A soi boy gets an extreme make-over

Every early morning, I open the front gate for Thep, the former soi cat who uses my house as his personal cat restaurant.

Thep prefers to sleep outside at night but to come into the house for meals. He’s guarding the soi from intruders of the feline variety. Besides, he has a love of freedom and a fear of people, both of which prompt him to find private sleeping places on people’s patios or inside empty houses.

Because Thep and his friend Thong mingle with my other cats, I’ve had them vaccinated and neutered, to protect my resident cats and to keep everyone as healthy as possible. The two boys even have a good brushing occasionally, just to keep the dirt from the world away from the house.

With good food and good health, the boys are both big and strong, powerful enough to dominate the soi.

Their chief competitor for soi ownership is a black cat with a white spot on his throat. I've named this boy “Yok Dam” (“Black Jade”). Small but well-built and muscular, YD would be beautiful if it weren’t for the scars all over his body. He’s certainly a fighter. At night, I hear him and Thep yelling at each other. Occasionally Thep appears with bite wounds on his tail or back, evidence of close encounters with YD.

With people, YD is friendly enough. He spends his nights under a nearby car, and whenever I open the gate for Thep, YD slips out from under the car and meows at me politely.

He wants to come inside. He wants food. He wants to claim my house as his territory. He’s not starving. My neighbour tells me that he’s found people on the soi who feed him.

I, however, don’t want him to join the household. I have enough cats. Besides, Thep and Thong would never accept him.

This morning, when Thep comes in for breakfast, YD appears as usual. Optimistically, he heads for my gate and perhaps a meal. Then I see his neck. His entire throat is hairless. Infected wounds, oozing blood and pus, mark the naked skin. He doesn’t look well at all.

Even if he’s a soi cat and doesn't belong to me, he has a relationship with two of my cats. Through their constant cat fights and their nose-to-nose confrontations, his infections and ill health could affect their health as well.

It’s time to take him to the vet's. The boy is so friendly, it’s easy to put him in a carrier, probably the first time in his life that he’s ever been confined to such a small space.

The vets clean him up (his fur is really dirty), vaccinate and neuter him. Overall, they tell me, he’s a lot healthier than I thought.

Then he gets a blood test. My vets use a special kit that tests for feline leukemia and feline Aids. It takes a few drops of blood and a few minutes, and then the results appear.

In YD’s case, the news isn’t good. In next week's column, I’ll tell you just how bad this news is.