Melon’s Odyssey On The Black Market For Life

When Sabrina Imbler’s cat, Melon, becomes seriously ill with what is later confirmed as feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), Imbler feels she doesn’t have time to wait for a formal diagnosis and turns to a Facebook group that connects desperate cat owners with a black‑market treatment: GS‑441524. Injecting Melon twice a day at home, they enter a frantic stretch in which the acidic drug causes a wound to open on Melon’s back, and she is sentenced to weeks in a hated recovery suit called a Suitical: “Melon was so upset that she lay on her side like a tipped cow for hours, her chin glumly fixed to the carpet.” With Melon finally fully recovered, Imbler has the space to look back on the desperate measures it took to save her. The FIP Warriors contact met me in the lobby of their building, wearing a knit cap with cat ears. They proceeded to demonstrate how to deliver the medicine on their stuffed cat, Edward. I watched as they manipulated the stuffed toy, lifting up pockets in Edward’s “skin” into which I was to drive a 22-gauge needle at an angle into subcutaneous tissue. I paid $50 for two vials of injectable GS-441524, which was acidic to keep it shelf-stable. This acidity, the contact warned me, meant the injections burned. “It’s really best if you have help,” they told me. “Will you have help?” No, I told them. My ex was out of town and it was just me and Melon. “Well, you’ll figure something out,” they said. I would have to. More picks on cats How Lena Dunham’s Cats Gave Her a Reality Check “After moving to London, the writer’s growing posse of British felines took a walk on the wild side—and taught her a lesson in independence.” The Menagerie Lurking in Rural America “Not far from my Ohio hometown, a notorious tragedy shook America. Years later, its legacy lives and breathes—and occasionally runs away.” The Cat’s Meat Man “As cats evolved from feral ratters into beloved Victorian companions, a nascent pet-food economy arose on the carts of so-called ‘cat’s meat men.’ I Am Cat Lady “Cats sense grief, a friend tells me, and move toward it.” A Beloved Alley Cat Now Lives in the Watergate. Was She Kidnapped, or Rescued? “This is the saga of Kitty Snows, street queen of Foggy Bottom, and the neighbors who are fighting over her.” “Diana’s Piano” And All The Cats I’ve Loved And Lost “The years I’ve spent with these cats—with Detective in our house, with Walker in a small apartment, with Mango on the porch next door—is worth all the feelings of loss.”