05/13/2026
Serious post. (for cat people)
This isn't gonna be about burgers. If you're only here for the food, and you don't have any cats or know any cat people, scroll on.
*pause for scrolling*
Okay. *deep breath*
It's time to address the nightmare that's been going on behind the scenes for the past month and a half, and I'm gonna break from my collective Disco's voice to do it.
Hi yall, this is Habooki.
One thing yall need to know about us is that we're ALL pet parents. Some of us are also human parents, but we all have furbabies that we hold in the same esteem. And at the beginning of April, all of our respective households had at least one cat. 🥹
Then at some point in one of her many adventures, Billy's sweet Kiki picked up a tick, and that tick was infected with the parasite that causes Bobcat Fever. 🥺
If you don't know anything about Bobcat Fever, here's a little rundown.
It's caused by a parasite that lays dormant in the blood of bobcats, on whom it has no affect. The bobcats are simply the reservoir. So tick bites bobcat. Tick gets parasite in gut. Tick falls off bobcat.
Now infected tick waits for new host to transport it. And the thing about ticks is that they can live for several years, even without a host.
But there is no shortage of hosts in the Ozarks, so the infected ticks get dispersed into areas where outdoor or indoor/outdoor domestic housecats live, and that's where they become a real problem. 😔
Once a cat is infected, the parasite moves fast. It replicates in the blood, causing the actual blood to thicken, eventually throwing clots, resulting in respiratory distress and organ failure. None of it is pretty, and the decline is rapid. There is no cure for it. The treatment is antimalarial drugs and a cocktail of fluids and antinausea/appetite stimulant meds, and that's all hit or miss depending on a TON of factors, not the least of which is how fast it's caught and how quickly meds are started. But even then, there's no guarantee. 😧
And cats are notoriously good at hiding when they don't feel good, so catching it early is extremely difficult. 😔
That's what happened with Kiki. By the time it became apparent that something was wrong, it had already progressed to the final stages. It was heartbreaking. She was Billy's soul cat, and her loss will be felt forever.
We were still coming to terms with her loss, when Bobcat Fever struck again two weeks later, this time with Justin and I's cats.
First it was Snick-Snack, the cat that made me a cat mom. We noticed her acting funny on Monday afternoon, rushed her to the vet, and less than 24 hours later, on Tuesday morning, we were having to sign that awful paperwork to let her go. 😭
We got both of the other inside/outside cats inside, but it was too late for Steve, the cat that made Justin a cat dad. Steve already had an infected tick on him.
Less than 36 hours after losing Snick-Snack, we noticed Steve didn't come for night treats, and we rushed him to the vet as soon as they opened the next morning.
Sure enough, Bobcat Fever.
The next week was a fever dream of vet visits. His prognosis started out extremely poor, but against all odds, he held on. What began as horrible conversations about losing two cats in 3 days slowly turned into cautiously optimistic talks about making it through the weekend.
And he did. And then he made it all the way through the week and started to show interest in food again. And now he's back home, being his typical Steve self, and we're incredibly grateful he made it.
But the only reason Steve made it is because Snick-Snack and Kiki didn't.
Because of their loss, we were already on high alert for the immediate signs.
And that's what yall need to know.
Immediate Signs:
Lethargy
Loss of Appetite
Warm Ears
Excessive Shedding
Once it progresses to the point where panting and respiratory distress are present, it's in the later stages of the infection. 😔
If you see any of these symptoms, get them to the vet IMMEDIATELY. It's literally a race against time, with no guaranteed outcome, but the sooner meds are started, the better your chances.
And the only way to keep them safest is to keep them inside. I say that with a completely broken heart, because I know what my outside cats are missing. I've seen them frolick, play, and climb trees. I know the relationships they've formed with other humans in our neighborhood. I understand their loss.
But the loss of two cats, gone in the prime of their life, is too much. And once Bobcat Fever is in an area, it's there for years.
So yeah, if yall noticed longer wait times or the myriad of times we've had a skeleton staff over the past month and a half, just know that we've been going through it. We apologize for any ways your service may have been affected. We're coming out of our funk, and we'd like to keep other people from experiencing this.
Warn your communities about Bobcat Fever. Talk to your cat people and make sure they understand how serious it is. And if you can't get your cats inside, at least have a daily check-in with them to monitor their behavior. And make sure you're using preventatives. They won't keep the ticks from biting and transmitting it, but they will kill the ticks once they've bitten so they can't fall off and bite something else.
RIP Kiki 🐾
RIP Snick-Snack 🐾
We'll miss you both forever.
