A Thank You, Joel of FIVTherapy.com

Early in our search for hope in treating Chiana’s FeLV diagnosis, my husband stumbled across a site that, while focused on FIV, offered more than just medical insights—it offered heart. That site was www.fivtherapy.com. It was created by Joel, a fellow cat person walking his own difficult path. In 2024, he retired the website. As of July, 2025, it still can be found but that could change at any time.

Though we eventually chose a different treatment path—moving away from Virbagen Omega, which we initially considered—it was Joel’s site that first made us feel less alone. FIVTherapy.com was simple. No frills. No flash. Just solid information, warmth, and honesty.

I’ve always leaned toward the old-school approach when it comes to websites. Give me straightforward content, a working search bar, and I’m set. That’s why I started documenting Chiana’s journey on CaringBridge, and eventually moved to Blogger. Not exactly cutting edge in 2025, I know—but it works. It’s readable. It’s real.

Every time I update this blog, I say a quiet prayer: that I’m getting it right. And if I’m not, that someone out there will gently let me know. Because this isn’t easy. Even with AI tools, it’s a labor of love—and AI? It can be confidently wrong. You still have to think, cross-check, and dig deeper.

In March 2024, I reached out to Joel with questions about how he built his site. He replied:

“I am hardly a model of how to create a website since my own was created and shaped in the most ad hoc way imaginable... The original version of the site was created with a Word Perfect word processing program that had a Convert to HTML function. Voila! It was crude... Eventually I bit the bullet and recast the site in a more advanced design... I googled free website templates, chose one that featured the color orange to reflect Bud being an orange tabby, and downloaded it... Anything I wanted to add that wasn't part of the downloaded templates (e.g., Site Search), I googled how to create and added it myself...”

That made me laugh—Word Perfect! I remember that archaic program. And now here I am, blogging on another relic from the past. Maybe it's fitting. And maybe that’s okay.

If anyone knows of a newer option I could migrate this blog to—especially one that allows import from Blogger and doesn’t break the bank—I’d love to hear it. For now, this is home.

I can only dream of ever having a list like the one on Joel’s “Endorsements and Appreciations” page. I don’t claim to be an expert. I’m not a scientist. At best, I’m an “independent researcher,” hoping to do right by the one cat who matters most to me—Chiana.

Bud was one cat. But he mattered.
Chiana is one cat. She matters.

Thank you, Joel, for passing the torch—whether you meant to or not. I carry it now in the hopes of helping others find their way through the fog of FeLV. Your simple message remains my compass:

“Embrace all hope, ye who enter.”