Meet Mr. Pink, subject of a post with 140 reactions, 18 shares and a flurry of comments speculating on his ailments and tagging us no fewer than a dozen times for help. Rescue ally Natalia Ruiz posted, connected with us and after we greenlit treatment, dropped her own little ones at school, hustled off to work, took a break at lunch, scooped him up from a rough Fresno neighborhood and met me in the parking lot of our go to vet. One look at this guy and we knew we had a before/after post in the making, so I labelled his carrier URGENT and hustled him in. “Doc, we’ve got a good one for you!”
After a skin scrape determined that mites and other common skin ailments weren’t the cause of our guy’s disturbing appearance—his fur was falling off in clumps—the other vet with 40 years of experience poked her head into the exam room and commented, “Feline pemphigus…worst I’ve ever seen…” After a few minutes of research, we agreed that was a solid assessment, weighed our guy in at 7.2 lbs, crushed a steroid tablet into some Science Diet and watched him scarf the antidote down. I took photos making sure that the KF logo had good visibility, updated Mama Ruiz on his prospects and texted the crew to prep a kennel back at base camp.
Mr. Pink is now resting in a heated bed at House Kirkland, shaking the crew down for wet food—“That old guy said I can have whatever I want!”—and wondering how he made it from the Street to Paradise in less than 12 hours. The vets think he’s been suffering with the issue “for years”, but because of the engagement of Natalia Ruiz, he should show signs of recovery within 10-14 days. Mr. Pink has issues—he’s blind in one eye—but his heart, lungs and purr are all good. If your budget allows, click the donate button—they don't give treatment away—and kudos again to Mama Ruiz for taking action in a world of critics and opinionists often wrong but never in doubt. Mr. Pink.
