Hi Chrissy,
Wow. What a big heart you have.
There are no FeLV+ shelters in this area (I'm in Bordentown, right around
the corner from you). Taffy's Place in the Flemington area is full I
think. Any shelter you take them to will PTS. I think Nikki's FeLV
Rescue is full too. She's way up in the Sparta, NJ area.
No doubt you've got your hands full. I'm full myself (in a 1 bedroom
apartment), and all the cats are FeLV free at the moment. I mostly lurk on
the list nowadays -- I've been with the group since 1999.
Since we're so close (geographically), maybe give me a call sometime and we
can chat. If nothing else, at least I can be a sounding board for
you.
324-1604
Terri in Bordentown, NJ
=^..^= Terri, Siggie the Tomato Vampire, Guinevere, Sammi, Travis, and 6
furangels: RuthieGirl, Samantha, Arielle, Gareth, Alec & Salome'
=^..^=
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 9:43
PM
Subject: Emilio and Frito
Hi everyone,
I'm brand new here, and am so happy to have
found you! How wonderful to
have found such a group! Of course, it's sad
news in my life that
brings me here, though, but it's good to know there
are other people
out there doing what they can.
We moved to
Trenton, NJ, last year with a dog, Lacey, and two young,
(felv - ) cats,
Monkey and Simon, and within a day, acquired a new cat,
Angus, whom we
kept in seclusion for months until we could determine if
he had any of the
feline nasties (he was tested twice, several months
apart). Of course, we
didn't seek to get another cat, but cats have the
ability to acquire us.
He came up negative for FIV and Leukemia, and we
were so thankful. Monkey
and Simon may not feel the same way, since
he's much bigger than they are,
but we're working out the issues!
Four months later, I heard a terrible
crying sound coming from the
hedges, and honestly had no idea what it was
-- despite the growing
number of cats in my household, they're all pretty
young; I didn't have
a cat until I was 31, so I was not well versed in the
wide range of
noises they're capable of making. I went to check it out,
and
discovered Platooski, a kitten about 4 weeks old, in the
bushes.
We figured three cats was enough; since Platooski was a kitten,
we
thought it would be easy enough to get him adopted. And as luck would
have it, THREE people said they'd take him. We offered him to the first
person who asked, and of course, she fell through, but not before the
other two women got other kittens. So, we figured, "What's one more?"
And then came Crabcake, another kitten. And again, we figured we could
adopt her out, and planned to take her to adoption day at PetSmart, but
she developed a horrible eye infection. Despite her hideous oozing
face, all of my cats fell in love with her while she was healing, and
by the time she got better, we couldn't bear to give her
up.
Platooski and Crabcake also came up negative for FIV and FeLv. All
of
my cats are indoors only. Angus, by the way, the bully, adores the
kittens, though he still gets a scary blank stare when he looks at
Simon and Monkey...
So, last month, on our one year anniversary in
the house, a mommy cat
and two young kittens show up, smelling a sucker, I
guess. The
neighborhood has a bad cat problem, and we've been talking
about a
trap-neuter-release program, but of course, every time a cat shows
up,
circumstances go weird, and we're not able to do the TNR thing. I
volunteered at the shelter for a bit to get a sense what was going on
with that, and while I admire so much of what the volunteers do, I will
do my best to never surrender an animal to them, since it's a kill
facility, and the city is so hard pressed for resources. So we figured
we'd do our best to "take care of our backyard," so to speak. We fed
Mommy and babies (whom we named Emilio and Frito), and they stayed on
the back porch. I asked around again to see if we could find a taker
for these cats, and again, we got lucky and found someone who'd take
Emilio and Frito, if they came up negative for FIV and
FeLv.
Because we live in a city with a stray cat problem, as well as a
number
of other problems, I brought the crew inside and put them in the
spare
room, so nothing would happen to them before we could get them to
their
new home. We let them adjust for a week or so, and then we separated
the mom from the babies -- we figured they were at least 8 weeks old.
They were still nursing, but were also eating solid food. Called the
vet, who makes housecalls, and she
came by last Monday, and tested
Mommy, who's staying in my office:
negative. Tested Emilio: Positive. My
heart sank, but my vet tried to
reassure me that sometimes they get false
positives; she'd send the
blood out for a more definitive test. Frito was
flipping out, so the
vet couldn't draw blood. We put the kittens in a
large cage in the
spare room, so they couldn't hide from us (they were
avoiding us) and
Emilio began to deteriorate rapidly. Lethargic, snotted
up.
Heartbreaking. Frito seemed fine, in her not-very-outgoing way. Mommy,
too, once she got over the initial separation, seemed fine. Again, I
have a lot of cats, but not that much experience, and until the other
day, I knew very little about this disease, and when Emilio got sick, I
thought the worst.
While Emilio was lethargic, he didn't fight me:
I could pick him up. I
cleaned him up and fed him tuna, and he perked up a
bit. But only a
little bit. The next day, I let them out of the cage, and
he improved
100%.
I'd been bracing myself for the worst, and I
suppose it didn't help.
The lab results came back and he's positive. The
woman who said she'd
take the kittens now (understandably) doesn't want
them. And I'm just
sick to death about the whole thing, I have been for
the whole week,
even before I had the official news. They are sweet little
babies, and
if I didn't have 5 other healthy cats, I'd keep them, as
painful as it
would be to know their futures were so uncertain. I can't
bring myself
to put them down, knowing, in the brief time I've been
reading up about
this, that they can have still have decent
lives.
My vet told me about The Best Little Cat House in Pennsylvania,
a
hospice in Harrisburg, PA, a few hours from here, where I could bring
them. I contacted them -- will have to talk to the woman who runs the
shelter tomorrow, though -- and off the bat, they said they have too
many cats right now, though they said they might be able to take them
in about a month. Which is not ideal, but doable.
I'm exploring
other options in case that doesn't work out, except, I
really don't know
of any other options. To make things more
distressing, my healthy gang
getting even more curious about what's
going on in the spare room: last
week, after the first FeLv screening,
we put some old wood down in front
of the door to prevent little paws
from poking at each other (maybe too
late??), and I'm terrified that my
cats are already at risk, even though I
HOPE I'm just being overly
paranoid (Emilio kicked a toy out from under
the door and Platooski
kicked it back in, etc. etc. etc.). We're committed
to hanging on to
the Mom until we get her spayed and retested in a few
months, though I
fear she's a sitting duck, since she was a very good
mommy: she nursed
them and doted on them, groomed them and shared food.
She is a
beautiful, sweet animal, we think about two years old, and we
would be
happy to keep her if she's healthy (or didn't have healthy cats
in the
house). They waiting will stink.
I'm at a complete loss.
Anyone have any advice? Know of any place I can
place the kittens? I know
how hard it is to find homes for healthy
cats, and I just don't know what
to do. Any personal experience on
exactly how contagious this disease is?
I keep reading things like
"moist contact," "prolonged physical contact,"
and "highly contagious
and lethal" and I have not gotten much in the way
of reassurance from
the vet, either -- and I suppose, if that's the way it
is, I'll have to
accept it, but hearing some firsthand stories would be
helpful.
In the meantime, two more cats have appeared on the back
porch, and
after this experience with Emilio and Frito, I'm not sure if
I'm strong
enough to keep doing this. I feel so weak, drained. They need
us
though, and I know no one else in my neighborhood helps
them.
Thank you so much in advance for reading this, and anything
thoughts
you may have
-
Chrissy
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