About Me
I’m a handsome ginger gentleman with soft green eyes and a fondness for the simple things. I really enjoy affection and being close to people. I would do best in a calm home, as the busy energy of kids and other cats wasn’t quite my style in my previous home. I prefer to reign as the king of the castle.
I’m a steady, loyal companion who’s simply looking for a place where I can feel safe, loved and cared for.
Special Needs / Preferences
Wrex has Type 2 diabetes. He is dependent on a low dose of insulin twice a day to prevent him from becoming ill. Wrex is ultra sensitive to even mildly elevated blood sugars and so he needs an understanding owner, preferably someone who understands the ins and outs of diabetes and has a consistent schedule who can give him his insulin regularly. Wrex has had diabetic ketoacidosis at least 3 times now and so he is unfortunately not a candidate for the newer oral diabetic medications for cats such as Bexacat. We even tried a glp1 drug with him and unfortunately it did not work. Right now, insulin is his only option.
Insulin needs to be given every 12 hours, every day. Periodic blood sugars checks at home are also going to be important to prevent problems. Wrex is an absolute rock star for both his insulin shots and for his blood sugar checks. He is very food motivated and will literally be so distracted by food (or begging for food) that he barely notices what you are doing. Plus, he is used to this routine now and it doesn’t even phase him.
Wrex needs to be kept on a pate canned food diet (no dry food!!) or a freeze dried or frozen commercial raw diet. Part of what keeps him healthy and keeps his insulin requirements low is a very low carb diet. Dry food and gravy type canned food are too high in carbs and could cause a disaster for his diabetes becoming unregulated. He is not picky about what type of pate he eats but he seems to be sensitive to beef so we recommend not feeding beef foods. He has done well on chicken, duck, turkey, and fish pates (please minimize fish based foods to an occasional meal due to the inherent dangers of too much fish in the diet). There are some prescription dry and canned diabetes diets sold by vets but even these provide too many carbs for most diabetic cats. Luckily, almost all popular brands of pate foods are naturally low carb. He has been eating Fancy Feast (classic), Blue Buffalo, and “I and Love and You” brands while in foster.
Wrex is currently being fostered by our medical director, Dr. Tara Koble. She will be available for advise on his diabetes at any point after adoption, although Simply Cats can not offer ongoing primary veterinary care. We will however, provide up to 6 months worth of both insulin, syringes, and monitoring supplies and at least 1-2 follow up visits over the first several months after adoption. The overall cost for his ongoing diabetes management is estimated to be about 40-50$ month (insulin, test strips, syringes). If he gets sick, both high and low blood sugar can be very, very expensive to treat and both are technically life threatening. For this reason, we will be interviewing potential adopters to try and find someone with the knowledge and lifestyle that will ensure that any potential problems are either prevented or caught as early as possible. At home blood sugar checks are the best way to prevent these problems. It is cheap, easy to do, and much less stressful than going to a vet every time a blood sugar needs checking. Wrex is extremely healthy other than his diabetes. He has had recent full lab work and a dental cleaning. We also highly recommend choosing a feline only veterinarian as they tend to have a lot more experience with the nuances of feline diabetes. Boise is lucky to have two cat only veterinary clinics to choose from.
Wrex is a bit more high maintenance than the average cat due to his diabetes, but if you want an outgoing, social, chatty cat who just wants your attention and admiration, then you need to meet him. Bonus if he can have some supervised outside time (catio or harness) as he truly loves being outside about as much as he likes to eat. And extra bonus points if you provide him cat grass to devour (Dr. Tara will even show you how to sprout your own if you are interested).