The Blue Dot - A FieldHaven Miracle Story

The Blue Dot at 12 o'clock.

Sounds like it should be part of a nursery rhyme.

In the world of shelters and veterinarians the Blue Dot at 12 o'clock means a negative result on the Feline Leukemia blood test. Many a sigh of relief is heard over the Blue Dot at 12 o'clock because it means a sick cat or kitten doesn't have the dread disease and a healthy-looking one does not have Feline Leukemia lurking about, ready to attack the feline immune system.

The Blue Dot at 12 o'clock make all of us happy at FieldHaven.

The Blue Dot at 3 o'clock is a heart breaker.

When we see the Blue Dot at 3 o'clock it means the cat is positive for the Feline Leukemia (FeLV) . Cats and kittens stricken with FeLV have a very high mortality rate. Especially kittens.

There is a slight chance that cats or kittens with a positive FeLV blood test may fight off the virus. It's not common but it does happen. If you remember my beloved Louise. She was FeLV+ when she was a kitten but she was one of the lucky ones who fought off the disease.

Kittens that are positive for FeLV may look and act very healthy but their prognosis for either fighting off the virus or for living a very long life is pretty dismal. It is a common practice for shelters to euthanize cats and kittens that test positive.

Usually when FieldHaven accepts cats or kittens from other shelters they are tested before the transfer takes place.

Here's where the first part of the miracle in this story starts. Through a miscommunication, 3 4-week old kittens that we transferred from a nearby shelter in late May did not get tested.

That oversight ended up saving 3 little lives.

When we did our intake we blood tested each kitten. The disheartening result was a Blue Dot at 3 o'clock for each kitten. And, as if to emphasize the result it was a very strong positive.

Our first reaction was that we should euthanize the kittens. After all, they were extremeley young and their outlook for a living even a few more weeks was not good.

Three of us looked at each other and offered to take the kittens to their sad fate. But then we looked at them. The image of those 3 tiny lives tumbling about as they played with each other is frozen in my mind.

In the next moment, as if we were all of one mind, we made the decision to give these beautiful little creatures as much love as we could for as long as they remained happy and well.

We set up a place for them in our Isolation Room filled with fluffy beds, toys and yummy food. An X-pen was set up outside and volunteers were encouraged to take them out to play in the grass and sunshine.

We hoped for a foster home for the triplets but it's understandable that someone wouldn't want to take them home knowing they probably wouldn't live long. It takes a special person to provide "hospice" care for kittens.

A foster home turned up in in the unlikeliest of people. My sister Jann had recently lost her beloved Roontay to liver cancer and she was taking the loss hard. When I heard she wanted to foster the kittens, I admit I was very against it. How could she take on these little heartbreakers when she was already deep in grief?

As Jann setup a kitten's dream room filled with climbers and every toy a kitty has ever wished for, the kittens were showered with love by Jann and other volunteers. As they grew they started playing in the flower gardens by the barn. To them it was deep dark forest and they spent hours playing hide and seek amongst the bushes and flowers. They did gymanastic demonstrations in the grass and tantalized Tamra the hound. Happy, happy kittens!

And healthy too! They grew and grew, never had a so much as a sniffle. Who would know that a killer disease lurked in the blood of each of them.

But we've seen this before. The kittens act healthy and we think this is the time they fight off the disease. And it does happen, but I have never seen it happen with kittens who reacted so strongly to the test. They are the ones that are persistently positive and then one day they become sick.......

We didn't want to do another test because we didn't want to be saddened by the reality of another positive test.

But last week we knew it was time to do it. I was driving on my way to the mountains when I got a call from FieldHaven.

It was a Blue Dot at 12 o'clock!!!!

Miracles like this for Dannigan, Tavic and Zuma are made possible by all of our volunteers, supporters and donors. Because it is with all of your help we are able to share this story of a FieldHaven Miracle. Thanks to all of you ......and to Jann for believing.....