May is Ehlers-Danlos Awareness Month, so we are featuring Henry, a cat with this rare genetic connective tissue disease.

KATNISS: Henry, furst let me go over your hisstory – you were rescued from a hoarding situation with 37 cats. You’d been living in filth, you were infested with fleas, worms and mites, plus you had a URI and were malnourished. Wow. That’s really apawling.

HENRY: Yes, but the good part is I was rescued. And fur that I’m very grateful. I was taken to a shelter and to a few vets who didn’t know what was wrong with me, just that I was covered with wounds. When one of the vets scruffed my neck to give me an IV,  several inches of my skin tore off.

KATNISS: Me-OW! You must’ve been furreaking!

HENRY: You’re not kitten! Finally, a veterinary determalogist diagnosed me with Ehlers-Danlos (cutaneous asthenia). What this means is that my skin is very fragile, so that if I scratch myself, I can litter-ally tear open my skin. So there was talk about euthanasia.

KATNISS: Oh, no…

HENRY: Furtunately, an anonymous purrson who had experience with EDS in cats asked the shelter’s purrmission to make make me an IG page, the idea being to find me a home with either a vet or a vet tech who would know how to take care of me. They also wanted to raise awareness fur other EDS cats.

KATNISS: And five days later, you got an application from a vet tech.

HENRY: Yes. It was a foster-to-adopt arrangement, to make sure I got along with her other 2 cats, one of whom also has EDS.

KATNISS: That’s so pawsome!

HENRY: Well, that’s what thought, but sadly, a shelter volunteer drove me 6 hours to meet her… only to infurm her that I’d been diagnosed with FIV. Now in most cases, FIV+ cats and non-FIV+ cats can live together, no purroblem. But when the skin is very fragile and tears, it can expose the virus and with the other cat having the same fragile skin, she didn’t want to take the chance of exposing her to FIV. I totally get it and didn’t take it purrsonally.

KATNISS: But she did agreed to foster you tempurrarily.

HENRY: Yes, because she is a vet tech, she took me into work each day – but she couldn’t keep me. Which really devastated her. 

KATNISS: But then she found you a furever home.

HENRY: With her long-distance boyfuriend. Which was purrfect.

KATNISS: So you got your happily ev-fur after.

HENRY: I did. But furst, with careful consideration, they made the difficult decision to rear declaw me – only because I am prone to accidental self-inflicted injuries. Which is why I also wear clothes – to purrtect myself.

KATNISS: So now you’re safe and happy with your cat dad who takes care of you.

HENRY: Yes, and since I’ve been so furtunate, I’d like to be an advo-cat fur cats with EDS, to spread awareness that we can live long lives with the propurr diagnosis and care. I want other EDS cats to have a chance, too. 

KATNISS: You are an inspurration, Henry.

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Follow Henry on Instagram and check out the FB group Animals with Ehlers-Danos.