so moving past flies and onto harder to fix problems....

i messed up. when i took in the last cruelty seizure, i was planning on only taking in felv's because that was the only area we had room in. so i said we could take 10 or so felv cats and maybe one or two absolutely desperate and totally wrecked negative ones.

the cats were random tested and two tested weak positive to felv which probably meant a recent exposure..which also meant the cats were most likely living with some cats with active felv. since they all came from the same hoarder, it was a safe bet that some or most or all of them would eventually test positive...especially because all of them were unhealthy and sick at the time.

so today we retested and not a single one..not even the weak positives..tested positive to the disease...they were all negative to felv today.

so this is great news except..i simply cannot responsibly put 10 more cats in the house where the healthy cats get to live....and the medical room is currently already overfull too. i can't leave them in cages or in the holding pen cuz that would royally suck for all of them in the long term.

hmm what to do?

well i don't have much choice here..the felv pen was built for 12-15 cats and there are only three cats living there now. cliff and mother theresa are both showing significant signs of active disease now so they won't be here for much longer. and there is no way i am leaving the rock in there all by himself when they do both finally pass away either...he would be far too lonely.

tomorrow i am shifting cats around...mama t, cliff and the rock will move into the medical and rabbit rooms. they won't have an outside run for now..but i will look into building one for them as soon as we can. the current medical room cats really like it in there so i think mama t, cliff and the rock will like it too. there is far more human interaction going on in there because of the extra time it takes to do up the combined rabbit/medical rooms. and the bunnies are kind of interesting for the cats to hang around with too.

for now monty could stay closed by himself in a medical pen until he is ready to move back to the house, there is no risk of exposure if he is confined. or i might move monty, marvin and granny to the holding pen so i can keep a close eye on all of them while we deal with their current health problems which i am still hoping to get a consistent improvement in for all of them..it is beginning to look promising. that holding pen is only a temporary housing solution...too small for long term living.

i haven't decided what to do about cali...she is realistically within the last few weeks of her life as her cancer is quickly taking way her overall health. i may leave her where she is cuz her cancer is going to kill her before felv becomes a problem for her....or i might decide to move her cuz i do think she would enjoy access to the outside run in her last few weeks of life.

but the other medical room, holding pen and single caged cats currently living in the mp building will move to the vacated and totally disinfected felv pen. that would intitally put 13 cats in there..with a possible later addition of granny, marvin and maybe cali-cat too.

cindy and gabby i can absorb in the house (and of course monty too when he is ready to return, he has always lived in the house..i just moved him to keep a close eye on him for now)..they have already been confined over here and are comfortable with the chaos and noise and we can easily manage those two.

i know folks are going to be concerned about this move especially for mama t, cliff and the rock but it is a far better and equitable distribution of available space for all of the cats and i really believe that the current felv's will enjoy the increased human interaction and mental stimulation they will get by moving into the busier and more socially active medical/rabbit rooms.

i may have messed up in letting in negative cats...but bottom line? both they and i are very glad they are all still alive and have a good chance for a much better and far longer life.