We pulled Miss Kitty from a "shelter" that isn't so much a shelter as a holding area of cages for animals brought in by animal control. There is no vet care of any kind. She was not available for adoption - only "rescue pull" due to her advanced pregnancy. We pulled her late Friday afternoon, the shelter was closed Sat/Sun and her kill date was Monday. So, she barely made it out alive.
As our foster was heading to pick her up, we received a call from another rescuer who wanted us to know they'd had a panleukopenia outbreak 10 days earlier. This is an incredibly contagious, very fatal disease (the cat version of Parvo). This person had been in the shelter at the time, and had taken a kitten to the vet herself and confirmed her suspicions. Further, she let us know their infection control/sanitation was woefully inadequate to kill the virus which is hardy in the environment for up to 2 years. We were taking a HUGE risk by taking this girl.
But, our brave foster decided to take the chance because we were the only chance that Miss Kitty and her unborn kittens had. Everyone else had declined to help her.
I am thrilled to say we have passed the incubation period by more than a week and our vet says we can breathe easy now. We haven't been posting a lot of updates - about anyone - because we didn't want to risk the heartbreak for y'all if we'd lost them to this awful disease. Nor did we want to post about the others and ignore her. So now you can celebrate with us! (and brace yourself for lots of updates!)
Her foster says every time she looks at her and her sweet babies she's so grateful to us for pulling her. But really, our gratitude is towards her for being brave enough to take a chance and give these little one's life. We couldn't have done it without her and her courage.
Update - subsequent to this post we had several conversations with the head of this shelter and further interactions with the rescuer who originally contacted us. We now believe we were misinformed. Unfortunately this happens in rescue - passions are high and people say things that aren't true in order to provoke a response. But, it doesn't change the fact that - at this time she was pulled - we believed it to be true and as a result of our foster's bravery these lives were saved.
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