FIV cats

**another rant from the mom

I've been watching Dr. Jeff on Animal Planet. I love that he works to make sure all pets get care and makes it affordable. I love that no pet leaves the clinic without being spayed or neutered.

The episode last week showed him helping a client with cats in her backyard and doing TNR. WOOHOO!! I got excited....

Then I got annoyed. One of the cats was friendly so they tested him and it came back positive for FIV (see more info here from Best Friends about FIV). There was a conversation about finding him a home or euthanizing him due to his FIV status.

I yelled at the TV that I would STOP WATCHING if they killed that cat. They decided to find him a home. OK....

Then Dr Jeff gets on and continues to refer to FIV as "feline aids" (which does these cats a serious disservice as people freak out when they hear the word "aids") and says the cat would have to live alone or in a house with other FIV+ cats.

OMG - you idiot!!! Unless the cat is aggressive and bites, studies have shown these FIV+ cats CAN live very well with other cats. He had a great platform and opportunity to spread positive information and SCREWED IT UP!!

Our friend JaneA Kelly wrote an article for Catster on this very thing. I love her opening lines:
"Today in News of the Obvious: FIV-positive cats can live with uninfected fellow felines and not transmit the virus. A veterinary study concludes this. Finally."

In July of last year, I wrote about the new FIV room our rescue put into our adoption center. We have done several adoptions from there since it opened. We always tell people to do introductions slowly but that these cats can live long healthy lives with other cats.

For Dr Suess Day this year I wrote about some of the cats in our FIV room.

Kevin Kyle was adopted shortly after that post was written

I guess what I am saying is this: for those on TV or social media or blogging or whatever....you have a responsibility to do the homework and GET IT RIGHT! Regardless of whether you want them to or not, people are listening and will take you at your word.

Dr Jeff - I will keep watching, but I am disappointed. And I'm tempted to print those articles and mail them to you.

people really wrote that

**a post by the mom

The other night I was online roaming around and decided to search google for our rescue information. Of course there are reviews and I got sucked into reading them. I should know better.

A lot of them were good. Some may have had legitimate issues. Others need to get a life. After reading several and then getting frustrated and walking away from my phone, I decided something.

If a person gives a small non-profit a 1 star review for something that isn't related to the direct focus of the non-profit, that person should be required to volunteer a few hours (I vote a minimum of 5 hours) on that task to help out.

For example, one review said the place needed some "sprucing up". Great - grab a paint brush or window cleaner or a mop and make yourself useful. (in fact, the rescue has been very lucky in the last month and two groups from different companies have volunteered their time and the whole interior of the adoption center has been repainted)

Another review said that "no one returned my call promptly". OK - first please define promptly, as I am sure your definition is different from mine. Second, let me give you the access code to our voicemail system. Then you can spend several hours wading through several hundred voice mails: some demanding help we cannot or do not provide, some with information you can't understand, many demanding we pick up cats in their neighborhood (not our jobs), and so on. Then sort out the ones that are urgent, call those first and wade your way back through the rest. Oh - and remember that people will continue to call while you are working on the first batch.

I had a man confront me in one of our partner stores one day. He was upset that his elderly mother wanted to adopt a cat and we took 2 days (OMG!!) to check her application. And he is a lawyer (so?) and that seems ridiculous. I had had a long day that day and can now admit this guy got on my last nerve. I gave an apologetic look to the store manager and then let this guy have it. "We take our time to be sure the fit is right for the cat and the people. We are ALL volunteers and do this in addition to working and families and other responsibilities. And we check information since our first responsibility is to the SAFETY OF OUR CATS! I'm sorry she had to wait a couple of days but we want to be sure we are doing it right rather than doing it fast." And I walked away. (I tried to apologize to the manager later for getting into it with a customer and he laughed and said it was fine - he was glad I said something since he can't.)

There are days I seriously want to tell some people to PUT UP or SHUT UP. It is the same with trolls on the internet - it is all so very comfy and convenient to sit behind a keyboard and complain but annoying and hurtful to those of us that are actually out there and doing the work. Take THAT into consideration the next time you (*OK - not you our lovely readers, just the general you) want to complain about something.

Now that I have that out of my system, here's a gratuitous baby picture....guess who is going to be 1 year old the end of the month???