It’s been such a long time since Nemo and I last wrote. I think an update on Nemo, especially his health, is in order. Let me start off by saying that Nemo is doing great, healthy, happy, and hungrier than ever!

In May 2007 we took Nemo to Dr. Liz for a regular checkup. The result came back a couple of days later—Nemo was tested FIV negative!!! We were thrilled! At that time I already made peace with his illness but it was still exciting news. I didn’t really believe that the virus was completely gone from his body. Whether that was the case or not, one thing was true—that he was in top condition at that moment. We continued to do what we’d been doing for the past year and a half. He continued to take the same supplements and went to Dr. Peter Dobias every 3 months.

At the end of 2007, it was time for another regular checkup with Dr. Liz. Again, Nemo was healthy like a horse and Dr. Liz said he looked EXCELLENT. We did another in-house ELISA (FIV) test, as usual. The test came out clean at first, then two very faint dots showed up, indicating possible FIV+. The only way to be sure was to send his blood work to a lab down in the US for a Western Blot test. We knew it wouldn’t change the way we care for Nemo but we had to know. 2 weeks later the result came—Nemo was confirmed to be FIV+.

It didn’t come as a surprise. Our hope for a completely healthy life for Nemo was gone. But we knew that Nemo could still be happy for a LONG time. The FIV+ status didn’t matter. What mattered was that Nemo was the healthiest, most content, best behaving, and most wonderful cat in the world, and we were going to do everything we could to keep it that way. We decided that Nemo would, and wanted to live until he was at least 20 years old!

Since then, Rufus, one of Nemo’s FIV+ sponsor brother has passed away but his other FIV+ brothers have all been adopted by good families! That is life, isn’t it? There are bad news but good news are often just around the corner. Weâ’ve chosen new FIV+ brothers for Nemo. He is still sticking around so obvious the reason why he came to us, his mission, is still not done. I guess we will have to continue to help FIV+ cats and figure out what it is that Nemo is trying to teach us. It is a beautiful life when Nemo is in it.