Buddy’s Story by Carlos Rodriguez USA
Buddy Cat screamed into my life one summer evening. At the top of his lungs he made his presence known and my life would change. We (my mother, me and her 2 cats) lived in a small apartment that we only had permission to have one cat at.
Sammiecat and Miko-Chan were immediately entranced by the big Black tomcat strolling across the brick wall that separates us from our neighbors. My neighbor directly behind us wasn't so thrilled. Buddy would come to visit SC whom he seemed to have a crush on. My mom started feeding him and that was that, he was now a permanent fixture and my neighbors were not happy.
I trapped Buddy and had him neutered in hopes that it would stop the caterwauling.
He was just as vocal after as before
I begged my mom to stop feeding him, he was not skinny and I saw him howling at other people's places at the trailer park behind us.
She told me that had stopped. But hadn't, infact one day I came out of my room to her bringing in his bowl from the front porch. She swore that she wasn't feeding him and that I was crazy to suggest that. It was one of my first indication that she might have age related cognitive issues.
My landlord was now threatening to kick us out. I negotiated a chance to trap him and find him a permanent home. By then mom had be diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
After weeks of earning his trust and having him get really cuddly I trapped him and got him to a Veterinarian to make him as adoptable as possible. That is when we got the news of his FIV diagnosis. They recommend that we euthanize him. As it was the height of Covid I was in my car waiting for his vet visit to finish and I read as much as I could on FIV learned that it is not a death sentence and it not easily transmissible to other cats.
He was coming home with me and stay with my cats until we could get him a home. He would remain an indoor cat from now on.
Or so I thought. Mom would let him out while I was at work and his caterwauling was riling up the locals again. So I had another visit from the Landlord this time with a 3 day quit order if Buddy was not gone we were going to be. She told me "just take him to the pound, they will handle it". And I told her there was no way I was sending him to his death. In the time that he was with us he blossomed, he and my cats became fast friends. He would hog the my bed and snore the most melodious rackets at night. He was going to live damnit.
I had no idea what to do I had already called a dozen no kill shelter, contacted barn cat programs, you name it.
My last resort was my IG cat friends.
The got the word out that we only had a few days and an old friend had a pal that offered to take him for a few weeks.
Then a person showed interest in taking in buddy but after taking him in got wishy washy because she wanted a kitten in stead. During that time Buddy was being cared for I was in contact with SupportFIV and Jennifer from ROAR Cats.
They both went above and beyond helping me find find Buddy and educating me.
SupportFIV found me a foster Though Fat Kitty City around 6 hours away. After talking to the fosters my gut told me it was best for my Buddy.
We made the trip with no issues and he immediately allowed the foster mom to give him pets and feed him a Churu.
Buddy was adopted about 2 months later and is thriving.
He taught me so much about earned trust and the power of love. He taught me that there are people like his first foster and the folks from SupportFIV and Roar Cats that were willing to work so hard to help save his life and they did it out of love. Pure love.