"the crazy thing is, as they got closer and closer to the age where they could be adopted out, I was wishing for some way that we could keep them all..."
Oh Jen, I know exactly what you're talking about! Our situation is a bit different in that we didn't learn that our bottle babies were + until after 3 had been adopted out. When we found out, we still had 3, and we kept them. What a joy it was/is to watch these 3 grow up together.
We have 7 cats and 4 dogs, every single one of them found us. My limit was 2 dogs and 2 cats. Ha! We really are restricted now, with FelV in the house, 2 of the kittens (Jazz and Grace) are +, Tim, their brother, has now tested negative! The vet bills have been pretty astronomical around here, we also have Gypsy, with IBD and our German Shepherd, Zevon, is having trouble with his hind legs. We really can't afford the ones we've got, let alone think about adopting more. I do feel guilty sometimes because I'm spread so thin. The cats don't seem to have a problem, they all end up on my lap at one time or another during the day and none of them seems too starved for attention. It's the dogs and my husband that feel neglected the most. I just don't have the time to commit to them that I used to.
Nina
