On 2016-06-14 11:34 AM, MaryL wrote:

Concatulations! I hope this will be "the beginning of a beautiful
friendship" (as said in "Casablanca") and a very long one.

I agree that some vets contribute to the feral problem when they charge
so much for a simple procedure. I was fortunate with my adoptions. I
paid $75.00 each for Nikki and Selina because the rescue group I adopted
them from charge that flat fee (male or female), which includes spay or
neuter, microchip, vetting and vaccinations, and care for as long as
they have the cat. That amount, of course, does not even begin to cover
the cost of that type of extensive care. I have sometimes told people
that Duffy was the best investment I ever made. I adopted him from a
shelter in a nearby town, and he was only $25.00 because he had been
previously adopted with neutering paid for by that couple.

How is Sammy? I often think of him and hope everything is going well.

Poor Sammy died in March from his kidney problems. They progressed very
quickly - he was actually in the vet clinic for some supportive
treatment when he died, a little over a week after diagnosis. At first I
didn't want another cat, but I changed my mind, sooner than I had expected.

Cinnamon's doing fine, although she's a bit annoyed at the interloper.

The city shelter, where I found Kerry, charges $120 per cat. That
doesn't include spay/neuter, but I was impressed by their care for the
cats. It's not a fancy building, but it's clean, with outside runs for
some of the rooms, and they have a vet on staff and keep good records.
Kerry was checked over, tested for Felv and something else I don't
remember, de-wormed, de-flea'd, and got her first vaccination. She would
have been given a booster, but she got cat flu, and they wouldn't give
her a live vaccine until she was thoroughly recovered, so that's
something I need to do. They microchipped her, too, and gave me a
booklet of instructions on how to care for a cat, one of those shopping
bags with a logo, and a generous plastic bag of the food she was used to
eating. It turns out that she'll eat anything and everything, but the
bag of food was a nice idea.

My previous cats have generally been some version of "free to good home"
so I paid for everything, but Cinnamon was left at the SPCA shelter, and
the SPCA spayed her and gave her to me for free. I think they were
over-run with cats and thought they were unlikely to find another home
for an adult cat that they did a bit more than they usually do. She does
have her "papers" - the documents I signed saying if I ever can't keep
her, she goes back to the SPCA.


--
Cheryl