FIP Story:Lil Mew came into our lives May 28th, 2009.  It was such an exciting day, and he was such a precious little kitten.  He seemed like a healthy kitten, and he was full of love and energy.  He was such a happy kitty and extremely friendly.  Up until August of 2009, Lil Mew seemed to be in excellent health, and then he caught a cold that didn't seem to want to go away.  Then on September 11, 2009, Lil Mew began to have respiratory distress, and he was rapidly breathing.  When I took him into the vet, the rapid breathing was his only symptom other then the snuffles.  He had no fever, and he was eating and drinking like a champ.  Upon x-ray it was clear that something was dreadfully wrong.  He was then rushed to the Emergency ER as he had a lot of fluid in his lungs.  The fluid was indeed straw colored and the blood tests were plausible, but the results were inconclusive for definite FIP.  My vet specialist believes FIP to always be a disease of exclusion.  So, Lil Mew was simply treated with Prednisolone and antibiotics.  This treatment would basically make him comfortable for the remainder of his life or cure him.  Prednisolone and antibiotics cures an infection, but in a FIP cat, the cat will get better and then worse.  This is exactly what happened in Lil Mew's case.  For a couple of months, he did seem to get better, and then he rapidly got worse.  It was absolutely disheartening, because we indeed thought he would pull through.  We were in complete denial that FIP could have struck our home twice, first Widget and now Lil Mew?  No way, right?  Well it can happen, and it did.  They were not littermates, they were never exposed to each other, they didn't even come from the same state, and the environment had been sanitized thoroughly after Widget's passing.  What was even harder was that Lil Mew's lungs became clear after 2 months, and he was playful all the way through.  Then all of a sudden over the course of 2 weeks, he stopped eating and became weaker and weaker.  Assisted feeding didn't help, he was just wasting away.  On the last day, he was dragging his legs, and he was vocally miserable and suffering.  A decision had to be made, and we had to say goodbye to a very precious part of our lives.  Even now on April 13th, 2010 as I write this, I am fighting back a lot of tears, but the tears have won.  The fight is useless, and I feel the pain all over again. I miss him so much, and I can picture him on my desk just like it was before.  I know he knows how much I loved him and still do.  I love you Lil Mew.