The Ghost of JoeJoe

One summer evening many years ago, I was at a gathering and noticed a tiger kitten wondering in to a friend’s yard. I don’t know a lot about cats, but this kitten was very small and easy to capture, so he couldn’t have been more than a couple of weeks old. He was the star of the show that evening and eventually went on to live the good life as a companion and confidant of my friend’s grandmother. That same summer, I was very young and impressionable and found Goth Kids to be cool and mysterious. I was really into listening to industrial rock and found lyrics about bestial intercourse and sadomasochism alluring. I also spent a lot of my time at Denny’s because that is where all the cool kids at that time hung out and you could get a plate of fries and a cup of coffee for under $3. I don’t remember how the whole situation came up, but one evening I started a conversation with a Goth Girl about pain and body mutilation. She offered to bite my wrist and since I was looking for approval among my peers, I totally accepted and still have the scar to this day as a reminder of my teenage idiocy. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later that I noticed small lesions appearing all over my arms and legs and immediately jumped to the conclusion that I had contracted HIV. I became especially concerned when my boyfriend started having similar symptoms. He was far more level headed than myself and promptly went to the doctor and was diagnosed with ringworm. I found out not long afterwards, that everyone who had played with the cute kitten ended up with the same fungal diagnosis

Now, I’ve never owned a dark colored pet before so when Johan had very visible dandruff I just figured (correctly) that he had dry skin and supplemented his diet with some Omega 3. It worked like a charm until the other day when I was scratching around his neck and noticed that his hair was falling out in clumps along with huge pieces of scaly skin. A trip to the vet has both animals now on instant lockdown for ringworm. So, for the next three weeks I have to subject both dogs to weekly baths of antifungal shampoo (the horror! more so for me because convincing a 65lb dog to stand still and not lick off the shampoo in the tub for 10 minutes is no simple feat.) And! I have to watch out for lesions that this time I won’t panic and assume is an immune threatening virus.