My disappointment with the Humane Society...

So the new kitty we adopted came from the Humane Society. Here comes my new lesson: I need to check into the shelter's testing policies before bringing an animal home. Wow. I though my tough lessons regarding cat adoption were over in 1999. We took Khyda to the vet this Saturday two days after adopting her. It's a good thing we're consciencious enough to care for her extreme shyness AND the fact that we like to introduce any new animal to the house slowly. We hadn't yet let the kids see each other. It's lucky either way that we have such a wonderfull vet. She asked us if she had been tested for kitty HIV and we didn't find any proof of it in her adoption paper work. We had her tested and a few minutes after we got home the vet's office called us and let us know she was clear.

What a relief! Now she could meet the other kids without any risk. We had recently learned a lot about feline HIV. In our previous apartment we had been pampering the "neighborhood kitty" since we moved in. You know, the kind of kitty that goes to everyone's porch to see what lovin' and food it can scrounge up. We honestly had no idea she belonged to anyone. After being there for almost two years we finally saw the owner walking with her. We asked her what was wrong with the cat since we'd noticed her coughing and matted fur and were about to take her to the vet. She told us she had a respiratory infection and that she usually gave her medicine every day. She also said that she normally tolerates more attention after her medication which they gave her in the afternoon and that she might try cut the matts out and brush her. We offered to help her and she accepted for us to come over that next Saturday in the afternoon. When we came over to help out at the appointed time we were met at the door by her husband. He was very rude and ignored my hand instead shaking my boyfriend's hand and ignoring me after that. In any case, he told us that his wife was not available -- not feeling well. He also admitted that their cat had HIV. All that time we had been handling her and feeding her occasionally and didn't know that she was infected with a highly contagious, deadly disease. We could have infected our own kids. I was so mad that they let the cat roam the neighborhood free where other cats roam and could have been infected. I was so mad that the wife hadn't told us the truth when we asked her. I was SO MAD that I thought about reporting them to the animal authorities. We thought about doing a lot of things and finally we just decided to stay clear of the cat and keep our cats safe that way.

I can't believe the Humane Society does NOT test for HIV in their cats. They vaccinate them for it but don't test them -- only for Leukemia. It makes no sense to me at all. The kitten we had adopted from the SPCA just a few months earlier had been tested for both HIV and Leukemia. Of course she had also received the shots she needed for her age before we took her home. IF Khyda had been positive for HIV she could have infected/killed all of our other kids. What a tragedy that would have been.

It made me upset with myself to see that I was assuming such a big agency like the Humane Society would be responsible enough to test the cats for HIV before sending them home to a place with other cats. UNBELIEVABLE!! They KNEW! I told them we had other cats because they asked. I will NEVER adopt from the Humane Society again. And I will NEVER assume that this has been done by any agency. Shame on Humane Society. Shame on me. I have learned another invaluable lesson.