Sorry Amy, I do agree with all of the points you made. I wish things were easier for you and these little ones. I too have found this list to be very supportive and helpful many times. I hope you'll keep us updated on their status. On Nov 14, 2014 7:10 PM, "Amy" <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi all, > > I'm sorry that people on this board disagree about the adoption fee and > I'm disappointed that some people are making judgmental comments. This > board has been a great source of support to my family over the years and I > am not feeling that at all at the moment. I have adopted 12 positive cats > of my own and have been on this board since I took my first mom and 3 > kittens over 10 years ago. I have never owned a non-leuk positive cat > until this year. It sounds to me like people think I'm trying to make > money off these cats or that I'm asking people to do something > unreasonable. Do you know what I spent in the past two months trying to > save one leuk positive? Over $5000. That is one of them. Did I not treat > her because she is leuk positive? No I treated her like I would any other > cat and gave her every opportunity to live, despite her status. I do the > same with all my positives even though I know the end result is usually > them losing the battle with this horrible disease. I'm not saying that > whoever adopts these cats should go to those lengths to save them but I > know the veterinary care that is involved with leuk positives. If somebody > is worried about paying a $100 adoption fee because the cat might die, are > they going to say the same thing about vet care? "I don't want to spend > the money because it might die." And what about senior cats/dogs or > special needs cat/dogs? Rescues charge adoption fees for them as well and > they can die in a year or two. Why are leuks any different? I paid an > adoption fee at a shelter in CT for 2 of my leuk positives. I do > understand there is a controversy about free adoptions vs. fees. We are > not a rescue that cares about numbers. We are a no-kill and we commit to > an animal for life. We do the best we can for that animal and are > committed to finding it the best home possible. We don't do free adoptions > or try to move cats as quickly as we can. It just isn't how we operate. > We have a very selective adoption process and we try to make sure all our > cats are going to loving forever homes. I am trying to do the same for > these cats, even though I am well aware of how awful this disease is. > > The woman that contacted us about these kittens has placed lots of > kittens, no vetting, no applications, no follow up. That is not helping > the situation to give kittens away to people that aren't going to take care > of them or be responsible about this disease. Asking for an adoption fee > simply helps show that the adopters are committed and that they understand > the expense involved in owning an animal. It in no means makes a dent in > the money that we spend to help them, nor is it meant to. We are vetting > these cats and we are trying to teach this woman about helping in a > responsible way. She was going to adopt these cats to anybody and just > spread the disease or release them outside. As it is, we are trying to get > a hold of the stray mom who is probably outside and leuk positive. I'm > trying to help educate her and teach her about leukemia and everybody makes > it sound like I'm doing something wrong. I have placed numerous cats on > this board over the years as people constantly call me to help the > positives. This woman called me and we are trying to do the right thing. > Money is not the issue. It costs us about $500 to vet a kitten > completely. There are 5 of them which means about $2500. I am not trying > to get that money back. We already paid to combo test all of them and to > treat the one for a URI without any commitment to these cats or any thought > of an adoption fee. She could have euthanized them all and we would have > been out that money. We were just trying to help her out. > > Anyway, I'm probably not going to convince any of you about the adoption > fee but I would like to say that I never said anything about not placing > these cats in homes with other FeLV positive cats. I said I would do an > IFA first because both Cornell and the SPCA suggest that. I have > researched this disease for the past 10 years of my life and talked to vets > all over the country about it. I've talked to sanctuaries as well and many > will not take a leuk positive cat without a positive IFA. If the cat is > going to convert and you send it to a home with leukemia when it is IFA > negative, you could be giving that kitten a death sentence when it could > have a happy full life leukemia free. Right now we are giving them 30 days > to start converting and then we will retest. But if somebody wanted one > and they had cats with leukemia, I just would want to make sure the kitten > is truly positive. As I mentioned, we recently had 5 positives at our > rescue and I posted it about it a while back. They are now all leuk free > on both the Elisa and IFA. We separated them from the positive mom and we > gave them 90 days to convert before retesting. They have been tested 3 > times as negative and Cornell, the SPCA and numerous vets said they are > leukemia free and can be adopted out as such. I know that is highly > unlikely but it can happen. The SNAP tests only indicates exposure, not > true infection from what I've been told. Not every exposed cat remains > infected as you all know and I just want to be sure these are true > positives if they are going to mix with leuk positives. > > So anyway, that is all I can say about these babies. Not sure why people > are on my case. I thought this would be a great resource because I've seen > people ask about finding a leuk positive kitty. Just wanted to post here > in case