This is Niang
A cat needs a home
Niang joined us in 2008. At that time, we had a different crazy crew of five dogs. Of course, we weren’t planning on a cat at that time. But plans always end up changing.
We took agility classes with our dogs at that time. Our classes that summer were at a friend’s house out in the country, her and her husband taught the classes. One evening they were talking about a cat that had shown up at their house. They were having roof work done and the cat had shown up on one of the roofer’s trucks.
The cat was maybe a year old at the time and was living with their barn cats for now, but they were looking for a permanent home for him.
And now we have a cat
We had a relative that had been talking about getting a cat, so I had a bright idea that we could take him and the relative would want him for their new cat. Of course, they didn’t want him, so that left us with a second cat.
We were in the process of selling our house and moving across the state, so adding a cat wasn’t convenient at the time. We did try and look for a home for him, but no one was really interested. So, the cat stayed.
Now to come up with a name. We went through several names from Cat to Aidee and nothing stuck. Finally, we were watching an Iowa State basketball game and he started meowing loudly. His cry sounded like he was saying Niang, which was the last name of our favorite player on the team at that time. So he became Niang.
Niang has FIV
We took Niang to the vet to get all his vaccinations up to date. Since he had been an outside cat, they tested him for Feline Leukemia and FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus). He was negative for Feline Leukemia but tested positive for FIV.
What is FIV? Cats with FIV have an increased risk of infections or other diseases. Once they contract an infection or disease, their immune system isn’t able to fight the infection/disease. Click here for a good article about FIV in cats.
FIV isn’t spread from cats to humans or other animals besides other cats, so there wasn’t any risk with him being around us or our dogs. FIV cats should also not be outdoor cats since they can transfer the disease to other cats. That wasn’t an issue for us as any cats that we have had have been indoor cats.
15 years later
And now 15 years later, Niang is still part of our insane crew. Since we were told the average lifespan of an FIV positive cat is 5 years, we have decided that he either had a false positive with his FIV test or else he was younger than we thought and had antibodies from his mother instead of virus. Either way he has lived a very long and happy life.
Niang and Isla are best friends. He only poses for pictures if she is around.
Niang says he has had a lot of adventures with our crazy pack – from our original crazy dogs to our current insane crew. He hopes that you enjoy his adventures in our craziness. And he hopes that you will share some of your stories and adventures and how your cats manage to fit in with you fun and crazy families.
