For the past 5 years I’ve been very unlucky when it comes to pets. At school, I had a gorgeous tabby cat that lived with my family for 16 years. It was my dad’s cat but I adored it, and since then I’ve always wanted to have my own cat.. Five years ago, I bought a kitten. It looked healthy, and the first two nights went well, but on the third morning it refused to eat, became apathetic to toys, and generally looked ill. We took him to the vet, and the blood tests showed feline coronavirus. I didn’t even know cats suffered from such diseases! The odds were against us, and the kitten didn’t survive. The vet said to avoid adopting any new animals for at least a year.
Three years later, I decided I was ready for a cat and bought another kitten. This time I checked the kittens’s passport, so that all the vaccines were there. He was a lively and beautiful young feline, slept in my bed, and made me very happy for four months. Then I planned to go on a vacation, so I asked our neighbor to look after my cat for just 5 days. I come back, a week passes, and I notice that my cat doesn’t look well. Again, we go to the vet, another blurry week of treatment. The vet’s diagnosis is infectious peritonitis. How?? The vet said maybe it happened because of the stress when the cat was left alone with a stranger to care for him. Or perhaps something else triggered the virus the cat had already been carrying. In the end he became too weak, and we were advised to help him pass away painlessly.
I cried for months. It’s my second cat, and I couldn’t take proper care of him. I feel guilty that I went on that vacation. I could have waited and given him more time to grow up and become healthier.
I do still want to have a cat. But should I? Maybe it’s a sign that I have bad luck with pets.
