Pepe

❗️Pepe. A positive FIV test result was enough to get rid of him. Today we are fighting for his life❗️

Pepe is in a veterinary hospital today. His blood test results are dramatically bad. Severe anemia, dangerous dehydration, and a powerful infection mean that the body of this seven-, maybe eight-year-old cat needs intensive treatment and constant monitoring. On top of that, there’s a huge wound on his neck. Open, difficult to secure, and located in a place that moves with every lift of his head. And despite all this, Pepe still calmly looks at people and allows them to be close.

His gentleness speaks volumes about his earlier life. Pepe is too trusting and too accustomed to human presence for the street to have been his first home. Everything indicates that he once had a family. Later, he was abandoned and appeared in one of the Spanish housing estates. Without care, treatment, or a place to return to. For a while, he tried to manage on his own until one of the residents took him onto her terrace.

This could have been the beginning of a new life. However, a positive FIV test result was enough. When the woman learned that Pepe was a carrier of the virus, she immediately sent him to a shelter. As if one result erased everything else. His gentleness, need for closeness, pain, and the fact that the same cat still stood before her. Pepe was treated as something repulsive that needed to be quickly removed from the house.

For years, we have been showing you Spain from this perspective as well. Not just through individual actions, but through the daily work of Alba and the shelter, where abandoned, sick, and unwanted animals end up when they start requiring treatment. Each of them comes with a different story, but too often they share the same moment: people withdraw exactly when their presence becomes most needed. This is how Pepe also ended up in the shelter. Not because FIV deprived him of the right to a home, but because a person considered his illness a sufficient reason to reject him.

Now, the positive test is just one of the problems. First, his body needs to be stabilized, fluids replenished, the infection fought, blood parameters improved, and the severe anemia stopped from draining his remaining strength. Doctors also need to manage the extensive wound on his neck. It could have occurred during a fight with another tomcat, but its size does not rule out a dog attack either. For now, they are observing whether the skin will begin to regenerate and gradually close the damaged area. If the body cannot cope with tissue regeneration, Pepe may need a skin graft.

Ahead of him are more days of hospitalization, blood tests, intensive treatment, medication, hydration, and regular cleaning and securing of the wound. It’s not enough to improve one result or apply one dressing. The entire depleted body needs to be rebuilt, while ensuring that the infection does not spread to other tissues. Pepe needs time, and every day that gives him a chance to regain strength means additional costs.

A positive FIV result became a reason for one person to close the door on Pepe. For us, it’s a reason to surround him with even more careful attention. Because Pepe is not a test result. He is a gentle cat who, despite abandonment, illness, and pain, still trusts people more than people have deserved so far.

After everything he has been through, he deserves much more than a temporary terrace and a shelter right after diagnosis. Help us guide Pepe through treatment, heal the wound on his neck, and give him a life where he will never again be treated as a problem to be gotten rid of.