Today, I took AJ to the doctor. The right side of his lip had been distorted for a while, and we had noticed his nose had started to swell. I was sure it was probably nothing serious, but all I could think about was when we had to put my sweet cat Julius to sleep four years ago (side note: how has it already been four years?? I still get sad when I think about him.). Now, I know Julius had cancer, but I couldn’t keep from thinking that maybe there was some sort of serious respiratory issue going on with AJ and I would be told we needed to put him to sleep.

Needless to say, I was VERY nervous when we went in this morning. I stepped out of our exam room to use the restroom, and when I returned only two minutes later, the vet was in there with a tech and he told me he had already diagnosed AJ. He has fever blisters on the roof of his mouth (ouch!), which the vet said likely is making it very painful for him to eat, and he has an ulcer under his lip. Poor guy!

I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when I was told that I really should consider having him tested for feline leukemia/FIV. With his symptoms, they said there was a 50/50 chance he had one of those diseases.

That would be about the time I REALLY started to freak out. In case you don’t recall, when we found Sasha, she was diagnosed with feline leukemia, and we were told we had to put her down. You guys, I was my eyes were starting to fill with tears. I seriously could not go through this again.

They took AJ back to draw his blood and do the leukemia/FIV test. It would take five minutes to get the results. That was the longest five minutes of my life. Seriously. This cat has become my new buddy since Julius died; not that he wasn’t before, but it’s as if he stepped up to take on Julius’ role. Julius used to sleep on my pillow at night. Now, AJ does that. All I kept thinking was that I cannot lose this cat.

While we waited, the vet gave AJ a steroid shot and an antibiotic shot. He gave me AJ’s medicine and told me how to administer it. I tried to listen, but my mind was focused solely on that test.

And then, he brought it out. Negative. Then, I wanted to cry out of pure happiness. While I was checking out, the tech came out and told me that after the sixth minute, which is the full length of the test, it was completely, positively negative.

It looks like my little buddy will be around for a long time to come. At least he better be. I seriously cannot imagine life without him.