It's the newbie again. I'm not sure if I'm using this mailing list correctly-please advise me if I'm not! And I apologize for being wordy-I'm an English major/instructor who just can seem to mince her words!
Cassidy is getting spayed today. She's very healthy considering what she's gone through with her lame foot, and her tail seems to not know where it's at sometimes due to the nerve damage. I forgot the digital camera again today, so the vet's going to take a picture of her for my adoption posting. Yesterday I did copious amounts of research, and I've been emailing places all over Nebraska. I'm going to work on South Dakota and the Twin Cities area (Minnesota) today since these areas are relatively close to where I live. I've been astonished by the outpouring of support. Even though I haven't found a home for her, I'm now convinced that I could never euthanize her. There just wasn't any support around here for my passion for cats, so I was feeling a little desperate! I know I'll find a home for her eventually. I've received other reports of people housing their FeLV positives with the negatives. I'm just not sure I can do that just yet. Plus, my youngest (less than a year old) is not vaccinated because my vet did not recommend it. He said that the vaccine has a 1 in 10,000 chance of causing a sarcoma which would lead to amputation and chemotherapy. I certainly cannot afford that emotionally or financially! My vet doesn't vaccinate his house cats against FeLV either since (like mine) they never go outside or even occasionally escape. I have mixed feelings about getting my youngest, Smokey, vaccinated after reading more about FeLV. I haven't decided yet what to do. If I didn't have her, I believe the older cats (5 and 10 years of age) would be resistant to the disease. Crazy enough-another cat found me last night! I've named her Ashley since she looks like my Smokey and they are about the same age (smoke/ash, get it?). Luckily, her test came back negative for FeLV (the Elisa test). She's getting spayed Wednesday, and I'll pick both her and Cassidy up on Thursday. I think I'll be able to find a home quite easily for Ashley. I talked to my vet about having another test. He strongly suggested the better test (IFA is it?) that others have also advised me on. If I still have Cassidy in a couple weeks, I'll get her tested. If she comes back negative then, I'll consider getting Smokey vaccinated and keeping them all together, that is if my husband doesn't kick us all out before then! No, he's very tolerant, but if I ever got his baby Smokey sick from another cat, he'd be very upset (as would I). In defense of my vet, he's very knowledgeable-much more so than any vet we've had in these areas when it comes to pets (cows and pigs are the thing here)-but I think he's used to dealing with penny-pinchers around these parts who won't even consider spending money on cats like these-so he wasn't expecting that I'd be so open to alternatives. I've let him know that I'm going to make up a handout for his clients who might bring in an FeLV positive cat in the future. He was very pleased and luckily very supportive. I hate it when vets are condescending or think that people shouldn't save strays. He's discussed doing a feral trap and spay/neuter project-I'll work on that with him for the summer. If you'd like, I'll keep you posted on Cassidy. Again, sorry about the length of this email! Melissa
