Requiem for Another Great Cat

Chester, 2006? - 2008

Today I again had the sad responsibility of putting a sick cat (and her kittens) to sleep.

Chester appeared among the ferals at my apartment complex a couple of years ago. It was heartbreakingly obvious that Chester had been abandoned - she was unafraid of humans and sought out the pat on the head or the back stroke. I considered letting her join the Clan but she looked healthy enough and I already had my nine and my apartment wasn't getting any larger.

In short, I took the coward's way out.

This last Thursday (10 Apr), Chester showed up on my patio with 2 scrawny kittens. This was too much - I no longer could look away and I lured her (and the bairns) into the apartment and scheduled an appointment with the vet.

Things look promising at the initial exam. The kittens were scrawny but otherwise appeared OK, and they went after the kitten food offered them like gangbusters. Today (17 Apr), the blood workup came back and Chester tested positive for AIDS.

I couldn't expose my "children" to AIDS and I couldn't isolate Chester from them. As this story from yesterday's Yahoo! News shows, shelters are already overwhelmed with stray and abandoned cats. The chance that an AIDS-infected cat, even a sweetheart like Chester, would be adoptable were not good. So I spared her and her children the agony of lives lived with the AIDS virus and had them put to sleep.

I will always treasure the last hour I was able to spend with Chester; and I will always hate myself for not intervening sooner and perhaps saving her life.