The year hasn’t started well for Mr. Kinikini.

His appetite starting waning a day or two before New Year’s Eve. Then there was the trauma of the fireworks that night. Bessie and Kinikini hid as soon as the first pops started going off, and I didn’t see either one until early in the morning. At that point, Kinikini was still spooked, and against didn’t eat much.

I should explain. Kinikini has tested positive for FIV, feline immunodeficiency virus. It doesn’t affect him day to day, but it means that we need to jump on any potential infections quickly. So by Tuesday afternoon, I was on the phone to get an appointment with our favorite vet, Dr. Ann Sakamoto, at the Hawaii Kai Veterinary Clinic. And the soonest we could get in was Thursday morning.

So we were there in a small exam room at the clinic this morning, with Kinikini in a carrier at our feet crying pathetically.

We didn’t really know what to expect, but the news was mostly good, although Kinikini was not happy about it. He declined to cooperate with efforts to get a good blood sample to send off for testing. Instead, a smaller sample was analyzed in-house, enough to find out that he’s basically pretty healthy. We’re focusing on his dental issues as the most likely cause of his absent appetite and general decline for the several days.

So now he’s scheduled to get his teeth cleaned (and any problem teeth extracted) at the beginning of next month. He also got a dose of antiobiotic, and some pills for pain, although I don’t know how we will give those to him. He’s never been pilled, as far as I know. And it can be a real pain to get a bill down even much more docile cats. Kinikini is anything but docile. But we’ll muddle through.

Anyway, here they are. Pre- and post-vet photos. I hope Kinikini’s year gets better from here on.