Obituary of Swirl Michaelian

Against all odds, she was lucky enough to be accepted into the only rescue that saves not only the FIV negative but the FIV+ cats and kittens educating the public about the difference.  She came up on a lifesaving transport.  My husband and I volunteered to provide her with a place to stay overnight with us before she would travel to her rescue the next day.  During her day with us, she wasn’t acting right.  We contacted the overnight coordinator who asked us to monitor her.  The next morning the decision was made to hold her back from her lifesaving transport to her rescue and observe her health.  Luckily, she might have just been in shock from all the movement in her life.  She didn’t need any medical care and was a perfectly happy kitten.

The next transport was in two weeks.  We fostered her for two weeks and then it was time for her to go to her rescue.  By that time, we were already in love with her.  We didn’t know much about FIV+ cats.  I did my research before deciding to adopt her because we already had FIV negative cats.  As it turns out, they can live harmoniously without transmitting FIV to the FIV negative cats.  We applied to adopt her, and she became an official member of our family in August 2014.

She acclimated to having a home with furry brothers and sisters of the dog and cat varieties.  She loved to eat and loved to get rubbed.  Her life was not long enough.  We knew that with FIV she wouldn’t have the same longevity as FIV negative cats.  We realized just how short her life was yesterday when she passed away at 10 years old.  We are so thankful for the short amount of time we did have with her.  We also felt like she was meant to be ours because she was rare.  She was an orange female.  Over 80% of orange cats are males.

While she is no longer with us, we are happy she lived her life to the fullest until the last day of her life.  You see, she wasn’t sick at all.  No vet visits, no traumatic trips in a crate to the doctors, no needles, no meds, nothing.  She was healthy until yesterday when she was called to a better place.  We are stunned by her sudden passing but thankful she didn’t have to live out the last days of her life the way many pets do with illnesses.  She also saved us from having to make the heart wrenching end of life decision.

We will always be grateful for the set of circumstances that led you to us.  We love and miss you Swirl (Swirly Swirl, Swirl bug) aka Megan.