Oh, ok, sorry to appear to be judgemental. I really wasn’t, since I understand when people cannot afford the yearly trip to the vets. The vaccines aren’t that much, but the exam plus whatever else they want to do adds up fast.
We used to give our cats the vaccines ourselves - back when the protocol was to give them subcutaneously. Now that they have to be given in a muscle - we don’t want to even try that now! BTW, my ferals have only been vaccinated off and on - only when I could catch them!
Maybe it was a bobcat then? Feline leukemia does sound like it is localized to the cat family.
Lucky you! to live ‘far back in the woods in rural Mississippi’! Sounds lovely. I am in a noisy, smelly, dirty, illegal-invested city right now. But will be moving soon to a rural area in Tennessee - but still pretty close to towns for job reasons. I’d rather be farther away from civilization, but compared to where I am now, it will be close to heaven ;) Like Mississippi, it is lush and green there. I went from counting down the months to move to now counting the weeks.
I just have to figure out how to move my half-feral cat with us. My vet was pretty nice - he said he understood our dilemma and would put the cat to sleep if we didn’t think he could make the move (ie., would try to come back here, wouldn’t adjust to a country setting with colder winters, is an older cat to have a big change - he’s around 13-14, and his companion -another feral kitty that protected him and was his buddy just got put to sleep, so Max has had a hard time with that too.) He’s still strong and healthy though, so I’d like to give taking him with us a chance if he won’t suffer because of it.
Can you send pictures of your area? I can freepmail you an email address.