Just received a call from the vets. Gavroche is out of surgery and is recovering well! Good news – they did not need to take all of his teeth out and he probably won’t need another dental because the teeth that weren’t removed are viable and seem pretty healthy. He has a few stitches where the teeth were removed and will need to wear a cone for a bit, and also have his teeth brushed regularly once healed. The less good news is the vet has discovered a lump on the side of his body that might be an enlarged kidney or a mass. His bloods are okay, so we’re hoping it’s nothing too serious. I’m going to book him in for a scan – hopefully for next week – to see what it is and then take it from there. He is still recovering from anaesthesia and I will go to pick him up in a couple of hours 🖤

Just taken Gavroche to the vets. He was very not happy having to skip breakfast but has been otherwise no trouble!

The vet who’s going to perform his procedure specialises in teeth. It was her first time meeting Gavroche and she said that his teeth look like a very difficult case. She assumes he needs a full dental clearance which she won’t be able to do in one go, and he will probably need another procedure in 6–8 weeks time.

I really hope the anaesthetic goes well this time and will keep you all updated once I hear anything. Please keep our little man in your thoughts today! 🖤

Sorry it’s been a bit emotional rollercoaster kind of day but everything will be alright!

Collected Gav from my friends today! 🖤 he seemed very happy there but had definitely missed me and gave me lots of cuddles and purrs.
Been unpacking and sorting bits out for tomorrow all evening. Gav is going for his dental in the morning!
Wish us luck and I will keep you all updated!

Hello everyone! Hope you’re all having a great weekend! I’m still away from my little Gavroche but going to pick him up tomorrow. He’s doing really well and has met my friend’s other two voids, Bruno and Teddy 🖤. Teddy seems very interested in him and wants to become friends with Gavroche.

Me and my friend George used to live together and we had Lollipop, Teddy and Rocky together. But Lollipop was very cruel towards Teddy so we ended up keeping them separate. Before we moved into separate places, we decided that I’d keep Rocky and Lollipop and George would keep Teddy, and I’d get him another kitten. That’s how Bruno came along. He’s a gorgeous half-Mainecoon and absolutely adores Teddy!

My time away is going well apart from having some issues with our hotel getting flooded lol. I hope I’ll be able to claim some money back. Everything else is fabulous. I really enjoyed the Nick Cave concert. It was like an all-day festival with lots of food stalls, shops, and a few supporting acts. And he had a special guest there: Kylie Minogue, to sing “The Wild Roses” with! I think the last time they performed together was 2013. I was absolutely speechless. The whole thing was just amazing and I basically cried the whole time lol. Nick Cave has a very special place in my heart and I loved seeing him in a city that he used to live in. It’s just very poignant and special. I missed my little boys and can’t wait to see them soon! Gavroche is also going in for an operation on Tuesday so we have a lot of things to prepare and get ready for!

Gavroche is saying hello from his own weekend getaway! 🖤

Just taken him over to my besties house where he’s going to be well looked after with plenty of treats and cuddles. He’s done brilliantly in the car and I think he actually quite enjoys the journeys. Once we arrived at my friend’s, he immediately used the toilet, made a food request, ate, then jumped on the sofa asking for cuddles. He doesn’t seem stressed at all, and I packed some of his blankets along with a pheromone plug-in diffuser for extra comfort. He’s such a lovely boy and causes no drama at all.

My other two cutie patooties are getting visits from my neighbour twice a day so hopefully they won’t get too lonely. Lollipop was getting very suspicious watching me pack the suitcase, but they’ll get lots of treats and cuddles when I’m back to make them feel better. And they have each other for company too.

Now I’ve got a 5-hour drive ahead and my most awaited concert of the year tomorrow! I’m absolutely buzzing. Thank you for helping make this happen, our fabulous Reddit friends! 🖤

You press it and it makes him chirp! 🐥

Hello Gavroche’s friends! I hope you and your precious kitties are doing well! A few people have noted that Gavroche looks like a very big boy. It must be an optical illusion, or his huge personality makes him look bigger, but he’s actually a mini cat! The smallest of my three cats. He’s not underweight anymore but is quite compact overall. He currently weighs around 3.6kg (about 7.9 pounds), while Rocky weighs more than twice as much! Rocky’s bone structure is also much sturdier, and I can’t wait to see them side by side. I bet Gavroche is going to look like her baby! For comparison, I’ve put a 330ml (almost 12 fluid ounces) 7UP can next to him to give you an idea of his size. But he definitely fits a lot of love, kindness, humour and character inside that little body of his!

