Thanks for your kind words, Lubelle.

I might not have seen them had I not been monitoring following the damage from "that other thread", and the utterly reprehensible act of someone posting my personal information. I had completely stopped looking until I received an abusive email thanks to having been identified IRL due to that, and now can't help but wonder what recourse he may take for my having defended myself yet again. Put bluntly, I'm in here for damage control.

I've been asking people on this forum to be a little nicer - educate, not berate - since long before that thread attacking me. Seems there are quite a few members on this forum who need reminders of civilised behaviour (I'll go with civilised for now, because humanity seems to be asking for way too much). I used to get a better response when I wasn't the OP, and just defending the right of the OP to learn something new rather than be treated like an idiot for asking questions. My theory is that, as passionate as people are about the health and safety of these cats, it is far better to be nice rather than push people away, because then we have an opportunity to educate them and ensure that the cat has the best outcome, rather than scare people off with our excessive jerkisms so that they may then go and make even more mistakes that may be even more damaging to the cat. This is a long held stance, and not something I brought up for the sake of that other thread. I brought it up in the other thread because it had been strongly noticed over several threads in recent weeks, where mass judgementalism and lack of compassion seem to be key (as does refusing to acknowledge the responses of the original OP as we have all decided they're an idiot and can't be trusted, so what they say is of no consequence and only just gets in the way of the judgement passed against them. Best ignored).

It's nice to know that I am not the only person who feels this way. Regardless of what people think of me, we can all stand to be a hell of a lot kinder to each other. We can maintain our passion without pushing away others. If what someone has to say is insulting - not just to them, to anyone - there are better ways to say it. Period.

@Linden - i came across your posting here over complete coincidence, and i just registered to get in touch with you.
like you, i have just lost my coping mechanism a few weeks ago and your story brought tears to my eyes.
i only just registered, so cannot send you a message - am posting here and hope you could get in touch ! kind regards from germany, jackie