Filip Domestic Medium Hair Melrose, MA

Filip is a five-year-old grey boy who was rescued as an abandoned stray who lost his home when the person who meant the world to moved away and left him outside to fend for himself. Despite this betrayal, he is very friendly and responds to petting with a warm purr. He would do best in an interactive home where he will not be left unaccompanied for long periods of time. We have not observed him with kids, but he seems likely to be able to do well with kids who know how to treat cats respectfully. He's being fostered in a home with a dog. While he sometimes gives the dog a swat if she gets too close, they mostly get along okay. He can peacefully coexist with other cats. Filip is an easy cat who would probably be suitable for a first-time adopter.

Filip has been:
- neutered
- vaccinated against rabies and distemper
- tested negative for FeLV, but positive for FIV* (See note below).
- treated for worms and fleas

His adopter will receive his medical records. There is a simple adoption process and an adoption fee so we can continue to help cats in need. His fee has been reduced by more than half to a mere $145 to facilitate his adoption-- a bargain for a new best friend who will love you for the rest of his life. He's being fostered in Boston.

Cats can live up to 20 years, so give careful thought to the changes that are likely to occur in your life during that time. If you can and will commit to him and provide a safe, loving home for life, then respond to RoyCBarrows@gmail.com. Please include your phone number for a faster response and say a little about yourself and the home you would provide for him as we try to match people with the right cats.

*FIV stands for Feline Immunodeficiency Virus. It's the cat version of HIV in humans, but cats' immune systems handle it far more successfully than the human immune system handles HIV. There is no treatment necessary, nor does one exist. There is no difference in their day-to-day lives. FIV-positive cats have about the same life-expectancy as FIV-negative cats (confirmed by a Canadian veterinary study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2822370/) as long as they are kept inside because their greatest vulnerability is to infections that they are likely to encounter only outside.) (Allowing ANY cat outside decreases life-expectancy by about 70%.) It is non-contagious to animals other than cats-- even then, it can be transmitted under a very limited set of scenarios:
1) Sexual intercourse (which can't happen in this case)
2) From mother to kitten (which also can't happen in this case)
3) Ingestion of blood of an FIV-positive cat into an FIV-negative cat (highly unlikely!)

A shelter study of FIV-positive cats kept in free-roaming areas with FIV-negative cats showed a transmission rate of zero, to the surprise of absolutely no one in the rescue community. Thus, another cat would be only slightly more likely to get FIV from Jacob than to get struck by lightning.

To summarize, FIV is almost always a big nothing