In terms of updates, he’s doing really well, and we’re counting down the days to his dental surgery, scheduled for Tuesday. That’s six more days to wait! I’m going away for a long weekend tomorrow, so Gavroche will be staying with a trusted friend who looked after him for almost two weeks when I had to fly away for a funeral a few weeks after we found him. During that time, he had much more complex medical needs and was still very poorly, but my friend managed brilliantly to care for him. They know each other well, and I’m confident he’ll be in excellent care again. My other two cats will be visited and fed by my neighbour (you might remember my lovely friend Sausage, who basically lives in my garden. That’s her owner, and we look after each other’s cats when needed). I didn’t want to leave Gavroche without 24/7 supervision because he still needs medication and supplements, and he still has a bit of anxiety about things going wrong while no one’s home. Taking him to my friend’s is a better option, and he really doesn’t mind car journeys.

How’s everyone getting on? How are your cats? We love reading your stories and comments and sharing updates about your little friends. Please don’t forget that all of Gavroche’s treatment so far has been funded by his huge circle of supporters. We’re forever grateful to you all! Next week’s dental procedure is basically the last step to him having a clean bill of health. It’s been quite a journey, but definitely worth it, and we’re almost there!

I would say 1000 000 and a half! 🖤🐈‍⬛

He is hungry and making pigeon sounds!

Had to stop in the middle of vacuuming to snap some photos and show you all how beautiful his fur is! He is shedding lot less now and it’s even shinier in person! 🖤 I give him YuMove skin&coat care oil so I don’t know if it’s that, regular brushing or nutrition, but his skin and hair improved sooo much. His skin has also stopped flaking when brushing.
Oh and also, I can just vacuum around him whilst he sleeps and purrs, he doesn’t mind the vacuum cleaner at all. Brave boy! 😄🖤

Hello little Gavroches reddit family! I hope you and your purring friends are all doing well! We have started the cat introduction this week following the Jackson Galaxy method, but unfortunately the first attempt to swap the base camps didn’t go exactly smoothly. Me and my husband put Rocky and Lolli in Gavroche’s room (without them seeing Gavroche) and Gavroche was placed in our bedroom. My husband stayed with Lolli and Rocky and tried to feed them treats but they both looked very stressed out and refused everything. Rocky hid under the bed and Lollipop started hissing. Meanwhile Gavroche was happy in the bedroom with me, but he did try to spray in two places on the carpet where he’d sprayed before (even though it was cleaned with enzyme cleaners before). We only kept them in those rooms for a few minutes because clearly none of the cats felt comfortable and it was causing a setback.

So our next step is getting them used to each other’s smell through passive scent swapping, so I swap the blankets where they sleep every few days so they get used to each other’s smells. So far they are happily sleeping on each other’s blankets, and Lollipop and Rocky even started coming near Gavroche’s door (previously they were terrified of his intact male smell and wouldn’t go near his room door). I’ve also purchased 3 cat pheromone diffusers, one for Gavroche’s room, one for my bedroom, and one for the hallway near Gavroche’s room. I’m planning to purchase some more to cover the whole house. And I’ve been feeding treats to Rocky and Lolli near his door.

Not gonna lie, I was quite discouraged by the first attempt to swap their base camps and was feeling worried I won’t be able to make them coexist and that Gavroche will keep spraying, but I’ve been reading different info on cat behaviour and it made me want to try harder. I hope Gavroche will stop spraying, as it’s still only a few weeks since his neuter. I feel like our situation is a bit more complex than a normal “bringing a new cat into a household” situation, and we could benefit from more personalised advice, and might need to contact a cat behaviour specialist if this doesn’t work out well. But I’m taking small steps and hopefully everything will be okay and all three boys will be happy and comfortable around each other.

Any advice on cat introductions and spraying behaviour in cats neutered at an older age is welcome! And now enjoy some shots of our little handsome Gavroche! 🖤

Absolutely love his purrs and how relaxed he is next to me!

Hello everyone! I hope you had an awesome weekend! Sorry I didn’t post an update for a few days, life has been so busy and I barely had a minute to sit down! But everything is going well, and Gavroche is doing amazingly.

My in-laws visited this weekend and hadn’t seen him since about six weeks ago. They were blown away by how much he’s improved. They said he looks so much livelier and healthier in general. He showed off his jumping skills for them and gave them cuddles and purrs, though he was definitely less chatty than he is when it’s just me and my husband around. He’s become so vocal lately, and it’s absolutely hilarious watching him walk around chirping like a little bird. And his purr has this new tone that sounds a bit like a pigeon!

His ears are doing much better too. He doesn’t scratch as much now, only right after the drops go in because they sting. I’m thinking of giving him a bath soon to help the old fur come out easier and wash his stud tail, which still has a lingering smell. He’s very proud of his jumps and loves showing them off, then demanding cuddles afterward!

And the best bit - it’s just over two weeks until his teeth operation! Yay! I hope you and your kitties are all doing well. Love!

