Harry

Harry was our introduction to FIV.

He came to us back in 1997 with Bobby, whom we assumed to be his dad, when the lady who had been feeding them as strays emigrated to Canada. We trapped Harry just the day before she left and took him to our vets.

Harry was destined to go to a feral colony at a local centre, but the vet nurse turned up at our door with Harry saying the colony would not take him because he was FIV positive. We said: "FIV, what's that?"

Little did we realise when we agreed to take on Harry and his dad, how that would change both Harry's and our lives, and enable many other FIV positive cats to have a life as well, instead of being put down.

Harry was at first terrified, and it took two or three months to win his confidence. Once he had learned to trust, he showed that he had the sweetest nature and became the most affectionate of cats.

Although he had evidently had flu before he came to us, and he always had a bit of a 'sniffle', he actually enjoyed extremely good health all the years he was with us, only needing treatment to sort out some poor teeth.

Barbara would tell him most days, looking around at the rest of the sanctuary: "What a lot you have to answer for!"

Harry was chosen by Mr Davies, who started the sponsorship scheme at the sanctuary, and called him his 'god cat'. Mr Davies would come on the bus to visit Harry, usually armed with a bag of prawns which were shared out amongst the garden gang. We think Mr Davies enjoyed being 'mugged' by them all; Harry and his friends certainly enjoyed his visits!

Harry was with us for eight years in the Fivery, and died in February 2005 - our dear Harry, who began the work with the FIVs, died in his sleep after being off-colour for just the previous day. Our very first FIV example showed us that the myths about FIVs being sickly cats were just that, myths.

Very strangely, Mr Davies, a musician of some renown it would seem, outlived Harry by just a couple of weeks and passed away in much the same manner. We have very fond memories of them both.