Coping With Feline Infectious Peritonitis

Our little mittens came home with us from the SPCA, within an hour she was everyone’s buddy. My one year old dog that my husband thought would crush this little eight week old kitten just loved her to pieces. My 16 year old grumpy cat did not attack her and my 6 year old cat taught her the ropes. She never got very big but brought home so many dead birds, live frogs, live crayfish,live mice and baby rats. She was a great hunter. Then 3 months before her 2nd birthday she was sleeping all day for a few days, I thought she had been in a fight and was healing up. We noticed her face looked swollen and I thought she had an absess, 2 days later she was blind, her eyes were red and dilated and her breath smelled like she was rotting.

We took her to our vet and were told she was extremely sick and would maybe last 3 days to a week. We did blood tests and got her on antibiotics. Two days later we were told she had FIP and would not live long. That was March 4th 2009, Mittens turned 2 years old on May 13th and now it is June 21st. She killed a robin and ate it’s head off and left the rest in my living room today. I continue to give her penicilin and though you can see she is sick, she goes outside everyday, eats like a dog and amazingly she is still here. Has anyone had this happen or am I just lucky to have enjoyed her longer than expected?