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Gun-Hee and me shortly before going to Angell (the first time).

Other People’s Abys – Part 9

Quarkwiz sent me this awesome article from last week’s New York Times about an Aby who lives in Manhattan and walks in Central Park.

It is so like Gun-Hee…he even had a similar harness!

Too bad he’s probably a Yankees fan.

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Extreme close-up of Gun-Hee’s fur.

Sept. 16, 2006 – June 28, 2008

We had to put Gun-Hee to sleep tonight.

I am going to continue the photo-a-day, although right now I don’t know what that is going to be.

He was my best friend. I will miss him. And, for him, I will keep posting his photos til the year ends. It seems the least I can do.

Gun-Hee has fans

This post in Cat_Lovers is pretty much all that is holding me together.

The only thing that makes this better is that I am not alone. Thank you all for being here, and bearing witness to Gun-Hee’s far-too-short life.

I appreciate every single one of you reading this.

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Gun-Hee signing in at Angell last weekend.

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Gun-Hee still wants to walk up the hallway to our apartment.

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Gun-Hee looks out the window. He’s actually watching the swimming pool.

To continue? Or not?

I started this year with a goal of posting at least one photo of Gun-Hee in his journal every day. And so far, I’ve managed to achieve that goal.

But with Gun-Hee dying…I don’t know what to do. I easily have enough photos of him to continue to post a photo a day til December 31.

But is that macabre? Sick? Delusional?
Or is it just continuing his memory?

Tell me what you think (as I’ve been living inside my head for too long to make a rational decision): Keep posting Gun-Hee photos? Or let the journal die with him?

I’d make this a poll, but Gun-Hee doesn’t have a paid journal 🙂

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I took Gun-Hee outside today, because it was wonderful weather and not raining. I only took him to the enclosed courtyard in our building, but it was “outside” enough for Gun-Hee.

He really seemed to enjoy it.

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I made Gun-Hee a little table so he doesn’t have to bend down so far when he eats.

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Gun-Hee is home. Tessie is happy to see him.

Other People’s Abys – Part 8

I’ve been randomly clicking on webpages today. From looking up the adoptable cats we saw last night at Angell, I leapfrogged into checking Petfinders to see if there were any Abyssinians in need of homes. I found a few across the country, but the one that captivated me is Purebred Plus Cat Rescue in none other than Vacaville (a 45 minute drive on I-80 from Davis, CA, where I grew up). They have five purebred Abys up for adoption right now, most just around a year old!

The one I really love is Angel, a little red Aby with only one eye. I also commend this shelter for warning people that “Abys aren’t for everyone,” which is very true.

Still, if you know someone who wants an Aby, this might be a good place to start. How ironic that it’s right where I grew up. I just wanted to pass this along to Gun-Hee’s fans.

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I called Angell to get Gun-Hee’s update. He’s stable, and receiving IV fluids. They’re monitoring him throughout the day, and we’ll get an update later this afternoon. He’s scheduled to have X-rays done today.

Here he is last night, listening to us tell the doctor about him.

Gun-Hee at Angell

Gun-Hee’s in the hospital. They’re keeping him tonight and tomorrow night to run tests, give him intravenous fluids, and drain the build-up of ascites in his belly.

Angell is incredible. It’s like a real human hospital. It’s huge. If Gun-Hee has any chance at all…this place can give it to him.

FIP and Angell

I’ve been reading about FIP all morning. This website, “CatVirus.com,” is by far the best. As it happens, Abys are more likely to get FIP.

Basically, FIP is a mutation of the Feline Enteretic Corona Virus, a common virus. FECV generally does not affect the adult cats who are exposed to it. It may cause slight stomach upset and diarrhea in very young kittens after the immunity they receive from their mothers has waned, but most recover quickly and suffer no further ill effects. Sometimes this benign virus mutates to a more virulent form of coronavirus (FIPV), because of genetic predisposition or because they have not yet developed a strong immune system. They don’t “catch” the disease – it is the result of the mutation of an otherwise harmless virus within their own bodies. So although the benign form, FECV, is highly infectious; the virulent form, FIPV which causes FIP, is not. Thus, cats with FIP are unlikely to infect others.

