Shortly after I started volunteering at my local shelter there was a kitty in an upper cage yelling to be let out. Her name at the time was Whisper, but she was LOUD! Then someone told me that she could never be let out of her cage because she had Feline Leukemia. It was one of the unintended, or at least unknown to me, consequences of a no kill shelter. In our community there was no place for cats with FELV to go. I found this unacceptable, and since I had a large, empty basement I got to work creating a kitty home. Hubby was a bit dismayed, but knew he wouldn’t win, he’s a wonderful man. At the time the shelter had four FELV positive cats in their care so, after a couple of weeks of preparation, I brought them home. They aren’t my first foster cats, or my first cats with FELV, so I felt pretty confident about being able to care for them.
It’s a little under a year later and there are now quite a few of these precious babies in my care, I will introduce them individually in later posts. It’s been harder than I would have expected, and at the same time more rewarding than I dreamed. And like most cat people, I want to talk about them more than the people I know want to hear about them, so this is the place for that conversation. I hope others will join in.