somebody was willing to open their home and heart to one of these > babies. > > Btw, to the poster that told me I most likely have 3 girls. Yes, I > suspected the blue cream, the tortie and the calico would be girls. They > are. The black and the gray and white are boys. I just wasn't 100 sure > yet :) > > Amy Weygandt > > ------------------------------ > *From:* Kelley S <[email protected]> > *To:* felvtalk <[email protected]> > *Sent:* Friday, November 14, 2014 3:05 PM > *Subject:* Re: [Felvtalk] 5 leukemia positive kittens > > Marsha..sorry..when I said "I don't know what you want" I was referring to > the OP, who if I recall correctly said something along the lines of "we > don't want these cats in with other FELV+ cats if they could possibly be > negative." So the way I read her post was: we want people with no cats > who are willing to take the very probable heartbreak of a FELV+ kitten and > promise to not expose it to other FELV+ cats and who will pay us over a > hundred dollars for doing so. This is possible, but not very likely > IMHO. Even in our rescue, after a certain point they would eat up over > $100 worth of food and we would be losing money even if we did get $100 > plus for them. More importantly, everyone is limited in space, and an > animal in a foster home means another animal your rescue cannot help. > The facebook group is interesting, and I encourage those on Facebook to > join, not that I want to take traffic away from here, but most are very > very very very stridently against mixing. I tried to get them to come > here, but haven't had any luck that I know of. There is a very strange > situation going on there that I'd like to get some input on. There is a > kitten who has tested (snap and IFA) pos for FELV. This kitten came from a > breeder who tests all her cats regularly and none has ever tested > positive. The kitten's owner took the kitten to the vet as per contract > within 10 days of buying the cat and got a positive test. Rechecked with > IFA, still positive. ALL THE OTHER CATS were retested by the breeder and > are still negative. All the other kittens in the litter have tested > negative. HOW did this kitten contract FELV? > > Anyway here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/26073442228/ > > > On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 1:39 PM, Marsha <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Kelly, now *I'm* confused. I don't want anything. I was just sharing my > personal experiences and putting some suggestions out there. Some of the > resources you or others may already know about, but others might be new to > some people. Feel free to list your Facebook resources so people here are > aware of those too. Or maybe you were really replying to the same person > I was replying to? > > Idea for everyone: make up a flyer with some basic info about FeLV, with > a picture of one or more or your FeLV+ cats looking happy and living the > good life. Maybe put a link on the flyer to felineleukemia.org or other > resource(s). Distribute the flyer to local vet offices for when the vet > gets a client with a cat that tests positive. The vet could show the flyer > to the owner so that the owner can see that there is support available, and > that FeLV+ cats can live a happy life for a variable number of years. > > Marsha > > On 11/14/2014 1:00 PM, Kelley S wrote: > > There are some other places to list on Facebook, if you would like the > links. One thing that struck me when I read your post was confusion on my > part as to what exactly you wanted. It seemed to me reading it, and I may > be reading things into this, that you did not want the kittens to go to a > home with FELV+ cats in there already. That, in addition to the adoption > fee, is going to make it *almost* impossible to ever find these kittens a > home (nothing is 100% impossible of course). Also, once you adopt the > kitten out, you don't have control over what the adopters do later. They > may bring in FELV+ cats later. My heart kitty died of heart disease > brought on by a congenital defect. I spent a lot of time holding her and > crying because she was going to die. They are all going to die, we hope > after many years in a happy home. I spent more time mourning her death > than I did celebrating her life. This was a grave mistake on my part. > > On Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 12:15 PM, Marsha <[email protected]> wrote: > > Some adopters may make a donation to the organization they adopt a > zero-fee cat from. I did. You might make a cat low or no fee, but say, > "donations gratefully accepted". If you list on PetFinder, consider adding > FeLV+ to the heading, besides just listing them as "special needs". Some > people are looking specifically for a FeLV+ cat as a companion for one they > already have, and not putting that in the heading forces those people to > sift through every special needs listing to find the FeLV+ kitty. I turned > to PetFinder after having no luck locally finding a companion for Harley, > and did a search by zip code. I specified "up to 100 miles", and that's > how I found Brock. Actually, 113 miles away, but the search goes by zip > code. > > There are also some listings here (up for adoption or looking to adopt > FeLV, FIV, FIP +): > http://www.bemikitties.com/felv/cgi-bin/suite/classifieds/classifieds.cgi > You can also get to that by the felineleukemia.org website. > > One other place to list is the PurringPixie yahoo group. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Felvtalk mailing list > [email protected] > http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > Felvtalk mailing list > [email protected] > http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > Felvtalk mailing list > [email protected] > http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org > >
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