RE: OT: Why is this list so nice?

[Hideyo Yamamoto]

In addition to what Michelle said .. I think many people on the list are not egotistical for some reasons.. we don’t really care about “being right”—we just want to help others in any way we can.. lots of people on the list don’t even have felk kitties but still stay on the list because of the nature of the group of people..   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 7:48 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: OT: Why is this list so nice?   I think that the reason this list is different is that it takes a different sort of person to want to and be willing to care for cats with FeLV.  It takes a lot of compassion, and also a lot of willingness to face hard things, and also a willingness to have an open mind and do some research. All of this makes the list self-selecting, I think, to people who are more generally compassionate and less combative than on other lists. And people withh FeLV positive cats also have to deal with the fact that most vets are just abysmal and clueless on this subject, which makes us really need to depend on each other to learn the information that we all need to take care of our cats.  Which, I think, also makes us nicer and less combative than people on other lists, because we really NEED to be here for very practical reasons, and we really need, and recognize that we need, each other's advice and information.  With FeLV we do not have the luxury of alienating each other in order to have a petty argument.  I am not sure that people on other lists feel so dependent on each other.  In fact, on one of the IBD lists a woman really, really tore into me for questioning something that another member had been told by a vet.  She wrote that it was completely inappropriate for me to do that because I do not have a veterinary degree.  It was one of the reasons I left that list. I can not imagine anyone on this list writing that. We have all had such bad experiences with vets, so we don't put them on a pedestal. Which does make us need each other more.   Just my thoughts.  I have spent some time thinking about the subject, because this list really is so amazing, and so much better than all the others.   Michelle