Adopt A Less Adoptable Pet Week: Snowflake

This is post #3 in the series. You can read post #4 at A Tonk's Tail...err, Tale...


Today's guest blogger is Michelle Cour, one of the dedicated volunteers at Wayside Waifs in Kansas City. Michelle is known for getting the inside scoop from the Wayside kitties. She spoke with Snowflake, a two year old male, domestic shorthair, FIV+ cat available for adoption, and has relayed his story for me.

Hello

My name is Snowflake and I’ll bet you can guess why if you look at my photo. Yep, all white with beautiful blue eyes, very soulful people say. I’ve had kind of a hard life living on the streets getting bitten by another stray, and having to find food where I could. Things are better now with regular meals, medical care and nice people to talk to and play with me. But I could really use a permanent home.

The one challenge to quickly finding me a family is that I’m FIV positive. Don't be a scaredy cat! Many people don’t understand it and are afraid, so let me explain a little. It’s not a death sentence for me and doesn’t require expensive meds to keep it under control as is often needed with the human form, HIV. Feline Immunodeficiency Virus is an active viral infection causing an increased susceptibility to other infections. I can live a long healthy life if you take me to the vet if I develop an infection, like respiratory or urinary tract, easily curable with low cost antibiotics.

FIV isn’t communicable to dogs or humans; only to other cats through bites, not through sharing food or water dishes. If you would like a cat and have none, I’d be a super sweet and special friend, so come meet me today! In fact, why not take me and one of the other FIV positive cats too? Two is always more fun than one. Also, cats who test positive can develop neutralizing antibodies and clear the infection. Yep, it's true, so I should be retested about 3 months after the initial test that confirmed my FIV positive diagnosis. I might be just fine. Please come meet me. You won’t regret it and you’ll be my hero forever.

Until later!

Snowflake

Thank you Michelle and Snowflake! I hope they cleared up any confusion about FIV+ cats and their adoptability. If we get information out about FIV, more people would probably adopt cats like Snowflake.

I hope you consider an FIV+ cat the next time you're in the market for a new family member. If your local shelter has any FIV+ cats, please help spread this message: