Introducing Patches, and me :-)

[Rosenfeldt, Diane]

Hi, all, newbie here.  Nina saw an earlier version of my following post on another list and suggested that this list might be more informative and supportive.  I've been lurking for a few days.   First off, best of vibes to all the kitties on this list, and special ones to Lucy, Madison Lee and others who are having a bad time.  And condolences on recent losses.   Sunday, July 2 at 3 a.m.  a cat turned up on my window ledge and practically demanded to come in.  I went outside and he came readily for pets and skritches, but was in deplorable shape.  Huge mats on his flanks, mats and burrs in his tail, and absolutely filthy.  I woke up my housemate (it was the merest fluke that *I* was awake at that hour) and she got some wet food and we opened the back door.  The cat made a beeline for the food, only running out again when he caught me trying to close the outer screen door behind him.  But we finally got him inside and set up food and litter in the back hall and basement for the night.  (We also have an interior screen door, just on hinges at the top of the back stairs, to keep our 5 from going into the basement.)  Cat, which we called Patches after a dead cat on "Buffy" that got reanimated (he looked that bad), got a little freaked when we left him there, but not vicious.    At 5 a.m. I realized that the dialog between Patches and our Tribble, which had been going on through the inner screen door pretty much since I laid back down, now sounded way too close.  I found Patches in the enclosed porch, which is at the entire other end of the house.  He must have climbed that interior door (something none of the others have ever tried) and run the gamut of the house.  Tribble was sitting in the doorway and they were mrowwwwing at each other.  I don't think there was any interaction with any of the other cats other than verbal.  The enclosed porch is a better room for confinement anyway, so I set up food and litter there.    Patches continued to be friendly, and let me "lick" him with a damp terrycloth rag to get some of the grime off his face and shoulders.  He wanted NOBODY touching that back part with the mats.  And being a holiday weekend, we couldn't get him in to see the vet until Thursday, the 6th.  Having an ex-hard-stray who still won't let us pick her up after better than 2 years (though she loves to be petted and will flop down behind or on our heads when we're reclining on couches), we were really surprised when Patches actually didn't kill us trying to get him into a box (which we decided would be easier than the carrier at this point.)  When we got to the vet, he was lying all casual-like on the rug in the box, going "whazzup?"   Vet immediately found and removed a tick (bleahhh!  I know that's the norm in rescue, but we don't do actual rescue, and have all indoor cats, so bleahhh!), and found a sh*tload of flea dirt.  That's when we found out he was a boy, un-neutered, 3-4 years old.  Vet Capstarred him, gave rabies and distemper shots, gave us some Frontline and a worming pill (which we administered over the next 2 days), took blood, and we went away for an hour or so while her techs worked on cutting the mats off.  He still looked pretty patchy but at least free from mats when we picked him up, but his blood tested positive for FeLV.  The vet wants to retest in a month, and we will probably get him neutered then.  I listed him as found with our local humane society, rescue group and free ad in the paper, not mentioning the possible FeLV.   Our initial goal was not to keep him, but already he's worming his way into our hearts.  (I knew he was pretty much there to stay when we were buying cat food at Walmart and my housemate suggested we buy him some toys of his own. ;-).)   It has been obvious on several occasions that this is a little lap-fungus lover boy, who loves attention and skritches and just being near people.    The dealbreaker is the FeLV.  I've learned a lot about it just in the last few days, here and elsewhere, and already knew from some shelter volunteering that it's not automatically a death sentence, and that the other cats can be vaccinated and everybody could hopefully coexist.  But of our 5, 3 are either seniors or verging on seniorhood, and two of THEM are on thyroid meds (we almost lost one of these two to hepatic lipidosis last year, and the other one got into something toxic several years ago and we almost lost her as well; now she's in fairly good shape but that bout has left its aftereffects as well) and we can't do anything that would endanger them.   Patches is thinnish (still weighs 10 pounds though, big-framed guy), but that might be the worms/fleas/starvation, and he seems healthy except for little chunks of matter in the corners of his eyes.  He still looks pretty rugged -- the vet techs were into pain relief, not aesthetics, when they groomed, and his own grooming efforts haven't found their way all the way down him.  I think I'll have to terry-lick him in some spots I'd normally not mess with.  Also, I've noticed that when I stroke him, his skin still twitches a little when I get to about the middle of his back, and sometimes he even does the warning almost-bite thing.  I'm wondering if that means anything at all.   I was at the wrong angle to check whether a tick got missed or something, though I'm fairly sure the vet techs would have seen it when they were cutting.    We had a response to our ad that wasn't the owner, but someone who, if it's the same cat, had fed him all winter.  She hadn't seen him around for a while, and was worrying he'd been hit by a car or something.  (We live at the intersection of 2 busy streets, with a railroad track behind, so this is NO place for outdoor kitties, although apparently none of the neighbors with pets think likewise!!)  She'll stop over and visit sometime to see if he's the same one.  She told my housemate to look up Turkish Van, and it sounds very much like Patches could be one!  (We've also had no fewer than 2 calls from someone looking for her lost Odie, and each time my housemate has had to explain that this is an intact male with claws, not a neutered male without.  So would appreciate some vibes/prayers that Odie finds his way home as well.  Housemate and I both worry about this stuff....)   So my questions, finally, are how likely are vaccinations to put the other cats at risk, given their pre-existing conditions and age?  And what supplements should we be giving him to increase the chances he'll throw off the virus, if by chance he's still in that stage, or to generally improve his condition, if he's past that?  We've been trying Missing Link, but he's been doing a good job of not actually eating it....   Sorry this is so long.  Thanks for any advice!   Diane R. 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