for Sally-- San Fran feral champion
Dear Sally I've been carrying your letter in my bag for almost a weekmy apologies for not replying earlier...I want to thank you so very much for your kind words, and for taking the trouble to write...I so appreciate not just this wonderful email you sent me but ALL your emails you send to us all. They are always so supportive and so informative. For my part, my condolences email to you when your horse passed away in the middle of January slipped through the net. I hope late is better than never, to say I'm very sorry for your loss of your dear old friend. Thanks too for the info on the San Francisco program. We need a similarly dynamic young attorney and a Dr Dana Gleason here in Chicago. What San Francisco has achieved is so impressive, and truly a model for the rest of the U.S., not to mention the world. I'm still pretty cut up about Levi, and I still have questions that I'd like to put to the group. I'll try and do so in the next few days. Luckily the remaining 3 positive kitties and Momcat (negative) are all doing well, and look the picture of bouncing health. I'm appreciating every day I have with them. Your email of 2/21 to Chris (Hills food question)is timely for me too, as I'm trying to get a handle on how much they're eating v. how much they should be eating. Even allowing for the fact that we've lost Caramel and Levi, it seems to me they're eating significantly less since Caramel went. (Having said that, they look plump enough. Re-reading your email, perhaps it's because they're that bit older now---17 months, now) Anyway, I've begun recording how much they're actually eating. I've been trying to get them to eat more wet and less dry---I give them Petguard or Wellness wet in the morning, and the same in the evening with the addition at the end of the evening of Wellness dry. They adore the Wellness dry, and your email gave me an insight into why. I think they've got into the habit of cutting back on the wet because they know the dry is coming! You mentioned the difficulties of taking care of ferals who are not cuddly and cooperative, and you are right that they are completely uncooperative; and of course they are not cuddle-able. The frustrating thing is that they are so darn cuddly-LOOKING, especially the two little tabbies, Mickey and Flavia--I long to give the scamps a cuddle, but they play so hard to get 365/24/7! One day. Thanks again for all your fantastic input, Sally. I so appreciate it. Kerry -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 3:43 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: San Fran feral champion Hi Kerry... I can't remember if I ever sent you a message after Levi passed away. That was a crazy weekend for me and then we were having so many problems with the list and I was enduring my own kind of AOHell. When I couldn't log on, an outsourced consultant told me my AOL software was damaged and my disc drive, for whatever reason, could or would not read a disc to reinstall it and they told me nothing could be done. But I started digging on my own, computer dummy that I am, and decided to try defragging the drives, even though only one drive was 16% fragmented. That seemed to do the trick and I was able to log on again to find an overflowing mailbox. You have my utmost admiration for all your efforts dealing with FeLV+ ferals who are not cuddly and cooperative with regards to getting meds. It is difficult enough when you are trying to dose a cat who is even halfway cooperative. You did the very best you could trying to help Levi. Perhaps he tried so hard to stick around even though it was apparent he was not going to be able to get well because his alpha personality made him think he had to try and be there for his remaining siblings. He was sure a gutsy little guy and you did the best you could to try and help him. Sometimes our best is just not enough, and this is so often true when dealing with FeLV. If we can keep them stable with immune support and a good diet and try to minimize the stress in their life, that is about the best we can do until it is better understood what it is that causes the FeLV-A subgroup to mutate into one of the more virulent subgroups, and a way can be found to stall or halt that process (better yet a cure for the whole damned gamut of FeLV and its subgroups!) Levi and his littermates were so lucky to have come into your care, and I am sure he and the others know that. The pain of the losses may never go away completely, but we have to put it in perspective and go on trying to help the others still in our care. I could really feel for what you have to go through after I rescued a little 5 mo. old off the E-list at the local shelter to be a playmate for Purrki, my miracle bably who retested negative for FeLV when he was neutered in Dec. '04. She was on the E-list because she had a minor URI
San Fran feral champion
Sally First, thanks for explaining the San Francisco approach--I knew they had done good work, but I didn't have the facts. Would that every city would follow their lead. Secondly, are you able to pass on the name of the vet who started the feral program? If I get a chance to mention it in conversation with my vet(s) then I will. He/she deserves to be applauded, and perhaps others will follow. thanks, Kerry -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 10:37 AM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: For Hideyo -- Your loss of Suzi Dear Hideyo: I did not mean to imply that you were wrong to want to pick Suzi up as soon as possible. When I am taking a cat to a regular vet (as opposed to being there, in person, and volunteering at one of our S/N events) I also want to bring my furkids home as soon as possible so I can monitor them, myself. Some vets are very good about