Rich, Sam and I went and picked him out here, in 2008. You can see from those photos just how big and fat he was!
But this was him 3 weeks ago.
Scrawny. Not happy. Living in a hood because if he didn't then the recurrent skin infection caused him to tear himself to shreds. FIV+ meant he had no immune system. He was fighting with nothing except the antibiotics we gave him, which also gave him diarrhoea. That came with its own issues,
because the cold weather had triggered his arthritis, and he couldn't move quickly.
So I made the phonecall, my sister arranged it all, and J took us down there. He stayed in there with Joe whilst the boy and I waited in the waiting room. AC cried. I cried. Hannah came to get us to come in and see him, and he looked fine, very normal. She'd even arranged him so the worst of his bad patches were covered. She's amazing.
We came home, and Kevin has looked for Joe ever since. Shouting, in his own part Burmese way "Hey Joe, where'd you go?"