Before the Beginning

Looking back, it's hard to remember what life was like before learning that Chiana had FeLV. In 2022, we were fostering kittens/cats through a local rescue (all incoming animals were SNAP tested for FeLV) and our resident cat (FeLV vaccinated), Talyn seemed to like them.

Yet, my husband wanted me to have a cat that bonded with me. While Talyn is a great cat, he tends to hang out with my husband and not me. My husband also wanted me to have a cat that was most dog like. With his fondness for Great Danes, he loved the gentle giant nature of Maine Coons as well. It took some time but we found a breeder we connected with and when I saw Chiana's picture, I fell in love with her. I'm happy to say, the feeling is mutual and she is my shadow. Chiana was born on 8-11-22 and brought to our home on 12-22-22 as a Christmas present. She came with all sorts of papers and tests had been done. As per the agreement, we brought her into the vet to be SNAP tested and that test came back negative. After she came into our home, we had one foster cat that SNAP tested negative as well. That cat and Chiana were very close, grooming each other and hanging out together. She had a urinary tract infection while at our home that was treated. She was eventually adopted. During this time, we also "cat sat" the cat that came to the rescue with the one we were fostering as well. That cat SNAP tested negative as well. Because we planned to continue fostering, we wanted Chiana to be FeLV vaccinated as well. 

Our lives changed on Saturday, 2/18/23. We brought Chiana to our vet to be vaccinated. We handed her to the tech who took her back into another room. The tech eventually handed Chiana back to us saying that the SNAP test came back: Chiana was FeLV positive. We would need to contact the vet later in the week to discuss next steps. We left: completely stunned. 

(Later, my husband complained about our treatment at the vet during this time. Because of this information, they later changed their protocol in how they handled such situations). 

My husband knew that positive SNAP tests can read false positives 33% of the time so we searched for a vet that could see us on that following Monday. We found a different one and had the SNAP test repeated. To our dismay, the test again came back positive. We were then faced with the reality that Chiana may have this illness. 

Chiana & Me