monitoring cats closely after routine S/N surgery and I've learned to trust them, but others are not and there have been kittys lost as a result, though luckily none of mine. If that were someone's personal pet, it would be a serious problem, but when it is just a feral which is the attitude some vets seem to have, who is going to make a big stink? So many of the vets don't want to be bothered with ferals, period. That is one reason I dedicate my time and efforts to helping this group I volunteer with. The vet who started the program makes sure that each and every feral is treated with the same care and respect that any private client's valuable purebred show cat would receive. This program is not a regular clinic per se that routinely does S/N for cats...it is a one day a month special event just for ferals that uses a public or private vet facility and is staffed completely by caring and dedicated volunteers like myself. I was not trying to suggest that your wanting to pick up Suzi immediately after her surgery was not appropriate. There was obviously some sort of problem due to the surgery and she was evidently not been monitored closely enough before being put into the carrier and given to you to take home. And sometimes, despite the very best of precautions, things just go wrong, as it did for Suzi. You had no way of knowing, and perhaps, neither did the vet. It is rare for there to be such complications, so do try not to be too hard on yourself for not being able to prevent a tragedy that was beyond your control. Suzi knew that she was loved and cared for while she was with you. If you had not found her and rescued her, she may have met a much worse fate being poisoned, or hit by a car or attacked by someone's dog running lose, starved to death or the victim of some disease. You were trying to help her have better chance in life and I am sure she was aware of that. She was sleeping and I am sure she did not suffer. If it will ease your mind to talk to Suzi, it may be possible to communicate with her even though she has crossed over with the help of an animal communicator. And you never know, her spirit could come back to you again in another body, so send her your loving thoughts and tell her how much you miss her and perhaps she will decide to do that. You are a very special person to care so much for those unfortunate cat souls most people just walk on by and never give a thought to. Believe in that and all the good you do and don't let a few unavoidable tragedies get you down. Sally in San Jose This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.
Re: San Fran feral champion
Hi Kerry... I can't remember if I ever sent you a message after Levi passed away. That was a crazy weekend for me and then we were having so many problems with the list and I was enduring my own kind of AOHell. When I couldn't log on, an outsourced consultant told me my AOL software was damaged and my disc drive, for whatever reason, could or would not read a disc to reinstall it and they told me nothing could be done. But I started digging on my own, computer dummy that I am, and decided to try defragging the drives, even though only one drive was 16% fragmented. That seemed to do the trick and I was able to log on again to find an overflowing mailbox. You have my utmost admiration for all your efforts dealing with FeLV+ ferals who are not cuddly and cooperative with regards to getting meds. It is difficult enough when you are trying to dose a cat who is even halfway cooperative. You did the very best you could trying to help Levi. Perhaps he tried so hard to stick around even though it was apparent he was not going to be able to get well because his alpha personality made him think he had to try and be there for his remaining siblings. He was sure a gutsy little guy and you did the best you could to try and help him. Sometimes our best is just not enough, and this is so often true when dealing with FeLV. If we can keep them stable with immune support and a good diet and try to minimize the stress in their life, that is about the best we can do until it is better understood what it is that causes the FeLV-A subgroup to mutate into one of the more virulent subgroups, and a way can be found to stall or halt that process (better yet a cure for the whole damned gamut of FeLV and its subgroups!) Levi and his littermates were so lucky to have come into your care, and I am sure he and the others know that. The pain of the losses may never go away completely, but we have to put it in perspective and go on trying to help the others still in our care. I could really feel for what you have to go through after I rescued a little 5 mo. old off the E-list at the local shelter to be a playmate for Purrki, my miracle bably who retested negative for FeLV when he was neutered in Dec. '04. She was on the E-list because she had a minor URI and the new Shelter is not yet set up to hold and treat cats symptomatic for any length of time, so if whatever symptoms they have don't clear in a few days, they go on the list to be PTS. I was not able to isolate Purrla successfully and ended up with a URI epidemic among my indoor cats. URI's are more annoying than a real threat to healthy cats. But even my two FeLV+ furkids isolated in a back bedroom were affected and they are still semi-feral. Tango, the brother, did very well and I only had to wrap him up in a towel the first two times and he was OK after that about getting his meds. His sister, Macarena, however is still so very shy, I as really worried it would set back her socialization and acceptance of me that I've worked so hard to achieve. When I had to go out of town the weekend of the 5-7th, I was worried sick about having to go away and being able to find someone who could come give meds to