My life has been full of ups and downs, extreme lows, extreme highs, but always there is something that can turn a good day into a bad one. Every morning I wake with a positive attitude. And then I get out of bed and start to remember all the stress that I have to deal with that day. Work being number one. My finances number two. The weather is next, if it is blizzarding out, or pouring out, how my shelters are holding up with that, and how the cats are dealing with that. If its not one of those two weather extremes I have to worry about, I breathe a sigh of relief, and start my day. I think one of the worst feelings is to know you have hurt or disappointed someone. For me it is. I will admit, I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I am not stupid, but I am forgetful, and sometimes the things I find that are not that important are important to others. I have my share of cats in my house. Half of them have never been tested for FIV or Leukemia. I just never gave it a thought. Each one I took in, it just never occurred to me. Without or without, I would have kept and cared for them for as long as they were healthy. Then I started to rescue more and more, and adopt out those that I was rescuing. Most of the times, in the early days, testing these cats before adoption wasn’t always done. I have been doing a lot of TNR these days, with every intention of putting these poor animals I trapped and had neutered back out onto the street. Sometimes they are saved at the last minute.
So I don’t always ask the vet to test these cats,
if they don’t appear sick or injured, knowing I will most likely be returning
them the next morning to where I trapped them.
If I know they will be adopted or fostered, I try to get in touch with
the clinic but they are hard to reach sometimes to get the message to have them
tested. They also require a consent form
when you drop them off if they test positive for Leukemia and you want them
euthanized. I would never put a Leuk
positive cat back on the street.
I recently adopted out some kitties where the new
mom has asked and thought they were tested.
She was very disappointed when I confirmed they weren’t after checking
with the clinic - a clinic that I don't often use for spay/neuter. So now she
has to go through the fear and heartache of having them tested, and not knowing
what the outcome will be. Of course I
feel horrible about it. There is always
something to sadden me, to upset me. I
wish I could wake one day and have every wish I wanted granted. I wish I could be happy 100%. Just for one day.
All i can do its move forward, one foot in front of the other, learn from my mistakes. I would easily dwell in my misery, my sadness, but I can't take it back, and I can't change people's opinions of me, so I just have to keep going and continue on with my life's path. To try to do good in this world. To help with whatever I can.
All i can do its move forward, one foot in front of the other, learn from my mistakes. I would easily dwell in my misery, my sadness, but I can't take it back, and I can't change people's opinions of me, so I just have to keep going and continue on with my life's path. To try to do good in this world. To help with whatever I can.
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| BUDDY |
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| Such a cute, and available for adoption! |
Stevie turned out to be a sweetheart. It killed me to let him out this morning. I pray others step up and offer to take him because he will be easily scoop able. Buddy has turned out to be a marshmallow also. The girl that fostered Patches has offered to take Buddy. Patches is now with me again and I have to figure out what is going on with him. As I said, he is drooling due to an ulcer on his tongue. I am sure it hurts him to eat. It won't seem to go away. He has been to the vet a number of times, has cost me a small fortune. Between him and Violet, the kitten that cannot eat solids, I will be living in one of the cats shelters in no time soon.
Have a good day.
"Life is too ironic. It takes sadness to know what happiness is, noise to appreciate silence, and absence to value presence."
Girl...We all make those omissions...it is very stressful if it could cause another harm. I think testing before adoption is a good idea because you dont' want any of the new Adopters cats harmed. Something I know you would never want to do. Maybe a check list to go thru with interested adopters? you know shopping list form? please be careful what you write about work...someone might know someone and share..to the wrong person. feel free to delete my post if that protects you. I have on Feline Aids positive kitty, waiting to see if he has leukemia. he was attacked and severly injured when I took him, so it is possible he contracted it..so the vet said wait three months and retest. It is a long wait. and meanwhile you get so attached. I am using a soft cone to keep him from injuring my other cats.. as he is not being nice with the other kids probably cuz he is feeling better, needs to be neutered. There is always a solution to help..if someone has issue with a positive cat. perhaps they could swap with someone who doesn't. If I could place my two fosters I would take cammy.. for forever.. Keep getting out of bed woman..up and at em.
ReplyDeleteTesting is tough. I always test ANY cat I get--whether from a shelter, a trapping episode, from a breeder, wherever--and then again after 90 days. And those 90 days seem to stretch on forever... I have heard horror stories of people adopting a kitten from Lollypop with existing cats in the home only to find out later that the kitten was Feluk positive later--even though it tested negative at the shelter--and then some of the cats in the household became positive, too. (Saw someone crying at the vet and that was the story he told me.) The kitten had become very ill and to exclude possible illness, the vet tested it. Heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteJanine, you have sooo much on your plate. And I know how tight money can be. Perhaps for those that are going to foster homes, you might want to test them or have the foster agree to test them (and redo it in 90 days). 90 nerve-wracking days. It really isn't practical to put them in a holding cell for that long. Whenever I bring a new cat into my home, I am a basket-case for three months--even with the purebreds, because you never know.
Janine, you are doing the best that you can--and as you go along--sometimes you learn something new or you step back and take another look. That's Life.
Janine,
ReplyDeletePlease do not be to hard on yourself. I am confident that the Cats will test negative. Only a small percentage test positive and than sometimes they are actually false positive results. You do an amazing job daily Cat Angel! If we all had half your devotion and stamina life for our four legged felines would be remarkable. Thank you for the daily sacrifices you make so the Cats on your beat can be fed, sheltered, rescued and ultimately adopted out to forever loving homes. You are making a huge difference daily and owe none of us an apology. I ask all your readers to please help you any way they can. Whether it be through food or financial donations , helping with trapping, fostering or helping find homes for these Cats so you are not compelled to return them to a life of hell on the streets of Rochester.
Walt Simoni