We weren’t supposed to go get Vincent at all in the first place. We expected to pick up an FIV+ void girl, but we were told that she got lucky and went to her new home for Christmas with a loving, understanding family. Then, this happened:

Vincent was nameless then, FIV+, badly banged up and holding on for dear life. “Now, please!”, so we went and were soon on our way back with a carrier full of a very sick cat, a bag of meds and a whole lot of uncertainty.

(I’d like to leave a side note here about our Animal Services. The staff are magnificent and they work tirelessly every day to find love, care and homes for an absolutely overwhelming number of cats, dogs and occasionally other furry creatures. Unfortunately, there’s only x-amount of space and hands available and sometimes an animal makes it to there whose health had deteriorated to a point where keeping them alive without extensive resources available would be just straight up cruel. The staff still try to find placements for them; we’d know, Vincent is not the first kitty we got from there under emergency circumstances. In the end, it’s the staff that saved Vincent’s life by looking for and finding aid for him with utmost diligence, pretty much against all odds.)

Kitties with FIV have a lot more trouble with healing than healthy cats and their status can severely impact prognosis. You have to plan their care carefully under the best of circumstances and the sheer amount of injuries on Vincent made for a bit of a nightmare in that regard. His guesstimated but rather obvious old age made it even worse.

Next day’s visit to our vet brought some peace. Vin had a mad upper respiratory infection, his left ear was decimated, infected and bleeding, his coat was utterly filthy and his general attitude was “whatever.” Meaning: it was all treatable, even for a kitty with FIV. He was, however, not in any shape for anesthesia at the time, so any sort of cleanup would have to wait. He did clock in at 7 pounds, which is a decent weight for an old dude that’s been out on the streets for a while.

Dr Marquez set up a plan – treat the URI and infected ear, control the immense pain Vincent was in, let the kitty catch a breath and re-evaluate on Monday.

The weekend was hell. It always is. You can have the best doctors and meds in the world, but that small, furry thing is sitting in your house, fighting a battle against odds, infection, pain and a chronic disease ever so quaintly referred to as “cat AIDS” and all you can do is make sure they’re comfortable, medicate them, feed them and hope it is enough to keep them going.

Thankfully, the big guy took in all in stride and kept going all the way through to Monday, when we went to see Dr M again. Vin was better but still not all there for any major work, so we set him up for surgery and cleanup on Friday after Christmas and added another antibiotic to his ever growing list of medications. We also told Dr M that we were pretty sure that Vincent had lost most of his ability to hear – at home, he quite visibly relied on vibrations to locate the source of anything happening around him.

The new prescription combo definitely pushed his healing along; the mangled ear stopped seeping ugly stuff and began scabbing off and his breathing became easier. And so, here we are, on Christmas Day. Vincent is eating wet food (he’s really taken to Rachel Ray’s Nutrish Tuna Purrfecion) with a huge appetite, attempting to munch on moistened dry kibble, saying good morning and requesting pets and last, but certainly not the least, watching TV. We’re on season two of The Tudors now.

The change in him since the first day is nothing short of amazing. His old bones and joints definitely appreciated his new prescriptions, as he began to slowly relax his body and sleep with his chin up and front paws curled. He also became a lot more alert, saying good morning and actively asking for food with tiny, still a little scratchy meows. We also found out that in addition to chin scratches and back pets, he loves belly rubs!

We are, however, now facing the biggest hurdle in his treatment. His ear is in shambles and needs to be cleaned up and stitched, the filth from his paws needs to be cleaned off, his teeth are an absolute mess and we’ve also noticed that he has a wound on his nose that’s looking concerning. We will drop him off at the vet Thursday afternoon so that he can get some prep done and IV fluids and he will have his surgery this Friday.

He is not a great candidate for anesthesia. He’s old, still sick and a little frail, but we have little choice in how we’re going to proceed. We cannot just medicate him till kingdom come with an open wound on his head and the surgery is a necessity.

We’re hopeful and we know Dr Marquez is a beast at what he does, but we’re scared too. Vincent has curled up in our hearts and we want him to celebrate the New Year and live out the rest of his cat lives loved, cared for and spoiled like a fantasy princess.

Y’all have caused nothing short of a miracle to occur – you managed to let Santa know that Vincent has a new address! We read each and every comment you left to Vincent and we told him about and showed him all the gifts he got for his first Christmas in his new digs. We’re pretty sure that the cost of all of his most urgent medical care is fully covered thanks to your likes, retweets, tags and unbridled generosity. To say that we are overwhelmed would be an understatement. And so, we will honor each and every one of you in a blog post over the next weekend, because the world needs to know that there is still so many good people in it.

Please send Vincent the best of vibes on Friday morning, so that he gets through his surgery and comes out on a clear path to healing.

Here’s the big boy today, sleeping soundly after having gotten his meds and a hefty helping of holiday ham. Let’s be hopeful and say that his glowup pictures will be amazing!

(The white gent in the back is Casper the Friendly Cat, a young male with cerebellar hypoplasia aka a “wobbly cat”. He’s a survivor himself, having successfully battled concurrent panleukopenia and calcivirus infections as a tiny baby. )

Merry Crispmouse to y’all!