We have ringworm!!!

 Fonzie/Yoda

Fonzie came to us in May and stayed till August. A long stay, I know. It's just that it turned out that she (yes, this Fonzie was a girl) had ringworm. I know. So, I googled the hell out of it and went a bit nuts. No, I don't like to admit it, but a little honesty now and then is OK. True story.

Basically, most of the pundits on the internet pretty much told me that the only way of getting rid of ringworm is to burn your house down. I stopped just an inch short of that. As I said, I went a bit bonkers;)

I cleaned Fonzie's room every day with some industrial-strength cleaner from the vets, to ensure that the fungal menace didn't have a chance to multiply and prosper. I also had to put some anti-fungal cream on her scabs. And I wore special clogs in her room, and for-her-room-only clothes, and I only touched her with CSI gloves. All that was missing from that picture was a lab coat, or a CSI onesie. In other words, I lost my marbles. I was worried I might contaminate everything and everyone.

Of course, ringworm in kittens must be taken seriously and treated properly, but I think even that can be done within reason and without forgetting that it's a little play-addict you're caring for. So, all this time Fonzie was pining for actual skin-on-fur contact; she was really affectionate and, I think, a bit starved of proper playtime. She did have toys and a beautiful cat tree to climb (which she has done in the picture above), but I still feel a little guilty for not giving her many more moments of human-cat fun, to be entirely honest.

Anyway, back to my overreaction to ringworm. I started using vinegar on top of our regular detergent to wash our clothes, bedding, etc. Because the internet told me to. So, everything started smelling a little sour - our clothes, our bedding, our house... But still, that didn't stop me from telling everyone who visited us to wash their clothes with vinegar as soon as they got back home (and no later), and not to touch their loved ones before they had washed their hands up to their elbows and completely changed out of everything they had worn in our house. I told you I went nuts.

And yet it was just ringworm, not cancer or anything else life-threatening. I know that ringworm can cause some people and animals to lose some of their hair permanently, but in the grand scheme of things that is still somewhat preferable to losing one's limb, or mind, surely? But it's hard to see the bigger picture if you keep staring at one spot in the middle.

I did become infected by it and I passed it on to our long-haired cat Vader, who ended up losing half his tail hair. It seems our immune systems just weren't up to scratch. Most people or cats don't get affected by it, or their bodies deal with it on their own and unnoticeably.

In the end, this ringworm disaster went quite a long way to prepare me for the incessant hand-washing sessions of the COVID-19 era;) Silver linings😉

Nonetheless, after all that Fonzie moved on to her forever home, to live a life full of happy days, no doubt. I did get to see a picture of her in her new digs - you have no idea how good it feels to see your little cat babies land well and find love! Especially because for so many of them this would have never been a natural possibility, in their stars there could have glimmered instead a vision of hardship, neglect, non-stop breeding, illnesses, etc.

PS. At the top she's called Fonzie/Yoda. My nephew nicknamed her Yoda when he was visiting us, because he said she looked very much like Yoda after her scabs had been anointed😀 And she did! Too bad I don't have a picture to prove it. So I'll just post another one.

Fonzie trying her darnedest to find my marbles;)