foster work

This is a female kitten, about ten weeks old. She tested positive for feline leukemia, almost certainly passed to her from her infected mother. FeLeuk is a deadly disease, particularly among kittens, who lack the immune system to stave it off.

In addition, this kitten has already fallen victim to the local animal control center's deadly upper respiratory infection. This viral infection is highly resistant to antibiotics and notoriously hard to shake. For a kitten with a compromised immune system, it's almost impossible.

This kitten has a rescue deadline of Monday, June 2nd, at noon. If an approved rescuer takes her in, she will incur a great deal of expense on behalf of this kitten, who will almost certainly not live anyway. Having lost a kitten very much like this one, I speak from experience. It's devastating to have a cat die in your care -- particularly one so young and helpless.

If no rescuer takes this kitten, she will be killed at the animal center.

It's horrible. It's a tragedy, and this kitten deserves no part in it. The local animal control center is overbooked during kitten season with cats and litters of kittens brought in from homes and streets. Almost all of these animals were produced as a result of people who wouldn't take the responsibility to spay and neuter their pets.

Pet overpopulation is to blame for the rampant spread of Feline leukemia. The animal center's overcrowding (as a result of pet overpopulation) is to blame for the rampant spread of the deadly upper respiratory infection.

It's not fair to anyone -- to the rescuers, and certainly not to the animals.

It's brutal and it's horrible, and I'm tired of having to clean up after everyone else.