Today, my Etrius has en extremely important appointment with the vet. He has been losing his hair and weight, and I'm so scared he's going to be positive for FeLV...

My fiance and I had originally gotten him for our apartment to keep as an inside cat. Unfortunately, after he lost his job and we couldn't pay rent anymore, we had to move to my grandparents. Despite our objections, they insisted we teach him to go outside, and within a few months he was a mostly outdoor cat. Even worse, since we had no money we couldn't have him neutered at the time.

Finally we brought him back in to try to re-teach him to be an indoors cat (we were sure we were going to move out soon, but alas, we didn't). That's when he began to get sickly. I swore it was because he was depressed or stressed, but I wanted him to be checked anyway. The vet was very straightforward. His lymph nodes were enlarged, so FeLV is a strong possibility. I just want to swear it can't be that, because if it was, the other two outdoor cats would have it too (and both of them are very healthy).

I can't help but feel I have failed as a pet parent. I should have never allowed them to push him out, especially not before we had the chance to neuter him. I am so scared that I am going to lose my baby...