Hi cat lovers, I need help!

[madm]

Vet school or not, that statement is BS.

The experts do not agree with you. Many vets recommend giving the feline leukemia vaccine to kittens if they are going to be outdoor cats. The disease is transmitted by moist contact such as saliva.

According to http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/Pages/FeLV_Web.pdf:
FeLV is responsible for the illness and death of more cats than any other disease condition.

Vaccination is recommended only for those cats whose lifestyle places them at risk for FeLV. This includes outdoor cats or those that are indoor/outdoor, feral cats, cats in open multi-cat households, cats in FeLV-positive households, and cats in households where the FeLV status of all resident cats is not known.

And according to http://www.feline-leukemia.net/disea...line-leukemia/:

Statistics say that one out of ten cats is a Feline Leukemia carrier. Feline Leukemia is a virus that is dreaded by every cat owner around and this is understandable since it is said to be one of the prime causes of cancer in cats.
It is also labeled as a top cat killer, apart from being hit by fast-running automobiles. The death of an infected cat is more of a death out of complications developing through this disease because of the weakened immune system. Some infected cats are dying fast due to rampant infections or colds, rather than the virus contracted via the feline leukemia. Like the human AIDS, this disease can show off symptoms only after years of acquiring the virus and are therefore hard to counter because of retrograde signs.

[madm]

Another excellent website with information about feline leukemia is http://www.marleyfund.com/felvfacts.aspx

[milanessa]

No need to raise your voice. 1 out of 10 is at odds with the statement of yours that I quoted "Nearly all.....".

[mkats]

I swear, every house on this street owns at least one cat. And they're all outdoors cats. That said, somehow they all know their own territories and nobody leaves the grounds of their house! One of my neighbors has a gorgeous dark gray cat, who will happily roam around his front yard and driveway but will NOT take one step off the curb. Similarly, my landlady's three cats are constantly roaming her own yard, but I'll come out and find her cat sitting on my porch watching the next door lady's cat just a few feet over, but none of them ever cross the property line, at least that I've seen.

I don't know how they do it

[madm]

No need to raise your voice. 1 out of 10 is at odds with the statement of yours that I quoted "Nearly all.....".

Sorry I was off on the statistics of how prevalent the FeLV disease is, but it is still the #1 disease killer of cats. It is a major epidemic in the U.S. and cat owners should vaccinate their cats. Unfortunately the disease is not readily visible in cats until many years after they are infected.

Re: feline AIDS, Cornell Univ. states (http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures/fiv.html)
How common is the infection?

FIV-infected cats are found worldwide, but the prevalence of infection
varies greatly. In the United States, approximately 1.5 to 3 percent of healthy
cats are infected with FIV. Rates rise significantly-15 percent or more-in cats
that are sick or at high risk of infection. Because biting is the most efficient
means of viral transmission, free-roaming, aggressive male cats are the most
frequently infected, while cats housed exclusively indoors are much less likely
to be infected.

[Aussie Willy]

I am with those that think the cat may already have an owner, particularly if they are well-fed and friendly. Some cats travel from house to house just because they can and make friends with everyone. We have a lovely black cat in my units called Lexus who likes to visit the other residents. If I have my backdoor open he just wanders in as if it is his own place or I have found him sitting on my front door step.

Although if the cat doesn't have a microchip then the cat certainly is open to be claimed by others. Always get your cat microchipped!

[liv]

My cat came to me via the kitchen window. When I noticed him staring at me and pawing at my window I went outside. He came over and rubbed against me like we were buddies. For 3 days he stayed on my window, never leaving and always wanting in the house, but i resisted. I live in a townhouse complex and a neighbour lady knows all the cats (she takes the strays to the humane society if she sees them hanging around) and she said he didn't look like any cat she knew in the area so I finally took him in. I went to the vet and they didn't find a microchip or id numbers and no pictures or posters were put up anywhere. He basically adopted me. I figured he must've been someone's cat but since his owners didn't even bother to put up pictures about him (our pharmacy has a huge wall set out for this) he's now mine.

Sometimes people just dump their animals if they can't care for them or maybe they were college students who just wanted a cat while they were in school and then didn't want them afterwards. My guess is that my cat was a student's cat because my neighbourhood has lots of students and he wasn't fixed, so that make sense since it's expensive for a student to do that.
.

Good luck with the kitty!!