Looking for a Home for a Special Needs Stray Cat Found in the Toronto Area

Looking for a home for a stray cat found in the Toronto area. This cat was picked up by a ninety year old lady who unfortunately is very ill and is now in the hospital. Her outlook does not look good at this point. She will be in the hospital indefinitely so, a friend of hers brought the cat (I call him Neumann) to the shelter where I volunteer at. Neumann has tested positive for the feline leukemia (FeLV) virus. As you probably know this does not mean he has feline leukemia it just means that he has come in contact with the virus. He is doing very well (eats like crazy!) so, he has developed an immunity to it. Like the feline aids virus (FIV) he can live a very long and normal life (I know someone who had a FeLV positive cat who lived 17yrs). Also like FIV he should be in a home with other cats who have tested positive for the the virus as it is transferable from cat to cat (although the vet said that he can live in a multi-cat household with cats who are negative as long as the other cats have the FeLV vaccine - the vaccine is extremely effective (95%) but I'm not sure it's a good idea to risk it). It is not transferable to people, children dogs or any other animals so he would also be great in a single cat home or with a dog or other pet. The shelter where I volunteer wants to put him down, but they have given me some time (they didn't say how much and I didn't ask!) to try to find him a home.

He is a 2 year old male short haired orange and white very affectionate fellow. He LOVES to be adored. If there is someone interested in him that is not within driving distance from Toronto I am willing to figure out a transportation route. Also, I will be getting digital pictures and can email them to you. If anyone can help or offer assistance I would be very grateful. This guy is such a sweetie, he deserves a shot at a happy life!

PLEASE CONTACT ALEX AT This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

19 Apr 2004:

Good luck with your happy home finding. I'm sending out best wishes. I have a multi-cat household and one positive for FeLV, the other two vaccinated and this has been two years now. I'm also anal about keeping the litterbox clean, cleaning food bowls and water repositories regularly. I don't clean food containers with a bleach mixture, but I do clean litterboxes with bleach. I also make sure to feed the best food they will eat, and watch for any signs of missing meals or other health problems. So far, so good. 2 years now and counting. I agree it is IDEAL for positive cats to not be around healthy cats, but it can be done. I chose to risk this only because my positive cat became positive from a blood transfusion; he was here before the others; second cat was a foster who was unadoptable so I kept him; 3rd cat was born feral and trapped by me and socialized, no organizations had room for her at the