07/08/2026
It’s been a few years since our OG Clinic Cat Prince Charming passed away. Some photos popped up as a memory - so we thought we would share them on.
Prince Charming first came to us in 2015 when the roof of the cattery at the Cat Protection Society suffered severe rain and storm damage. A clowder of cats came to stay at CVH whilst repairs were undertaken, and Prince Charming at first seemed just another cute kitty face.
During his time in his emergency stay with us, we noticed he was a drinker. Of water 😄 He was getting thru his bowls of water at a very fast pace.
Drinking more than usual is a common symptom of about 30 different conditions, and as is so often the way with potential clinic cats, Prince Charming did *not* have 28 of them. Nope! He had the two rarest reasons - two very specific types of a condition called diabetes insipidus. This usually presents as a kidney form, and a central form (central = brain). Primary diabetes insipidus is very rare. Almost unheard for to have *both* forms.
So much time has passed now it’s hard to even remember the details of how we diagnosed him. We enlisted the help of a very famous feline medicine specialist. Then came the difficult part: we didn’t know if he would live a week, a month, a year, or a decade. He was not suitable for adoption with this diagnosis.
But here is where it gets a little more upbeat. In his couple of month stay at CVH, he had proven over and over again that he thrived in a cattery/hospital setting. We won’t make comment on his IQ 🤓, but he was a complete acrophobia. He liked his condo, he was fine with the room he was in, and that was it. When left to explore - even in his own time - he didn’t.
So what better than a cat with an open ended diagnosis and fear of the outside world than to be a clinic cat! And we are grateful that The Cat Protection Society allowed us to give him a home. That in the end was indeed about a decade.
He was never really the sort of clinic cat who sat with sick patients, or had intuition about human emotions. But, he did tolerate dressing up, he wasn’t afraid of the 60kg muzzled Rottweiler in the corner, he LOVED his toys (sometimes a little too much), but probably the coolest thing he ever did was saved half a dozen other cats lives by donating his blood. This was especially true during the feline panleukopaenia outbreak around 2018.
Thank you if you’ve read this far! If not - we hope you enjoy the photos of the very dapper Prince Charming ❤️😍
