Please allow me to cross post this in case
you can help-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of siberskii
Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2005 6:32
PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [FivCats] I need placement
help for Domino
Some of you may remember me from last month. I have MS and now
Domino has had 2 Western blots (the 2d was just
done at Cornell),
both with FIV+ results. Domino has
been a strictly indoor cat, has
a dog companion (our Golden), my kids and us. She
only eats Nutro dry
food, which is probably why her teeth and gums are
in such good
shape.
I have read with interest the various postings
here re: people with
Lupus, HIV+ etc., who have FIV+ cats. The
bottom line is that for
those of us who are immune-compromised, there are
no definitive
answers about our risks with FIV+ cats. Joel
posted here a little
while ago about the spread of bacteria between
people and cats;
others have written about cat scratch disease
being transmitted to
humans. Unless you are immune compromsed, no
one really can tell the
those of us who are, whether it's worth the risk
to keep an FIV+ cat
around or not, or whether there's a risk at
all. It's a complete
gamble.
I previously posted that I am not willing to take
the gamble, not
with my health. Too many doctors have been
wrong about my disease,
its progression, the drugs I've taken for MS &
their side effects; I
can't take the word of fellow kitty-lovers about
FIV+ if my own human
docs, the two vets I've seen & the Cornell Feline
Health Clinic have
question marks about this. So yes, I decided that
I needed to place
Domino elsewhere for both our sakes.
I contacted the rescue group where we got
Domino. They connected me
to a lady nearby, in Westchester County, NY
where I live. She has 17
FIV+ cats. Eight are upstairs with a
dominant female, 9 are
downstairs in runs or cages because they either
spray or are too
timid to use their litter boxes (at least acc to
the lady). She
feeds them all a little wet food to keep them "hydrated"
(what
happened to water?), which we all know increases
tarter and plaque,
as well as dry food. She has told me that
many of her cats have had
theirteeth pulled, and that some are completely
toothless. She also
told me that she has litter boxes all over the
house, that some cats
sleep on her bed, on pillows or selsewhere, and
that she keeps
mountans of amoxicillin around. She also has
two small gogs plus a
German Shepherd. She became angry when I
asked if I could inspect
the premises, telling me that I was being
insulting to her, and she
said that the only thing I could see or do at her
house (which I
can't, since her house isn't accessible) would be
to put Domino in
what she described as a large dog-sized cage in
the kitchen to say
goodbye. Then Domino would remain in the
cage for a full month while
the other cats got used to her and vice versa.
Apart from my discompfort with all the above, it
seems only logical
to me that with so many FIV+ cats around, the
chances of spreading
illness, viruses and bacteria increases
exponentially, thereby
increasing the rish to all the cats. Needless to
say, I am not
inclined to place Domino with this lady.
But I need to place Domino somewhere - not in a
foster home, not with
a resue group or a shelter, but in a permanent
home where she will be
safe and happy without zillions of other cats
around who might scare,
intimidate or weaken her. I have reactivated
my yahoo email, because
I know that some of you were trying to get back to
me last month but
my yahoo e-mail got loused up somehow and the
e-mails bounced. I
would be most grateful if anyone here would be
willing to take in
Domino, age 1 1/2, black tuxedo cat with greenish
eyes, asymptomatic
now, companionable but not an "in your face"
cat, loves water,
especially out of people glasses with ice! and
likes her ears
rubbed. If anyone is relatively close to us,
and would allow my
daughters to call for the first few months or
whatever to check on
how Domino's doing, since they're heart-broken
too, maybe even more
than me, I'd appreciate hearing from you.
Gratefuly and unhappily yours, Terri
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