The CAT with FIV

If you know me, you’re aware that I’m deathly afraid of cats. I blame my mom. She’s never liked them and permeated my brain with scary cat stories---about how they’re sneaky, scary, etc.

A couple of years ago, a woman at work asked if I’d housesit her home during the Fourth of July weekend. I knew she had a cat, but I said yes because I needed the money. A couple of days before I was scheduled to house-sit, a co-worker who knew of my fear of cats came up to me and said “You know that she has a cat, right?”

My response, “Yes.”

Co-worker’s reply “Well, did you know that her cat has AIDS?”

My response “OMG---are you kidding me? Seriously, are you being serious?”

Co worker – “I'm totally serious. When I heard you were watching her house and pets, I couldn’t believe you of all people agreed to it because you’re so scared of cats!”

I immediately googled “CATs” and “AIDS” and sure enough the search page was populated with websites with information on Feline AIDS, known as FIV (Feline Immumodeficiency Virus) in the medical industry.

I called my co-worker who asked me to sit and said “Does your cat have AIDS?”

Her response “Yes.”

My response “Um I’ve been reading a lot about it, since R (other co-worker) was so kind to tell me. I hate to sound like an idiot, but if it bit me, could I contract the disease?”

Her response “Absolutely not. I promise. I'll even give you the number to Kitty's veterinarian. Do you still want to sit?”

My response, “Let me do further research before I commit.”

Well, I did do further research and she was correct---a human can't contract FIV. I was relieved and called her back and said she could still count on me.

That weekend when I watched over the house and cat was miserable. I’ll never cat sit ever again.