Saturday, November 17, 2012

The Plan ...


Since my last post about having to let Mr. Gray back outside after only 2 whole minutes inside the house, I received a very angry comment which I had not published. "Anonymous," who so obviously had not done their homework and read my previous posts regarding this matter, accused me of exposing my other cats to the FeLeuk virus ~ something I would never do to my other cats ~ EVER! So, to this person I say, "Get educated, my friend and while you are at it get a life!"

Although FeLeuk is highly contagious to other cats, (and mind you, their are vaccinations which your vet can give your cat for preventative reasons) the only way to contract it is through saliva. Such as eating and/or drinking out of the same dish as an infected cat, biting, etc. For the record, Gray had not touched anything or any other feline (nor did he have the time to) at any time while in the house and was in and out so fast that the other cats had not even been around him. In fact, they were too busy hiding from "the stranger."

The fact is, our plan to get Mr. Gray integrated into the rest of the family dynamtic is exactly the same as we did with Tabitha with only one small difference ~ we will be attempting to place him in a smaller carrier first, as provided by my dear friend and fellow cat enthusiast/cat sitter Judy, which is currently set up and waiting in the catio. It fits through the doorways so that we can immediately take him downstairs (where none of the other cats are ever permitted to go) and we will then proceed to put him in the larger cage which fits a litter box, water bowl, food dish, toys and a warm blanket. From there, we will make an appointment with our vet to get him Feleuk tested, as we have always done with a new cat! If the results are negative, then and only then we will even consider exposing him to the rest of our fur babies.


We have decided to try to get him a good home after that. But, I know how very difficult this is to do and since we refuse to "throw him to the wolves" by taking a full grown adult feral cat (who has in spite of the fact that he has already been neutered leading us to believe that he had to have been around people before at some point) to an animal shelter, we will most likely have to keep him. We know all too well the unfortunate odds of him getting adpoted out! To hand him over to that highly possible fate is, to us, unthinkable. After all, we did not go through all of this effort to rescue him only to lower his odds of survival and/or having a safe, loving home. Here's hoping for the best all!

4 comments:

  1. You've always struck me as someone who isn't taking on cats in a hoarder sense, but as someone who is very responsible for and with them. Like you, our first step with a new pet - whether obtained from a shelter, as a stray, or in any other way - is to take it to the vet. We only take on the pets we can afford, and get all the appropriate tests and procedures done.

    Some people are just out to troll, aren't they? *sigh*

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  2. I am not sure why people feel they have to make the sort of negative comments that you have experienced. Maybe it was one of those "trollers"; we shall just ignore this person and others of that ilk..they don't deserve a moment's thought.
    In the meantime, good luck with "The Plan". Hopefully the weather won't get too too nasty yet.

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  3. Kim, forget about this other person! They do not know you! You are a wise woman, who is very loving! You take care of your animals and we all know this ;o) I am hoping all the best for you ;o)

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  4. Some people, unfortunately, are well-settled into their negativity and feel the need to criticize and belittle others in their high-handed approach to make themselves feel better. I generally feel bad for them. My cats are safely vaccinated so that I needn't worry about feral cats or integrating a rescue into my home. :) Which is a good thing since all of my 4 leggeds are rescues.

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