No more Buster snarfles

My poor Buster kitty.  He's such a lover boy.  But for the next year or so, I have to be hands off with him.  He carries that bacteria that pregnant women are supposed to keep away from.  He only carries it in minute amounts, it's not an active infection with him, he's just a carrier.  I would pretty much have to bathe in his feces to even come into contact with the bacteria, but I'm not going to be taking any chances with my next pregnancy.



Buster started hanging around our property a couple of years ago.  We have no idea where he came from, but I think our feral brothers brought him over for dinner one night and he realized what a good deal they've got going here and decided to stick around.

Once we realized he was a regular, we captured him, got him fixed and vaccinated.  After a short absence, he started hanging out with us again.  He's established himself in the pottery studio.  That's his house now.  We installed a cat door into the front door and set up a nice bed in there for him and he's fully taken up residence.


I keep some shelves right next to me when I'm throwing and he likes to plop himself on top of that and grab at my hair.  Sometimes he gets a good chunk of hair in his claws and kind of pulls me to him.  He's ruined a few mugs in his day.

But he's so sweet and just completely made of awesome.  If I lean towards him and say "kisses!" he headbutts my chin.  And if his head can't reach, he'll stretch out a paw and tap my cheek.

When I'm walking around outside, he keeps himself glued to my feet.  He also loves to try to ride my shoulders even though he's way too big to drape around them properly.

And when we drive up, he comes running out of the studio to jump on the hood of our cars and say hi.



And when I pick him up, he likes to lick my face, what I call Snarfles.

But a couple of weeks ago I noticed that he was drinking and peeing a lot.  Constantly.  So I took him to the vet.  So far he looks really healthy.  She thinks that it was a matter of him having some fleas, overgrooming, and that made him thirsty which makes him drink too much and pee too much.  Since he was there, I had them draw some blood and test for that anti-pregnancy bacteria.  And the test came back as positive, but in trace amounts.  Nuts.

Like I said, it's really only the feces that pregnant women have to worry about and I don't even know where he poops so I certainly don't come into contact with it.  But on the other hand, if he cleans his butt and then cleans the rest of himself, who's to say that he's not spreading it around his whole body?

So I can't really pet him anymore.  If I do (cuz it's really hard to resist), straight to the sink and antibacterial soap I go.  I certainly can't let him lick me anymore.  And I'll have to cover all of the clay water in the studio to make sure he doesn't drink out of it before I put my hands in it.  And no more spending evenings napping in the laundry room for him, strictly outside and in the pottery studio from now on.

Since that bacteria can live up to 2 months, and we're hoping to do the embryo transfer in 1 month, hands off from now on.

I was pretty diligent about not touching him during my last pregnancy, ya know, just in case.  And the doctors said that it wasn't that bacteria that caused my infection.   But now that we know, we're stepping up the diligence.

He is not happy about this turn of events.  He's following me around, rubbing against my legs (covered in pants of course), and just looking at me not understanding why I'm not bending down to rub his nose.

Hubby is going to have to take over snuggle duties (then immediately wash up before coming near me).

I hope he still likes me a year from now when I can snuggle him again.




PS - we tested one of our indoor cats for the same thing a few weeks earlier when one of them had to go to the vet.  The indoor cats don't carry it so I can still snuggle with them.