About 15 minutes ago I opened a newsletter from the "shelter" where I
adopted MeMe. There was a hand written note at the top of the page
that reads "Hi, I think of you so often. So sorry about your bad luck".
My bad luck is MeMe's diagnosis. I have such mixed feelings about this
woman and her "shelter". I responded to a photo in Petfinder (too soon)
after loosing my 19 year old long haired tortie. There was a close up
photo
of MeMe's face which was an instant plug for the gapping hole in my
heart.
I called the "shelter" and was told how MeMe had been thrown from a car
window onto her front porch. She was skin and bones and had been at her
"shelter" for about four months and although she was getting over an URI
she was spayed and ready for adoption. I asked specifically if she
had been tested
for Felk, and she said she had and she was negative. I sent her a
check and made
arrangements to pick her up ... a seven hour drive each way.
When we arrived at a private home, we were stunned to find a small
house in which
there were over 130 cats (her count). MeMe was on her bed sleeping
with at least
40 other cats. My husband could not breath and went out to the car
while I held my
breath with MeMe sneezing in my arms. I signed adoption papers and
managed to get
MeMe to the car within 3 minutes.
My vet did a work up, but did not test for Felk because I said she
had tested negative.
She had stomatitis, giradia, URI and swollen glands. After many
rounds of antibiotics
and panacur without any change, my homeopath tested her for Felk and
she was positive.
It is an impossible situation. The little kitten was thrown from a
car window onto the front
porch of the local cat lady. The cat lady did her best to care for
her. She had her spayed and
(probably not) tested. She can barely afford to feed the cats that
she has. She gets support
from some local groups, but for the most part it is hand to mouth.
When I told her MeMe was positive she was not surprised. She said she
has four positives in
a separate room. I think of the 39 cats who were sleeping on the bed
with MeMe. It seemed
that many of the cats in the house were sneezing.
It is all so unbelievably sad. I would not have driven 14 hours to
pick up a positive kitten. Now,
knowing this positive kitten, I would have driven across country and
back to help her. I do not
know if this was technically a hoarding situation since she was
advertising on Petfinders. She
was trying her best in an impossible situation.
I intend to write to her to tell her that finding MeMe was my good luck.
Jane
On Sep 4, 2007, at 4:13 PM, Kelley Saveika wrote:
On 9/4/07, Susan Dubose <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Yes, I read the article,and their biggest reason was the cost.
It's irresponsible to not test a cat prior to adoption, if nothing
else, you
will know it was neg/ neg @ the time of testing,can be retested
later.
So,if you are adopting out cats and charging a fee, what exactly
would the
fee cover, besides surgery,(if even that?).
Vaccinations, deworming, whatever has been done to the cat. Some
rural shelters can't afford surgery. I was talking to the new
director of Christ-Yoder at the TASC conference and she told me that
she was trying to get local vets to donate just 4 low cost surgeries a
month and was not having much luck with that. It was really sad. But
that's getting off the subject (and Christ-Yoder doesn't combo test
either that I know of).
Do you (not YOU Kelly) just say, "Well,folks, here is your kitty,
it may or
may not have felv or fiv.
We wouldn't know because we don't test for that here.
Feel free to have your new cat tested though.
Oh, and if it comes up positive you can talk to your vet about
options?"
It looks like what the places who opt not to test do is offer the
option to the adopter to have the cat tested at the time of adoption.
Or yes, the person could choose to take the cat to their vet if they
wanted.
We actually combo test all cats before adoption, but the frustrating
thing about this disease to me is that one negative or positive test
doesn't really seem to mean too much.
AAFP standards call for testing a cat any time it becomes severely
ill, regardless of previous test results.
So really unless you are willing/financially able to retest all cats
in your household every 6 months or so, you don't know what you have.
--
Rescuties - Saving the world, one cat at a time.
http://www.rescuties.org
Vist the Rescuties store and save a kitty life!
http://astore.amazon.com/rescuties-20
Please help George!
http://rescuties.chipin.com/george
I GoodSearch for Rescuties.
Raise money for your favorite charity or school just by searching the
Internet with GoodSearch - www.goodsearch.com - powered by Yahoo!
