Many thanks
Very many congratulations on retaining the contract - we look forward to receiving many more copies of OUR CATS - the only cat paper we fancy!
Many thanks for publishing Colin's and my letter of thanks to our Cat Fancy friends for all their support during our recent traumatic time following the RTA involving Colin's Grandchildren, my step-Grandchildren, Adam and Sophie Stone.
We are delighted to inform everyone that Adam was discharged on 2nd April and has been enjoying himself at home.
Sophie, it transpired, didn't have MRSA (or the dreaded C.Diff) after all, and was discharged on Saturday (19th April). No doubt both will be returning to hospital from time-to-time between now and their maturity as both are now scarred physically (and probably mentally), for life, poor little loves.
We thank the Good Lord for their return home and reunion with all their friends and relations - it could have been so very much worse. Adam could have had impaired vision and brain damage, whilst Sophie could have been a paraplegic, so we have an enormous amount for which to thank God.
Many, many thanks everyone for being there for us. It has meant a great deal to us both.
Now we are both looking forward to a return to normality - or something resembling that.
Must stop now as I've got several outstanding show reports to catch up with! Will be in touch again soon.
Dorothy & Colin Stone
Vetting In: Are dogs different to cats?
ARE dogs different? At dog shows there is apparently much less concern about checking competitors’ state of health before the various mutts mingle. Owners do not submit their dogs to the early attention of vets. So is there something in the nature of felines which demands they are checked before the show begins? Are cats a species which spread disease more easily than dogs?
If the vetting process could be dropped this would allow different start and finish times, maybe helping long distance travellers to shows.
Neil Richardson
The Editor Replies: OUR CATS spoke to a respected senior veterinary surgeon and former Supreme and Crufts vet, Trevor Turner, to ask his view. Mr Turner replies: ‘Put simply, dogs do not have the equivalent number of serious immuno- supressant diseases as cats, such as FeLV and FIV.
Vetting-in at dog shows was abolished many years ago after reliable vaccines were developed against Distemper and similar diseases.
‘I think it’s best summed up by saying that cats are not little dogs and should be treated entirely differently’.
