Deb,
I'm pleased to hear you have potential adopters for your boys. I'm
hoping that someone will adopt them together. Tell those folks to come
join us here!
Forgive me for responding without reading your previous posts, you may
already have addressed this, but... I am one of the people that have
mixed negs and pos together, (with the negs being vaccinated). I have
done this for years without any of my negs turning pos, but I understand
what a difficult decision it is to make. In my case, I had brought in a
litter of felv bottle babies and didn't find out they were pos until
they had been mixing freely with the rest of the household for months.
It still gave me pause, (because the vets and the literature suggested
segregating, hell, they suggested euthanizing too), but it would have
been hard on everyone concerned to separate them at that point. One of
my cats at the time was a born-in-the-wild feral that had had no shots
at all and had mixed right into the litter as if it were her own. (She
tested neg later, boy did I sweat that one). I took a leap of faith and
followed my heart and kept everyone together. I felt fairly safe in
making this decision, (as far as the guilt/fear factor goes), because
everyone had already been exposed. Perhaps explaining it in that way
might make your son more receptive to the idea? For Heaven's sake,
you've already re-exposed your neg cats with last night's visiting. I
mean no disrespect, but it seems a little like locking the barn door
after the horse has escaped, (again).
Everyone loved our felv babies. I don't think there was an animal in
the house that hadn't spent very intimate time with them. I recently
lost a stray-turned-resident with both fiv and felv. During his last
weeks I cringed everytime he sneezed felv germs all over the house. I
haven't had the others tested since Spencer passed, (I will if anyone
gets symptoms of illness), but I'm confident that no one has contracted
felv.
I would never judge anyone's decisions about mixing. We all understand
both sides of the argument too well. I can hear how dedicated you are
to helping these babies and I thank you for everything you are doing for
them. I just wanted to throw my two cents in because I can just picture
that little girl's face when she was closed off from the family again.
None of the decisions we are forced to make are easy, and all too few
results of those decisions are truly in our control.
Blessings to you and your family,
Nina
Deb Stockbridge wrote:
OMG Phaewryn, YOU ARE A GODSEND!! You posted my boys last night and
already I have a home for Bruschi and possibly one for Jadon as well!
Someone very close by me saw them on Petfinder and fell in love with
both but thinks Bruschi will be the perfect match for her FELV+ female
7 month old kitten so that's who she chose and she might know of a
friend who can also take Jadon. I'm meeting with her on Friday and
will know then if both boys have a new home. I'm just crying over
having to do this so soon as I never expected this quick of a response
but also crying for the joy of having potential homes where my boys
can have free roam of their new homes and interact with people like
they were used to here before I had to keep them confined. I will let
you know Friday how things go.....keep your fingers crossed all goes
well for me and my boys! I just can't thank you enough for your help
and it has made dealing with all this that much easier to
handle.....one step at a time:)
BTW....after reading a few of the emails from others about how they
mix their positives and negatives with pretty good luck I tried to do
this last night after finally talking my Son into letting us try it
with one at a time. All was well and boy was our girl happy and
meowing up a storm for the first couple hours and we were just all so
happy to have her with us again UNTIL later that night she had a
coughing spell and it woke me up as well as my Son and my Son started
crying and asking where our two negative kits were and it freaked him
out more than I expected and I had to confine her with the two boys
again:( I have to admit it scared me as well and I know it would take
some time to get used to but I think with every sneeze or cough we
would just think what it could be doing to our healthy cats and I just
don't think I can put my Son through that again. I really commend all
of you who can manage a positive and negative household and if it was
just me and my husband I think I could eventually get used to the idea
but just not right now with my Son here with us. I love ALL my babies
and it would be ideal to keep them all if I could let them live
together but for now it's best I find homes for these special
kits. You are all just wonderful people helping these animals with
health issues and though I can't foster them in my own home , if I can
help in any other way, with transporting or any other aspect of rescue
please let me know:)
Take Care,
Deb