It is, in fact, similar to SARS, which is caused by a human corona virus.

This is another good article; I like how it explains the randomness of the disease, particularly this bit at the end: Still, Gaspar cautions that the roulette-like nature of FIP makes it almost impossible to determine which cats will actually develop it.
“FIP is nobody’s fault – it’s not the fault of a breeder, or a cattery, or a shelter, or a rescue group,” she reminds. “If anything, it’s the fault of the cat’s immune system, which makes the wrong decision.”

So that’s good. It means that, like the feline herpes virus that both Harri and Gun-Hee had from kittenhood (and caused Harri to have chronic colds and Gun-Hee to have goopy eyes) but which all the other cats were immune to. In fact, I wonder if the fact that Gun-Hee had the herpes virus made him more susceptible to this? Maybe if I’d kept up with the Lysine (which Gun-Hee hated?) Harri actually had the FIP vaccine, when they used to give it out…but I haven’t even seen it in years; it seems to be one of those vaccines that can cause more problems than it prevents and has pretty much vanished from the market.

So many questions. We are taking him to Angell Medical Center later today (after the ballgame) to ask them all, get a second opinion, and see what we can do.

I think I’ll be donating to FIP research in the near future, as well.

Right now I’m off to buy Gun-Hee some lamb canned cat food. He loves lamb above all other meats. Maybe that will keep him eating.

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“Gun-Hee is the most beautiful, perfect thing I’ve seen in my life.
He’s a shooting star, to be cherished, every moment, for perfection is fleeting.”

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Bad news.

Gun-Hee has been diagnosed with FIP. I’ve been reading up on the disease, but it’s about 95% fatal.

He’s not even two years old. This isn’t supposed to happen. He may not even make it to his second birthday.

I don’t know what to do. I love that little brown thing so much.
I have no idea how long he’ll be with us.

Here he is at the vet today…

Gun-Hee’s Distant Cousin

I’ve worked it out.
Red (Kopper Kats Firestorm of Escenzia) is the Aby who died of kidney failure at the age of 4 earlier this year. Red’s great-grandfather is Felinexpress Lord Kynan Rupert. Rupert’s mother is Felinexpress Betty. Betty is also the mother of Felinexpress Leo Escencias of Haro. Leo is the father of Haro’s Gingersnap of Pellburn…who is Scar’s (Pellburn Scarface Cat Pacino) mother, Gun-Hee’s grandmother.

So they’re distantly related at the great-grandfather level.

EROS is a wonderful resource for this.

I also discovered that familial amyloidosis is common in Abyssinian cats and the cause is unknown. Amyloidosis occurs when amyloid, a protein substance, is deposited in the kidneys.

The vet appointment is at 4 this afternoon. Thank you all for your thoughts!

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Gun-Hee’s been looking boney lately. I weighed him last week and he was 8 lbs, which seemed low, but with the warm weather and him going out more, I didn’t think too much about it. But this weekend we took Patrick and Tessie in for their annual checkups. Tessie gained 3/4 lb since last June and Patrick lost 1 lb since he got his teeth cleaned in March, and the vet said both were “significant” and we should watch to make sure Tess doesn’t gain any more and Trick doesn’t lose any more.

So since then, I’ve really been looking at Gun-Hee, and he really seems to be thin. You can see his hip-bones and feel his spine. So I just called to vet to see what he weighed at his annual checkup in January, and he weighed 9.25 lbs, which means that in 6 months he’s lost 13.5% of his body weight.

I’m taking him to the vet tomorrow at 4pm. I’m worried; if you Google “sudden weight loss in cats,” all sorts of scary things come up, like diabetes, cardio myopathy, and CRF. He’s not even 2 years old!

He seems healthy, active, playful…but I can’t tell if he’s eating any less because they have that free-feeding bin. And he seems to be sleeping more lately. He still goes mad for treats but…yeah. I’m worried. Especially since he had a distant cousin, Red, die from kidney failure at age 4 this year…