Thanks all for your heart-felt sympathies.(Jen, I am glad that you broke the news to the Pet Talk folks instead of me) I have been so associated with death this year of my favorite furkids that I am getting a little calous towards it. But my greatest loss is little Nikolai. I miss him jumping on the kitchen counter,curling up in my lap to sleep, his pizza and table scraps raiding, his loping gait as he was usually following or leading me as I walked through the house, and trying to get inside the 'frig everytime I went in there to get something. But I figured that it would be best to send all of them to the RB because of fear of spreading the disease to some of the neighbor's cats, should any of them get outside. Although there are only 7 furkids left, the house seems empty. But the 7 left, have all been checked spayed or neutered ,and/ or received vaccinations for distemper and FeLV, except Tiara, and all of my rescues are OK, namely; Tiger, Amy, and Otis. All of the RB furkids on this last go-round were thin an seemingly could not gain weight. After loosing Pepper this year to leukemia, and watching her waste away to nothing within a few weeks, I decided to have all of them euthanized, according to the vets' opinion, because the brochure that was given to me, stated that most furkids who have this disease, die within about 3 years, and sometimes a painful demise.
The one that I most feared would have this very contageous disease was Tiara, because she was the 3rd of the litter which included Prince and Pepper. But she tested negative! At least I have one lap-kitty left now. It is like I told Jen. on the PM messaging, that I looks like I brought a bunch of FeLV-infected kitties with me from Calif. I did have a loss of many kittens there, and now i suspect that it was due to inherited leukemia, as the brochure mentioned that also.
On a brighter note, I found the Independence Ks. humane society shelter just after loosing Nikolai, and Littlebit. For some reason I didn't know about the place, although I had been by there many times. When I went in there were MANY cats for adoption, including about 5 flame-point Siamese - the same as Otis, which I drove over 100 miles to Pittsburg, KS in order to get him. (He is sitting next to me now as I am writing this.) Laurie took me through the cat section and let me open each cage and hold the furkids. There were 2 or possibly 3 of them that I would like to adopt. One, that I told Laurie ( the keeper), I defintely wanted is a marbled, apx- 3yr old, yellow tabby, very affectionate. She took my telepone number and said that they have to keep any new arrivals for 72 hours before releasing them. Apparently, I can get her next Sunday. Also there is a little Russian Blue kitty, with more tabby markings on her than Nikolai had. I am seriously thinking about adopting her also. And there was one who kept nursing my shirt, he must be very lonely. (If I had the room I would have taken all of them!). I think the main reason why I missed the place is that they keep odd hours, and most everytime I went by , no one was there.
We also talked of volunteering my services, which she said I would be most welcome.
So, we loose some and we gain some. But all the kittens I lost this year still weigh on my memory, because of keeping older, infected furkids. Yes, it is a great loss, but now perhaps I can get to the root of the problem and possibly adopt a few more and healthy furkids. When I began to keep cats around the ranch, where I worked in central Calif., I did not know much about them. If it wasn't for the folks on Pet Talk forum, I would probably still keep them for utilitarian purposes only, and overlooking the potential close friends they can be. Thanks again for all of your concern and friendship.
,...........wayne.
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Huney, Bon & Simba-missed so very much
12/02
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