Do you remember Hoyt? Hoyt was from the True Blood Six. He looked like this.
Then he looked like this.
And ultimately, he turned out to look like this.
Then he went to the adoption center.
And then some people came along and fell in love with him and adopted him.
He’s been doing well in his new home, and his people love him. They even trained him to use the toilet!
Recently, he had to go to the emergency vet, and was ultimately diagnosed with Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD). It ended up costing his people $1500 to make him well again. They’ve changed his food and are keeping an eye on him. According to the Cornell page on FLUTD, most cats rarely experience the problem again or will have only occasional recurrences. But for some cats, this can turn into a chronic condition.
The bottom line is that Hoyt’s people can’t afford to spend that kind of money on him on a regular basis, and if this happens again, they would have to put him to sleep. They travel on the weekends a lot, so keeping an eye on his food intake is near impossible (they have another cat). They contacted the shelter saying that they might need to return him, and of course Challenger’s House will always take back any cat at any time, for any reason.
Here’s the thing – Hoyt could go to the shelter itself, but he’d have to spend most of his time in a cage so that he could be monitored, and that’s just no life for a cat. Fred and I talked about having him here as a long-term foster, if need be, but my concern is that he might get lost in the crowd, and we might not notice that there’s a problem until it turns into an emergency situation.
I have no experience with FLUTD (and if you do, feel free to add your opinion/ advice in the comments), but I suspect that if Hoyt were in a home where his people were able to keep a close eye on him and could monitor his food intake and see symptoms of an issue arising in the early stages, even if it were to turn into a chronic problem, catching it before it turned into an emergency situation might make it not a big deal.
(WOW, that was a long, convoluted run-on sentence, wasn’t it?)
What I can tell you about Hoyt is this: he’s a great big sweetheart. When he was with us, he always announced his entry into a room with his funny “Here I am!” meow. He gets along well with other cats, and he LOVES people. And he is GORGEOUS.
Is there anyone out there who might be willing to adopt this great big sweetheart? Do you guys have any advice or suggestions? Feel free to leave a comment or email me!
I mean, seriously – LOOK at that face! And did I mention he’s trained to use the toilet instead of the litter box??
