Aunt Annie is NEGATIVE!!!!

Aunt Annie at least is NEGATIVE on Felk!!!! I was so happy I wanted to do the negative on Felk dance right there in the office.

The bad news is, the vet office didn't realize they had only one test. I had to choose who to get tested, while the other four, Candy and three kittens, had their blood drawn and it will be sent to a lab. I won't have the results for them until tomorrow. I was very disappointed about this, but, what can you do?

Aunt Annie was the original mom cat, tossed out with her kittens by the neighbor across the street and down a trailer. Four of the five kittens are now the young adults roaming there--a brown tabby tux female, now spayed, a black tux female, now spayed also, who didn't have a litter yet, a black male and the long hair brown tabby, whom I haven't yet trapped, of unknown sex. These four offspring of Auntie Annie are now about six to seven months old.

The old woman said the two recent litters came out of Auntie Annie and the brown tabby tux female. She said Candy had only shown up about three weeks to a month before, and she took her in immediately, as a house cat, after she was fixed, along with Tiki the torti.

My suspicions are turning to Candy, as a female who may have passed the virus to her offspring. If Auntie Annie is negative and she is, the likelihood her kittens were at least negative when they were born, her first litter, now seven months old, is very high. That would mean the only suspect of those four would be the brown tabby tux female, who could have been infected in breeding.

There are two torbi kittens among those I got fixed. A torbi born to a brown tabby is usually the result of breeding with an orange male. If the brown tabby tux mother is positive, the shift of primary infection switches to Mr. Flamepoint, who was at least fixed last week. I returned him. If he is Mr. Infector, at least he will no longer be infecting females, during sex, or other unfixed males, during fighting.

Some of the kittens are very vocal and this can mean Siamese blood. When trapping there again, for the kittens a few nights ago, I saw a third Siamese, a Himilayan Lynx Point, wander up, stare at me through the car window, then wander off. The second Siamese I see is a short hair blue point snowshoe, and then the third is the Flamepoint.

Who is backyard breeding Siamese there, I wonder, then letting them free roam unfixed? Do they know or care what they are exposing their cats to, and other cats to? Of course they don't care or they would be behaving responsibly. Owned cats in that trailer park are supposed to be kept inside. Do they know the sorrow, suffering, diease and misery they are causing the cat world and those who care about the cats?

If none of the other kittens, including one torbi tested today, are negative, focus switches to Candy. The torti kittens' origins are questionable. The old woman even said she didn't think Tiki was from either of the two mothers and didn't know where she came from. That might mean she came from Candy, who roamed into the colony, dumped or abandoned elsewhere in the trailer park, and followed other cats to the food source.

Candy, if positive, during the three weeks inside the trailer with the old woman and the torti, may have exposed Tiki, even if she isn't her kitten, to the virus, through casual contact, if Candy is positive. If so, the contact would have been brief and light, so there may be hope that Tiki's virus did not come through the mother in utero, and was the result of brief contact with Candy. This would give her more hope of overcoming the virus. But the outlook for Candy would not be as positive.

There is also the possibility that Tiki was abandoned seperately entirely and is unrelated to any of the other cats in the colony. There are a lot of irresponsible pet owners in that area. The results of the four tests, when I get them, will be not only interesting, but will tell the tale of the virus, who got it from who where by breeding or fighting with whom. It is like putting together a puzzle, like solving a mystery.

If people knew what they are exposing their cats to, by letting them free roam unfixed, if they cared, they would be lining up at vet clinics to get their cats fixed immediately.

In other news SafeHaven responded to my e-mail, asking whether or not they are still adopting out unfixed kittens. The e-mail did not answer the question, but I was told I always think they're the bad guys. I responded back that I don't think they are the bad guys at all, that I am quite amazed at the work they do there. But, if they are adopting out unfixed kittens, that isn't amazing at all, not in a county with so many unwanted unfixed cats. And, I was told in June, that they had begun fixing kittens before adoption. I am sure they told me this. I told her the circumstances surrounding my e-mail to them, that of being at the vet Saturday, and a kitten from the trailer park, among 16 unfixed cats there fed by the old woman who died, tested positive and that I knew all of them would now need tested, at an extreme cost.

I further told her a private person, myself, needs to feel the sacrifices to help cats in this county are worthwhile in order to continue, and that money used to fix cats by private parties and Poppa Inc., isn't being thrown down a money pit, and to feel that way, one must believe that the biggest shelter in the county is on the same track. But they aren't if they are adopting out unfixed kittens.

I know this makes them upset at me. I've adopted out kittens unfixed before and that has often usually not turned out ok, which is how I know, beside the statistics available on whether people follow through or not, if given a certificate with adoption. It's not like I haven't made a zillion mistakes too. I'm not trying to be high and mighty. For gosh sakes, I'm a nobody.

I just know that it doesn't work, to adopt out unfixed kittens and that it only contributes to the problem. And I'd hope they wouldn't do that either. Some states require this by law, that shelters cannot adopt out unfixed animals. Maybe it's time Oregon got on board.

I have run into some situations brought about by unfixed pets adopted out by SafeHaven. I thought telling them about these situations would bring change. The most notable cat adopted out unfixed, that produced multiple litters and dozens of unwanted cats, was a cat I stumbled into at Heatherdale Trailer park--adopted as an unfixed kitten from SafeHaven. She reproduced scores of litters. Her owner had gotten into meth and dumped the cat at her mother's trailer. The cat was pregnant again. She was supposed to have her confined in the trailer for pick up one day, but had gone off, on another drug binge, but fortunately I found her, in the park and she didn't produce anymore cats. Later on, she got rehomed, when totally abandoned and the old woman told me, "take her". Diane, yes, that's Molly, originally adopted out as a kitten from SafeHaven. Comet, one of 16 kittens I took out of the old woman's carport, from Molly and her adult offspring that summer, is still here with me. He never got a home. The other 15 did.

Another situation I encountered was when I was helping out a man with a stray cat. He told me he got his dog at SafeHaven as a puppy. He got a certificate with the adoption, but even though he's quite responsible, he let the neuter slide. In the meantime, some homeless people took up camping on a neighboring property. They had female dogs, who roamed over and two of them became pregnant by this dog. The puppies turned partially feral. I encountered two of them in a rather scary face off in the woods, when going into that camp in search of two unfixed cats there. The puppies by then were about 8 months old.

It's because of such encounters and my own experience, when I adopted out unfixed kittens, to people I thought I knew well and could trust to get them fixed, or to let me, once old enough, that has made me understand what happens out there. I don't think SafeHaven is "the bad guy". Anyone who dedicates their lives to helping animals by working at a shelter, and that is tough sad work, isn't a bad guy. I just really want this overpopulation issue to get under control. SafeHaven people, I love you. Please fix those kittens prior to adoption. Thank you.