Dear Sheila, Please know that both you & Charlie will be in my prayers..... I know you must be so heartbroken..... What a wonderful life you have given him.... Reading your story reminded me of my Mr. Chow - the first fur baby I had w/ Felv. This was YEARS ago, no testing, blah, blah, blah...... I "saved" him when we had the Three Mile Island incident here..... His owner decided to leave town & was going to put him in a shelter...... That I couldn't take... Long family history w/ Mr. Chow, her ex-husband had mom, Casey, & I had Pee Wee, a sibling from another litter...... I couldn't bear the thought of "what" would happen to him in a shelter..... (And I did have Casey spayed after the last litter w/ Pee Wee) Mr. Chow was gorgeous, LH, red, & ever so sweet...... I had him for many wonderful years, he brought so much love & happiness to me..... Then one day he just "collapsed".No warning, no other problems... I was devastated & took him immediately to vet... They did many tests. He showed no signs of what his "problem" was...... So, I decided to have that "thing" [can't remember the word,sorry], and he had lymphoma [BIG TIME!!!!].....due to Felv. which was "discovered" doing primary/initial BW. (After MANY years, things changed...) Apparently he had lived w/ Felv for a long time.......When they had put him "under" for the procedure, things looked REAL bad. And he was in so much pain.... I reluctantly made the decision NOT to bring him back from anesthesia....His prognosis was so very bad..... Broke my heart, but I loved him so much, I didn't want him to have to endure such a lousy life..... And, he DID live to be 14!!!! Who knows how long he had Felv????? My Mr. Chow was my first encounter w/ Felv. And, bless him, that made a major difference. I NEEDED to know all/anything about this dreaded disease..... All this just proves "Felv is NOT a death sentence". Only wish more vets, rescues, etc. would feel the same way.... :( Having been involved w/ shelter I know only too well that many Felv cats can live a long life..... Just wanted to let you know you're both in my prayers.... And, share my "story"...... (Maybe already did, but this "memory/brain" thing, well, that says it all.....) Much love & hugs,
Patti & her gang ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
