Will post with pix to Belinda's "homes needed" site in the next few days, but in the meantime wanted to start by putting out a message about a situation I just got involved in. I'm a long-time list member, but haven't been active recently, although some of the older members hopefully will remember me.
I run a rescue in SC. Someone who adopted a kitty from me several years ago began feeding a black pregnant stray, Jasmine, a couple of years ago. Jasmine had two pretty, spotted tabby kittens, Pansy and Poppy. Unfortunately, Laura enjoyed feeding and watching the kitties, who came up on her screened porch to be fed but returned to a strip of woods behind her house afterwards, but she didn't think about fixing them, so although Pansy and Poppy's first litters didn't survive, they soon each had another litter, and Laura realized she need to find homes and spay/neuter when those cats also began breeding. Laura writes poetry, and recently published a book of poems about these cats. The book has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Unfortunately, she doesn't win the prize for fixing the cats soon enough. She has three cats already, and did take in one of the most recent kittens. This kitten tested negative a couple of times, so we weren't prepared for what happened next. I normally hold out for indoor homes, but had someone, Louise, who gave good vet care and would be a reasonably good home wanting an outdoor calico. She ended up getting calico twins, Rosebud and Azalea, from Laura (I thought this would help Laura out), and took them to her vet, where unfortunately they both tested positive. The vet told Louise they had to be indoors (which we certainly agree with), but Louise didn't want indoor kitties. She said he said they were very sick and it would be best to put them to sleep. However, none of these kitties has any symptoms at all. She called Laura first, but Laura apparently didn't call her back fast enough and within an hour or two they'd been euthanized. Both Laura and I were upset by this as Laura would certainly have taken them back. One day they were chasing butterflies, the next day they were dead. Laura wrote a special poem about it that I'll try to post later - it is very touching. On Sunday a vet tech friend and I tested five more of the kitties. The mother of the calico twins and their two siblings were positive. A fourth kitten was also positive - she is Pansy's kitten. Buttercup, the mother of the negative kitten that Laura took in, is - like her kitten - negative. This seems odd, as she is the sister to the mother who is positive, although it's not unheard of of course. We still have more to test, and fear there will be more positives - and we already have four. The positive adult, Daffodil, is a cute little black and white tuxedo with a white hourglass on her nose. She's one year old. Her positive kittens are a pretty calico and a Maine Coon-look female white with dark tabby who looks just like the kitten in Florida that Belinda just posted the message about. All the kittens are tame. Daffodil is a bit nervous but can be petted, picked up and handled, and we drew blood for the test without having to sedate her. Pansy's positive kitten is a spotted brown/fawn tabby and white - looks like a Bengal, with real spots on her sides, not stripes. All the kittens are 4 months old. We hope to retest after 90 days any cats who test negative (so far only Buttercup and Cherry, the one Laura is keeping) and if still negative we'll try to adopt them out, but separating negatives from positives at this point is going to be difficult for Laura. So far she's just put the positives back out. We got Daffodil and Buttercup fixed today and more will be fixed next week. Anyone out there got room for any of these kitties? Even if just one or two people got one each it would help . . . There are 14 kitties involved in this situation. Almost all are females. -- _______________________________________________ Search for businesses by name, location, or phone number. -Lycos Yellow Pages http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10
