[honeychile]

We've been adopted by a family of feral cats. It started out with just a cat having kittens under our shed, and now there's at least six who consider our deck home. Half of them are Siamese - who on earth puts a Siamese out on the street?? We're obviously feeding them, and trying to socialize them, which is a riot, considering that we're all allergic to cats.

We got one of them to the vet last week, and he had conjuctivitis of the eyes, an upper respiratory disease, and sores in his mouth. He's only five months old, but gorgeous - Siamese with amber points, very soft fur. So, we kept him in a cage this past week, giving him medication, and yesterday, got him neutered. He's still recuperating from that (physically and emotionally) for a week.

Why I'm posting this is because we called ten different vets to find out how much it would cost to get "the herd" vetted & neutered, and the lowest price per cat was over $100. The six from our deck are just the tip of the iceberg - there's another ten or so who are still around, just not on our deck. We went back to our dog's vet, and made a deal with them. It's a national chain, VCA, but they were willing to make a deal! We bring the cats to be vetted, and they will run the standard tests. If they have feline leukemia, aids, chlymidia (who knew?) or any other potentially fatal disease, they will be put down. Otherwise, the cost for all of their shots and neutering will be roughly $50. They fell in love with Luke, and are letting us put up posters to find them homes.

So, even if you're used to dealing with a national vet, try to make a deal. It won't work for a cat or two, but it probably will for a "herd" like we have. Good luck!