Jayden and Gerald, and some thoughts about FIV

When I brought Jayden back from Playgroup today, he hugged Gerald and called him “Cow Mau”.

Misty, being female, is still cautious with Jayden. I think female cats are 10 times more cautious than males.

You’re a good boy, Gerald.

Now, we are actually contemplating if we should bring Gerald and Misty into Bunny’s Place. One thing is for certain, they won’t be happy initially because both are so used to the outdoor free-roaming life. I think Gerald might have another meal source too because he isn’t at the porch all the time. Only Misty is. Misty spends most of her time in our porch.

Samantha and the Blondies love Gerald, so I’m sure they won’t object.

But will they accept Misty? Samantha and Misty already had a huge fight on the road when both were pregnant last time. Misty was trying to come to our porch to eat, but Samantha gave chase and fought with her. It was a very, very ferocious fight; both were rolling on the road and ended up in the drain, still fighting.

However, there is a chance Samantha might be more accepting now because very often, Gerald and Misty came to the polycarb roof of Bunny’s Place to socialise.

The other thing to consider is that Misty is FIV+. I must ensure there is no fighting amongst them.

So many considerations.

Gerald, Creamy and Samantha were tested during their neutering and all three are FIV-negative. Only Misty was FIV+ and so was Hiro.

FIV spreads through deep bite wounds – this is an established fact. Some vets take the extra precaution and say it might spread through the sharing of food bowls and water bowls, but some vets say it does not. Having had quite a few FIV+ cats in my limited experience, I don’t have any evidence that suggests it spreads through food and water bowls. Bunny, Cow Mau and Tiger were FIV+. Despite the many ferocious fights that have happened between Cow, Bunny and Indy, Indy remained FIV-negative all his life. And they definitely shared food and water bowls. Cleo and Pole also remained FIV-negative. They all lived together all their lives and shared food and water.

Now, in Ginger’s Catio, only Ginger is FIV+. His sister, Rosie was also FIV+, and I suspect they could have been born with it or they got it while living outdoors in the first year of their lives before we moved into this neighbourhood. Rey and Robin were tested when they came back from the adopter and they were both sick. Both tested negative. The rest of the Monsters were not tested as there was no necessity to do it.

What I did learn from a vet is that the older a cat is, the fewer receptors they will have for the FIV, so the chances of being infected is reduced with age, with “reduced” being the keyword here.

Jayden has been trying to play with Tabs but Tabs is just too scared.

Our most child-friendly cats were Cow Mau and Indy. Ginger and Gerald too.


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