First, I must apologize for missing last month’s update. There was a lot going on (notably, a death in my wife’s family), but that’s not an excuse, only an explanation.

It was an exciting two months for Shea, even though he was blissfully unaware of this.
You see, Shea was put “on hold” to be adopted, which means he is not adoptable until we finish the adoption process.

We were thrilled when the potential adopter was approved. Adoption seemed virtually certain, with the only possibilities for derailment being (i) the adopter changes her mind (rare), or (ii) something problematical found during the pre-adoption physical exam (PAPE).

We introduced the PAPE a few years ago as a safeguard.
What if a medical condition had shown up since the cat’s most recent exam?
Unlikely, but we like to be careful.

During Shea’s PAPE, our vet heard a heart murmur.
This was a new finding and such murmurs are not always indicative of heart disease.
We ordered up a cardiac ultrasound to find out.

Sadly, Shea was found to have obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
The adopter decided to not complete the adoption due to this discovery.

We are, of course, sad for Shea, but grateful that we discovered the issue before he was adopted.
He has many admirers here.
He couldn’t possibly be in better hands