Assumptions can lead to heartbreak.

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I haven't been here for a while, there have been a lot of crazy things going on lately. And one really horrible thing which I am posting in this interest so that many people will read it, I don't care about making a few pennies, what I care about is letting people know what can happen. I had a beautiful tortoishell cat named Noodles, she was three years old. On December 3rd, my husband called me at work and asked me to come home because an incident had happened. A raccoon had come into my yard at 11:30 am. My husband had called 911 and asked for animal control to come, since the raccoon seemed injured. Instead of animal control, they sent a police officer. At this point, the raccoon was hiding under my shed, they (my husband and the officer) managed to scare the raccoon from out from under the shed, and it ran into the woods behind my house, and my cat chased it. A while later, the raccoon ended up in the neighbor's yard and they called animal control, who finally arrived and it was captured. The neighbor also reported to animal control that my cat was fighting with it. A few days later animal control called us and informed us the raccoon was rabid and they wanted us to provide proof that our cats and dogs had rabies shots. I assumed that the cat's shots were three years like the dogs, but when I looked at the papers I wasn't sure so I called the vet. I was wrong, it was only a one year shot and long expired. I also had three other cats who were Noodle's babies, one was but four months old and was just old enough to get shots and his appointment was the next week. The other two were just eight weeks old and too young for the rabies shots. Animal control came and trapped my cats and took them to destroy them. All of them. During this time, my cat scratched me and I also had to go through a series of painful rabies shots. These shots cost between $7,000 and $13,000 dollars, fortunately my insurance is paying for them. I am mad at myself for not checking and making sure about Noodle's shots, for just assuming she was ok with them. I am heartbroken that my cats are gone, I went through physical pain and I don't even know if it was necessary since animal control refused to tell me whether she had contracted rabies or not. All for a $12.00 shot I could have prevented so much. If you have a pet, please, please make sure they are up to date on their rabies shots, even if your animal never goes outside, animal control went door to door and took all pets that weren't vaccinated. I also don't live in the country, but on the edge of the city limits and rabies was found here, it's not just a country thing, rabies can be found anywhere.