Thursday, February 18, 2010

Adoption Option for Sam the Feline Leukemia Cat

In order to care for Sam and protect my other cats I needed to turn my house upside down. 

Feline Leukemia is very contagious and infected cats spread the virus through saliva, nasal secretions, tears, urine and feces. For Sam that meant isolation from the other five cats, and it meant that he would never go outside. For the rest of Sam's life he would view his cat family from behind a closed glass door and spend his waking hours with me in the office.

I separated all of the cats by turning my office into a kitty condominium. Sam is a happy cat when I am inside the office. He plays with his toys and helps me to work on the computer. When he is sleepy, he will nap on my desk and rest his head on my arm. Sam eats his cat food, I eat my lunch, and then we sit by the window and look at the bird feeder

Sam is great as long as I am in the office. Nevertheless, when it is time for me to leave, Sam gets feisty and starts to complain. He cries for me when I am not there. It breaks my heart.

My husband and I discussed Sam and agreed that he needed to be with a full time family. We decided to adopt Sam into a loving home with no other cats. I did not discuss my plan with Sam and I learned the hard way that cats do not like change.

In Sam's case, he was anti social with all adopters, hissing, growling and biting at them. He was very aggressive during the interview. When he was done being naughty he jumped into my lap. He then proceeded to rub his head on my face. Of course, that was the end the adoption. 

Sam is staying with us and we will overcome the cat obstacles’. We worked out a routine, and now Sam no longer cries when I leave my office for the day, Sam goes inside his kitty condominium, to play with his toys.

May1,2011

This is an update on Sam. Sam recently celebrated his second anniversary; he is alive and as healthy as he can be.  You see when we  decided to keep Sam was the best thing that I could do for him.  You see I put Sam on a high protein diet and supplemented his diet with a natural formula to boost his immune system.  

When I took Sam in for his annual checkup in April of 2010 Sam's test showed that he no longer had Feline Leukemia but he still was infected with feline immunodeficiency virus.   

My veterinarian told me that some cats are able to fight off feline leukemia by the 3rd stage.  I am certain that had I adopted Sam into another family that he would have been sad because cat's do not like change. 

 Sometimes you have to look at your circumstance, and choose what the best option for your cat is.  When my husband lost his job, we chose to do without the gym membership, and the summer vacations and the money that we saved we could afford to pay our bills and to keep our cat's.  For us it was well worth it because Sam is really a remarkable cat.