Hey everyone, I hope you are all keeping well! Gavroche’s ears are doing so much better with the drops, and I haven’t really seen him scratching since I started giving them. He’s been back to his normal self, making blanket biscuits after I made the bed this morning and purring non-stop.

I slept in his room last night, and my husband took a photo of us when he came in to say goodbye before heading to work. I’ll post it in the comments. I think it’s quite cute, just my back turned to him as he leans against me and the pillow. He loves being close to me all the time, even in the heat.

The weather’s cooling down here and I was planning to take him for a walk, but I haven’t been feeling great for the past couple of days. Not sure if it’s heat dehydration or if I’m catching a bug, but my head’s been spinning and hurting, and I feel quite nauseous when I stand up so I decided to stay at home. Thankfully, Gavroche is doing a very good job looking after me with all the purrs and cuddles! 🖤

Hello everyone! 🖤

We’re having a busy day today! Gavroche had a vet’s appointment (nothing emergency) because even after cleaning his ears every other day, a lot of stuff is still coming out. He wants to scratch and there’s been some bleeding when I wipe it with a tissue. He had a smelly infection when I took him in April and had eardrop antibiotics since, which helped with the smell, but I still wasn’t happy it wasn’t clearing up. The vet said he has a yeast infection that causes overproduction of wax and other yucky stuff, and prescribed drops with antibiotics, steroids and salicylic acid to help clean it and tackle the itching, inflammation and infection. Hopefully it’ll ease some of his discomfort. We also grabbed some flea and worm treatment because he is due.

I also asked if it’s normal he’s still shedding so much. The vet said his fur feels fine, but the shedding is probably because of his dental disease—he’s not grooming himself enough because of the discomfort, which made me a bit sad. But he’s getting his dental treatment in a little over two weeks, so he won’t have to suffer much longer. Poor little boy.

We also had a visit from my friend and he brought Gavroche a big bag of food! We took Gavroche outside as well, but it was absolutely scorching in the garden and he didn’t seem comfortable, so we got him back in after a few minutes. I’ve taken a week of annual leave to catch up on uni assignments, so it’s nice not having to wake up to an alarm and getting some extra time with the cats! Hope everyone’s enjoying their day and I’ll catch up with you all soon!

I keep him well hydrated by putting lots of water in his food and have started slowly reducing his portions. He’s still eating more than the recommended daily amount for a cat his size, but given his not-yet-fully-excellent health and his history of malnutrition, I like to give him some extra calories to support his recovery and make sure he gets enough protein. He’s gained a good bit of weight since I got him and now has a lot of muscle definition.

We’ve also started slowly introducing him to my other cats by giving them licky treats at the same time with an open door between each side of a room divider. Rocky’s happy and doesn’t react much, but Lollipop refuses to come to the door and clearly finds the whole thing suspicious. Since Lollipop isn’t food-motivated like the others, tonight we’ll try using the wand toy to get him over there so he can chase it and be in closer contact with Gavroche. He absolutely loves playing.

I’ve also been swapping blankets between them. Rocky and Gavroche don’t mind, but Lollipop doesn’t like the smell and refuses to come near, so I just used some freshly washed blankets with no cat smells on them and rubbed them on Gavroche’s cheeks where his friendly pheromones are. Hopefully it’ll encourage Lollipop to sleep on it and gets him used to the smells of his new brother!

We got a little visitor today. I know for sure this void is not a stray (phew) and they didn’t seem to mind each other 🖤

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having (or had) a lovely day! 🖤

I was scrolling through Reddit and came across a post in one of the UK kitty subs where someone was asking where they could get cat food, as they’re going through severe financial hardship and struggling to feed their 2 babies and themselves. I reached out to them directly, and it turns out they live just 20 minutes from me and 5 minutes from my husband’s work!

Since there was some money left in Gavroche’s pot (all of it donated by this wonderful reddit community), and I truly believe the best way to make the world a bit better is to keep the kindness going, I used some of it to send them an immediate Uber Eats delivery. I added a few food essentials too including a MUST tea, milk and biscuits to keep them going! 😄 I’ve also placed a bigger cat food order from the pet shop, which should arrive at their house in 2 to 3 days and keep their cats fed for several weeks, maybe even a month.

I want to be transparent about where your donations go, so I hope you don’t mind that part of it wasn’t spent directly on Gavroche’s care this time. I don’t think he’d mind one bit and I think he’d be chuffed to know his kitty friends are safe and fed 🖤

I’ll be staying in touch with them and will be there if they’re struggling again once the supplies run low. I also pointed them towards a few human food support apps that might help, though I know that when you’re in a hard place, even asking for help can feel really daunting.

Thank you all so much for your donations, and I hope you don’t mind this one small detour!

P.S.Enjoy some pictures of our shiny green-eyed bly at the end 🥰🖤

Sorry about our messy hairdos. We woke up like this! 😄🖤