them. Luckily, I was able to find two ladies through the local network of rescue groups and both kittys actually did much better than I thought they would and neither of the postives became seriously ill. By the time I got back, no one was still couging or congested, just a bit of sneezing, and all were eating on their own. With regards to the San Francisco program, I will try to find copy of an article about that which listmember Denise Uriarte (also a boardmember and volunteer with PFOF, which stands for Peninsula Fix Our Ferals) shared with me. They have a dynamic young atorney who is or was the director and he lays it out in dollars and cents to demonstrate that an aggressive TNR policy with the bulk of resources dedicated to S/N is more cost effective and better at controlling feral populations than is TPTS. San Francisco is the only large city I know of which maintains a no kill policy at their shelters and are not having to euthanize healthy, adoptable cats as so many shelters must do. The vet who has spearheaded these S/N events and gotten her colleagues to donate their veterinary skills and time to the effort is Dr. Dana Gleason. She has a practice in the East Bay area but I don't remember exactly where offhand...will have to dig into my offline saved mail for that. She had been doing it for a while in the E. Bay and this past August began an effort to include the Peninsula (West Bay area) and down south to San Jose, as well. I have worked with three of these events so far and I can't tell you how impressed I am with the way she has managed to get the events organized and running so smoothly. These ferals would get no better care in the most prestigious private practices (which
Re: San Fran feral champion
You see Sally, this is why I love you. Yeah! Let's hear it for feral lovers. I love this SF program, just wonderful to know there are humans out there who care. Any article or info you can share with me would be great to pass on to the cretins that think it is wiser to trap and kill, instead of TNR. There was a rumor that one of our area military bases was convinced that the former was the way to go. It would be great to have some study backup (not just my two cents), or a well phrased article from a respected source that explains why TNR is so effective. Also - thank you for the transfer factor. Grace has been feeling kind of low and it's nice to have something extra to give her. I'll let you know if it seems to help her, in the meantime it means alot to me to have something, (anything) extra to do. Nina [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Kerry... I can't remember if I ever sent you a message after Levi passed away. That was a crazy weekend for me and then we were having so many problems with the list and I was enduring my own kind of AOHell. When I couldn't log on, an outsourced consultant told me my AOL software was damaged and my disc drive, for whatever reason, could or would not read a disc to reinstall it and they told me nothing could be done. But I started digging on my own, computer dummy that I am, and decided to try defragging the drives, even though only one drive was 16% fragmented. That seemed to do the trick and I was able to log on again to find an overflowing mailbox. You have my utmost admiration for all your efforts dealing with FeLV+ ferals who are not cuddly and cooperative with regards to getting meds. It is difficult enough when you are trying to dose a cat who is even halfway cooperative. You did the very best you could trying to help Levi. Perhaps he tried so hard to stick around even though it was apparent he was not going to be able to get well because his alpha personality made him think he had to try and be there for his remaining siblings. He was sure a gutsy little guy and you did the best you could to try and help him. Sometimes our best is just not enough, and this is so often true when dealing with FeLV. If we can keep them stable with immune support and a good diet and try to minimize the stress in their life, that is about the best we can do until it is better understood what it is that causes the FeLV-A subgroup to mutate into one of the more virulent subgroups, and a way can be found to stall or halt that process (better yet a cure for the whole damned gamut of FeLV and its subgroups!) Levi and his littermates were so lucky to have come into your care, and I am sure he and the others know that. The pain of the losses may never go away completely, but we have to put it in perspective and go on trying to help the others still in our care. I could really feel for what you have to go through after I rescued a little 5 mo. old off the E-list at the local shelter to be a playmate for Purrki, my miracle bably who retested negative for FeLV when he was neutered in Dec. '04. She was on the E-list because she had a minor URI and the new Shelter is not yet set up to hold and treat cats symptomatic for any length of time, so if whatever symptoms they have don't clear in a few days, they go on the list to be PTS. I was not able to isolate Purrla successfully and ended up with a URI epidemic among my indoor cats. URI's are more annoying than a real threat to healthy cats. But even my two FeLV+ furkids isolated in a back bedroom were affected and they are still semi-feral. Tango, the brother, did very well and I only had to wrap him up in a towel the first two times and he was OK after that about getting his meds. His sister, Macarena, however is still so very shy, I as really worried it would set back her socialization and acceptance of me that I've worked so hard to achieve. When I had to go out of town the weekend of the 5-7th, I was worried sick about having to go away and being able to find someone who could come give meds to them. Luckily, I was able to find two ladies through the local network of rescue groups and both kittys actually did much better than I thought they would and neither of the postives became seriously ill. By the time I got back, no one was still couging or congested, just a bit of sneezing, and all were eating on their own. With regards to the San Francisco program, I will try to find copy of an article about that which listmember Denise Uriarte (also a boardmember and volunteer with PFOF, which stands for Peninsula Fix Our Ferals) shared with me. They have a dynamic young atorney who is or was the director and he lays it out in dollars and cents to demonstrate that an aggressive TNR policy with the bulk of resources dedicated to S/N is more cost effective and better at controlling feral populations than is TPTS. San Francisco is the only large city I know of which
