How 'The Status Quo Calico' Came To Be

Blogging always seemed to me like a very 'stay-at-home' mom kind of thing to do (not that there's anything wrong with that). I didn't take blogging seriously for a long while, thinking it was likely one of those cyber trends that would eventually fade. But apparently blogs are here to stay, and thanks to the inter-connectivity of social networks such as Pintrest, blogs are growing more prominent than ever. Still, I never had any interest in being a blogger, until very recently.

Six months ago, my calico cat named Callie was diagnosed with effusive FIP. Feline Infectious Peritonitis is a feline-specific autoimmune disease, the complications of which are fatal. I'll spare you the medical explanation for now because, frankly, I still don't understand it perfectly myself. Sadly, Callie did succumb to the disease and I had to put her down, but I'll tell you that story another time. I only mention it now because it was when she was first diagnosed and I turned to the internet for answers that I realized the importance of blogs.

Callie Mae and her 'princess pillow'

To learn the facts about FIP, I consulted Wikipedia and more distinguished sites such as the website of Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine. But it was the bloggers who mostly prepared me for the road my family and I would travel - people who had experience with FIP and blogged about it, relating not only what their cat went through but also what they (the cat owners) were feeling. One blogger stated quite aptly that FIP is 'a devastating disease', and that phrase has stuck with me ever since I first read it.

As often as I turn to the internet with any questions regarding my cats, it can be a great comfort to find people who have gone through similar situations and can guide someone out the other side, or at the very least are able to commiserate with you, even if they're people you've never met or even spoken to in person.

For example, a story popped up in my Facebook news feed one day of a stray cat that someone had found and taken to the vet, who told this person that the cat had FIP and should be put down. This seemed suspicious to me, since FIP is definitely not one of the first things a vet will test for right off the bat; and in fact there is no test that definitively says 'Yes, this is FIP', or 'No, this is not FIP, guess again'. I decided to comment on the story to offer what I had learned about FIP from my experience with Callie. I was not the only one to comment, of course; and I began to suspect that FIP is actually not as rare as I had been led to believe. But I enjoyed reading the comments, learning from the experience of the others. It felt good to come together with these people to offer support and advice to this woman we had never even met. As we each joined the conversation, it began to feel a little bit like an AA meeting: "Hello, my name is Emily, and my cat died from FIP..." "Hello, my name is Becky, and my cat also had FIP..." etc.

It has been a pattern in my life to search for ways to contribute something of value to the world, and suddenly I arrived at the realization that perhaps THIS is what I have to offer. Since I've always had cats, I've already been in a lot of unique (and not-so-unique) situations with those cats, and I've learned a lot of stuff along the way. I've also discovered that I really enjoy writing about my cats, but what's the point of writing if you're not going to share it with someone? Surely there is someone out there who would enjoy and maybe even benefit from my insight. What better way to reach the cat-lovers of the world than to blog?

Blogs are the internet's version of a diary - they can be used to offer first-person insight, to inject feeling and emotion in the otherwise sterile, factual world of online information, for better or for worse. If just one person stumbles upon  my blog and maybe learns something new or realizes they're not alone in their situation, then it was well worth the effort to write.