must be indoor only cats and not have contact with other cats, they don't catch kitty colds or other communicable diseases.

4.  I think it's cruel to keep a cat indoors all the time.

It would be irresponsible to let a FeLV+ cat roam the neighborhood because of the possibility that he/she would pass the disease on to other cats, but that doesn't mean that your cat can never go out.  I solved the problem this way:

When the weather is warm enough, Spyro and I go out and explore the back yard.

5. FIV+ and FeLV+ cats are too expensive.

This isn't necessarily true.  I won't try to hide from you that Herman was a very expensive cat.  When he first got diarrhea he got medicine after medicine trying to stop it; then he got really sick, requiring numerous trips to the vet and more medicines.  At the worst part of his illness I was spending $70 a month to keep him alive.  After he got well, he was still on two medicines to keep him from getting sick again for several more months and one more for the rest of his life to boost his immune system.  However the other cats have all remained healthy.  The only time Emma got sick was just before she went to the Rainbow Bridge.  That was one trip to the vet and one medicine.  It is recommended that FeLV+ cats be giving L-Lysine every day and Interferon as the vet prescribes.  These medicines are not terribly expensive.  In its most expensive form you can get 120 doses of L-Lysine for $12.  I get a bottle of Interferon that holds 200 doses for $35.

6.  All cats testing positive for FIV and FeLV should be put to sleep as soon as they are diagnosed, as their lives will be short and miserable.

I really hate this one.  Their lives will probably be short compared to other cats, yes, but they are far from miserable.  FIV+ cats can remain in remission for most of their lives and live almost as long as any other cat. There was a FeLV+ cat adopted from Felines and Friends New Mexico ten years ago and he is still going strong.  Just look at the pictures of the kitties above and consider this:  Herman was diagnosed at 1 1/2 and lived to be 5 1/4.  He had a wonderful life with me.  Emma was diagnosed at just over one and lived to be 1 3/4.  Look at her playing and tell me she shouldn't have been given those months.  Spyro was diagnosed at 1 1/2 and is as healthy as he can be and really enjoying life at two,  Oja was diagnosed at two and she is having a wonderful time.  Austin and Rocio were diagnosed as kittens.  They are running, playing, leaping, wrestling, eating, sleeping and having a ball.  All of them deserve the chance to live out their (probably) short lives.