Sweet Sangha Needs A Home

Sangha is a gentle orange cat looking for a home. Beth Milton, another Oly pet sitter, rescued him from the streets and took him to Seattle Humane Society. He’s waiting there now for a new family to adopt him.

A little nervous during his photo shoot

He is a big-boned guy (15+ pounds, but not chubby) who is friendly, affectionate, and gets along well with all the other cats at the shelter.

Sangha tests positive for FIV, so the Humane Society has him living in a room with FIV+ cats. I’m working on writing a blog article about FIV because there are so many misconceptions and myths about it. Here are some highlights of the facts I’ll explain further in the FIV article:

• Can Sangha live in a home with FIV- cats? Absolutely! There’s only a 1-2% chance that another cat would become infected. The studies at Glasgow University that studied the rate of infection also found that even when FIV was passed on in their Glasgow survey, none of the cats actually died of FIV-related causes.
• The only way FIV is spread is through deep bite wounds (saliva to blood transfers). Since Sangha isn’t a fighter, the chances of him spreading FIV to a cat who is tests negative for FIV are probably close to nil.
• Did you know that if a cat is vaccinated he’ll test positive for FIV? So Sangha might not actually be FIV+.
• FIV is sorta like HIV and is NOTHING like AIDS. Most cats with FIV do not require medication or immune support supplements to live healthy for just as many years as FIV- cats.
• Kittens from FIV+ mothers are rarely FIV+. They will test positive for FIV for the first 12-16 weeks of life. After 16 weeks, the tests will be more accurate.

If you know of anyone looking for an appreciative, orange, male cat please first contact Beth (at 360-753-0915) to find out more about him and about adopting from Seattle Humane Society.

Select sources

• Barr, MC; Olsen, CW; Scott, FW. “Feline viral diseases” in Ettinger, SJ; Feldman EC (eds.) Textbook of veterinary medicine. W.B. Saunders Co. Philadelphia, PA; 1995: 409-435.
• American Association of Feline Practitioners and Cornell Feline Health Center “Feline immunodeficiency virus“ in Cornell Feline Health Center, Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine 2006. 19 November 2010.
• American Association of Feline Practitioners/Academy of Feline Medicine. “Recommendations for feline immunodeficiency virus testing” from The Compendium on continuing education for the practicing veterinarian. 1997: 1105-7.
• Eldredge, Delbert G. M., Liisa D. Carlson, James M. Carlson, M Debra. Cat owner’s home veterinary handbook. Indianapolis: Wiley Pub, 2007.
• Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. “Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)” from Information for owners. Companion Animal Diagnostics at University of Glasgow. 8 July 2008.
• “F.I.V. information” from Cat chat: The Cat rescue resource. 23 January 2011.
• Frazier, Anitra and Norma Eckroate. The Natural cat. New York: Plume, 2008.
• Littrell, Kristi. “FIV: Catching a bad case of rumors” from Best Friends Animal Society. 21 January 2011.
• Messonnier, Shawn.  Natural Health Bible for Dogs & Cats. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001.
• Wulff-Tilford, M.L. and G. L. Tilford. All You Ever Wanted to Know About Herbs for Pets. Irvine, CA: BowTie Press, 1999.