RE: San Fran feral champion
It's pretty amazing - 90% of my cats are feral, and there are about a dozen of them that are still very feral - so feral that I cannot even touch or pet them (though I love them as much) - I can't imagine the dedication for the people who take care of Feral with feLV to give medications to - I am simply impressed and makes me cry - thank you for what you do!! Hideyo -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Nina Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 3:19 PM To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Subject: Re: San Fran feral champion You see Sally, this is why I love you. Yeah! Let's hear it for feral lovers. I love this SF program, just wonderful to know there are humans out there who care. Any article or info you can share with me would be great to pass on to the cretins that think it is wiser to trap and kill, instead of TNR. There was a rumor that one of our area military bases was convinced that the former was the way to go. It would be great to have some study backup (not just my two cents), or a well phrased article from a respected source that explains why TNR is so effective. Also - thank you for the transfer factor. Grace has been feeling kind of low and it's nice to have something extra to give her. I'll let you know if it seems to help her, in the meantime it means alot to me to have something, (anything) extra to do. Nina [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Kerry... I can't remember if I ever sent you a message after Levi passed away. That was a crazy weekend for me and then we were having so many problems with the list and I was enduring my own kind of AOHell. When I couldn't log on, an outsourced consultant told me my AOL software was damaged and my disc drive, for whatever reason, could or would not read a disc to reinstall it and they told me nothing could be done. But I started digging on my own, computer dummy that I am, and decided to try defragging the drives, even though only one drive was 16% fragmented. That seemed to do the trick and I was able to log on again to find an overflowing mailbox. You have my utmost admiration for all your efforts dealing with FeLV+ ferals who are not cuddly and cooperative with regards to getting meds. It is difficult enough when you are trying to dose a cat who is even halfway cooperative. You did the very best you could trying to help Levi. Perhaps he tried so hard to stick around even though it was apparent he was not going to be able to get well because his alpha personality made him think he had to try and be there for his remaining siblings. He was sure a gutsy little guy and you did the best you could to try and help him. Sometimes our best is just not enough, and this is so often true when dealing with FeLV. If we can keep them stable with immune support and a good diet and try to minimize the stress in their life, that is about the best we can do until it is better understood what it is that causes the FeLV-A subgroup to mutate into one of the more virulent subgroups, and a way can be found to stall or halt that process (better yet a cure for the whole damned gamut of FeLV and its subgroups!) Levi and his littermates were so lucky to have come into your care, and I am sure he and the others know that. The pain of the losses may never go away completely, but we have to put it in perspective and go on trying to help the others still in our care. I could really feel for what you have to go through after I rescued a little 5 mo. old off the E-list at the local shelter to be a playmate for Purrki, my miracle bably who retested negative for FeLV when he was neutered in Dec. '04. She was on the E-list because she had a minor URI and the new Shelter is not yet set up to hold and treat cats symptomatic for any length of time, so if whatever symptoms they have don't clear in a few days, they go on the list to be PTS. I was not able to isolate Purrla successfully and ended up with a URI epidemic among my indoor cats. URI's are more annoying than a real threat to healthy cats. But even my two FeLV+ furkids isolated in a back bedroom were affected and they are still semi-feral. Tango, the brother, did very well and I only had to wrap him up in a towel the first two times and he was OK after that about getting his meds. His sister, Macarena, however is still so very shy, I as really worried it would set back her socialization and acceptance of me that I've worked so hard to achieve. When I had to go out of town the weekend of the 5-7th, I was worried sick about having to go away and being able to find someone who could come give meds to them. Luckily, I was able to find two ladies through the local network of rescue groups and both kittys actually did much better than I thought they would and neither of the postives became seriously ill. By the time I got back, no one was still couging or congested, just a bit of sneezing, and all were eating
