Kitty with Feline FIV (URGENTLY NEEDS A HOME!)

[Sam Morgan]

Hello everyone,

This is Charlie,

[IMG]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a203/Kratos_girl_05/Charlie.jpg[/IMG]

Charlie is a chocolatey black kitty. Young, sweet, gentle and handsome. And, he needs a home... I'm hoping that there are people caring and compassionate enough with room in their hearts and homes for this sweet little guy.

Here's his story...

We've had Charlie for around three months despite not wanting to take in another cat at the time. We've got three of our own as it is.

He began coming around earlier than this. Very shy and skittish at first, he would stay in the woods behind our house, watching, waiting and sleeping on a fallen log, and by the grace of God, not getting run over by the cars on the nearby road. Soon, Charlie began to face his fears and started inching closer and closer to our home, until he finally started coming to me and my mom when we were outside. Not at all aggressive, he was shy and gentle from the moment we finally met. We eventually gave in to his charms and started feeding him and letting him stick around. And yeah... he's been with us ever since. =)

During this time he's been here with us, we finally found a place that would neuter him for free, so we took him there Tuesday morning I believe, to get this done. While he was getting this much needed operation, he also had a rabies shot, as well as some other tests done. One of these was for Feline Leukemia. We were told that he had this, but it was later revealed to instead be Feline FIV... a disease spreadable to other cats. The vet who did these tests said that he may have to be put down and he probably would've been, except the feral rescue organization he was at couldn't make that decision since it was not one of their cats.

When I heard all this, and about what might have to happen to him, I immediately broke down and bawled. I didn't stop until about Thursday. This news devastated me... D:

Long story short... since we've got three cats, we can't keep Charlie... =( It's a real blow to me, because I've become pretty attached to him... as has my mom. ;_; And if we can't find him a home, he might have to be put down, which is the very last thing I want to do. This is why I'm reaching out to you all here, and have been trying to reach out at other places.

I'm currently in talks with one person who might take Charlie, but there are concerns, of course, because of his FIV... If this doesn't fall through like I'm praying it will, my fight for getting Charlie adopted won't and hasn't stopped.

So yeah, if any of you all are interested in adopting Charlie, please let me know! =D I'm located in St. Mary's County, MD. More specifically, Mechanicsville, MD. But we're willing to drive Charlie wherever if a home is found for him, so this shouldn't be a problem.

Ideally, I'm looking for a no-cat home, where he'll live his life strictly indoors (he'll have to, because of the FIV.) and where he'll be spoiled rotten... and most importantly, loved and cared for as much as we have already. n.n

I thank all who read this and respond... Thank you all so much for your time. =)

[Sam Morgan]

Jerilyn Merideth~Site Director said:

Hi Heather,
Thanks for posting Charlies picture. He is so handsome!
Sam meet our site poster, Heather.

Y'all have a great weekend!

Thanks,
Jerilyn

Hey Jerilyn and Heather,

Jerilyn, I sent an email to you, so I hope you've gotten it. My email should be there.

And Heather, thanks for pictofying Charlie for me. =) I hope more people respond to this thread.

[Sam Morgan]

Well... the person that was interested in Charlie just informed me that his parents said no, because of his FIV...

I'm a bit broken up about this, as I was hoping they were the ones... We'd been talking for at least two days now...

It's a blow to me, but I'll not stop trying to get him adopted.

So, I'll ask once again... if anyone wants to adopt this sweet and gentle baby of a cat, please, please let me know by replying to this thread. I know that person is out there... :\

[Sam Morgan]

Oops... Sorry about that Jerilyn. I'll get to it.

And thanks for this. =)

[Cheryl Peters]

Sam, you are lucky that Charlie has FIV instead of feleuk! Feleuk is very easily spread to other cats but FIV can only be transmitted by a deep bite such as delivered when male cats are fighting or mating with a female. If Charlie is now fixed and enjoys the company of your other cats, they are safe and will not contract FIV. Many homes have FIV cats and healthy cats living together happily. Charlie can live a almost completely normal life with FIV.

[Sam Morgan]

Cheryl Peters said:

Sam, you are lucky that Charlie has FIV instead of feleuk! Feleuk is very easily spread to other cats but FIV can only be transmitted by a deep bite such as delivered when male cats are fighting or mating with a female. If Charlie is now fixed and enjoys the company of your other cats, they are safe and will not contract FIV. Many homes have FIV cats and healthy cats living together happily. Charlie can live a almost completely normal life with FIV.

So wait... ONLY deep bites will transfer this disease to other cats? So, if Charlie decides to Chase around Molly, and maybe accidentally scratches her (and cuts the skin), this won't transfer? O_o

And yes, he's fixed... that's how we found out he had this...

I was told on the main ASPCA website that we needed to be cautious with him around our other cats.

We've got one cat (Ty) who doesn't like other cats much. He never has. He's used to ours, but there's another male (Bebe) who he still beats up on when he gets an opportunity to. And they've lived together for quite a while now.

Ty is sweet to us, but he's always been a one cat kind of guy. He would be the one I would worry about...

Because of this, it's just too risky for us to keep Charlie. It'd be one thing if Ty got along with him, but he hasn't. :\

So I ask again everyone, please, if you all know anyone who would want this cat, please let me know. ;_;