yo man
"Gene Wildcat" age 2.
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A street cat I fed the last 5 months died of some unknown illness. It's sad because I was about to adopt him, get him vaccinated and neutered. He started camping out on the porch around March/April. I thought he belonged to a house up the street, but it was only in July did I found out the father of the kids taking care of 3 cats said no more. So that's how he migrated permanently to my place. The other house was already taking care of a mother cat and 3 kittens. He was not getting fed suddenly anywhere and being chased out of everywhere.
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Another family across the street with young kids told me his name was “G”, but my Gen-X ears and brain kept hearing “Gene” so I called him Gene Wildcat. I was amused but no one else got the joke. I made him happy one night by giving him a large chunk of rotisserie chicken meat, he meowed while he ate he was so happy. He was getting 1-2 cans of wet food per day except certain weekends I was out of town. He slipped into the house one day and found and old catnip banana that belonged to another cat that died in March. That made him so happy I let him keep it.
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So what got him sick? He killed a baby rabbit, again, on July 31st which I buried the same day and I discovered dug up when I got home Sunday August 10th from an out of town trip. Was it the rabbit? About a week or so before that kill he started to taper off in his appetite, but he still ate. His last 72 hours were weak, slow, difficulty breathing, and a fever (he wasn't cooling down in air conditioned house). The earliest the vet could see him was Thursday. I let him outside early, he migrated around the house and tried to head east. I carried him back to the porch and threw a royal fit. At 8am I placed him in the carrier, he protested with growling and meowing. I went to close up the the house and turn off lights, 2 minutes later he was dead. He never made it to the vet alive. I took him in anyway to get a $100 blood test, I wanted to see if he had a virus and if he was contagious. It came back negative for feline leukemia virus. More tests meant more money. So, I took him home and buried him in the same spot I tried to bury the bunny on July 31st.
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He might have ate something bad from a dumpster, might have got some poison or poisoned varmint, and maybe if he dug up that rabbit it probably accelerated his decline. These urban wildlife critters can be vectors for nasty things. I wish I knew he was a total reject back in May I would have taken him in within a month as I don't think he'd ever been to a vet his whole short life. The only place he'd disappear to after choosing the porch was somewhere to the east, probably to make toilet.
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It's only been a day since he died and he was only here for 5 months and it's already empty not having him around. I'm not a cat person, I'd take care of a skunk if one wanted to be friendly. He just deserved better. It's just the strong and dominate male cats aren't “cute” to some. He had a playful side, we'd play string some times.
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“Until the next dimension, old friend.” 🔷
yo man