Evolution is also a high supporter of wet food.  They recommend mixing their dry food with water (I don’t use tap water though) until it is fully absorbed (usually 10-15 minutes) and then feeding it to your cat.  Evolution (the food I feed my cat) just celebrated it's 18 year anniversary and they have cats who have lived that entire 18 years on Evolution pet food. 

I highly recommend you read Obligate Carnivore by Jed Gillan.  You can see some of what it's about by checking out his myspace page http://www.myspace.com/obligatecarnivore. 

Another book to read is Vegetarian Cats and Dogs by James Pedden.  You can read more on their website: http://www.vegepet.com/.  Here is a review of Vegetarian Cats and Dogs: "Vegetarian Cats & Dogs is a solid work of ethical integrity and is meritorious as an example of applying scientific information to progressive ends. The scientific rationale is as sound as the moral arguments are incisive and persuasive. The author is sincere in his commitment to a scientifically sound means to feed dogs and cats with superior nourishment (meeting all the known nutritional requirements for different stages of life), while at the same time reducing large scale animal suffering in agribusiness." - David H. Jaggar, MRCVS, DC

PETA also has a factsheet on Meatless Meals for Dogs and Cats:  http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=34

Your vet says that cats “require meat to survive” but honestly, how many cats would hunt and take down a cow or lamb or go deep sea diving for salmon?  A lot of people say that humans “require meat to survive” but we all know that’s not true either.  As long as we consume a nutritionally adequate diet, we don’t require meat anymore than cats do.  For the error in your vet’s logic, please read the following excerpt from Obligate Carnivore as found on his myspace page:

“Many people (including, unfortunately, some vegans, vegetarians and veterinarians) mistakenly believe that they are following a similar inescapable logic when they reach the conclusion that cats need to be given meat in order to fulfill their taurine requirement.  A deficiency of taurine-- or, as it is often called, "that one thing that cats are supposed to need... you know what I mean..."-- causes blindness and an ultimately fatal enlargement of the heart.  While most humans, dogs, and other mammals can synthesize adequate amounts from methionine (which naturally occurs in beans, seeds and other plants) and cysteine (obtained from oats and broccoli, among other non-meat sources), cats are lacking in this ability and so require a preformed dietary source.  Found in abundance in such appetizing places as organ meats, brains, and eyeballs, taurine is not known to occur in any plant.  Cats need taurine, the reasoning goes, and taurine can be found in meat but not in plants.  Therefore, cats need to eat meat.  (Actually, what people often say is "therefore, cats are obligate carnivores", as if this pseudo-authoritative phrasing automatically trumps "cats can be vegan" by virtue, I am guessing, of its Scrabble value alone).

                Socrates' mortality was a rock solid guarantee because the premises given essentially defined a world in which only three sets of characteristics were possible-- "mortal men", "mortal non-men", and "non-mortal non-men"-- and had completely eliminated the possibility of "non-mortal men".  The conclusion that cats need to eat meat in order to obtain dietary taurine, on the other hand, is based on no such logical necessity.  While we are given enough information to narrow down our options somewhat (we know that taurine can't be found in the produce section), we are never told that meat is the only place it can be found.  In other words, "non-meat, plant, containing taurine" has been eliminated as a possibility, but "non-meat, non-plant, containing taurine" has not.

                The mistake is in not recognizing that the world is made up of more than just animals and plants.

                Cows have-- I can't remember the exact number, so let's just say, oh, I don't know-- somewhere between three and seven hundred stomachs, and somewhere in there-- towards the mouth end, I believe-- is a resident population of naturally-occurring gut bacteria that is able to produce all of the vitamin B12 that a cow could ever need.  Other strictly herbivorous animals (e.g., rabbits) may keep their B12-producing microbes in their lower intestinal tract instead-- and so utilize the always pleasant strategy of coprophagy (phagy = the eating of, copro = shit) to get their RDA of this vitamin.

                We, however, have just the one stomach and only consume human excrement when it is covertly slipped to us by disgruntled fast food restaurant employees.  So where is our B12 coming from then?  Many vegans believe that as long as we intentionally do a bad job washing our vegetables, we'll somehow magically obtain enough from the bacteria in the remaining dirt to avoid the devastating mental deterioration that accompanies a deficiency.  Unfortunately, this has never been shown to work out in real life (and, more to the point, have you ever considered that the guy who works in the produce section might pick his nose?).  The fact of the matter is that we need a dietary source of B12 to be healthy, and that B12 is found in meat and other animal products but not reliably in plants-- not even really dirty ones.  In other words-- and try to remember this because it may show up on the SATs-- B12 is to us as taurine is to cats.  So why aren't we resigned to our own status as obligate carnivores (or at least obligate omnivores) as well?

                When it comes to B12, more of us are probably actually guilty of underestimating the difficulty of getting enough in our diets.  Crazier still than the dirt-eaters are the cheek-chewers-- those who somehow believe that we have all the B12 we need inside our own mouths already and that all we need to do to remain healthy is gnaw some off every once in a while.  Even those who are a little bit more cautious find it easy enough to point to such things as fortified soy milks, cereals and nutritional yeasts as easy alternative sources from which this nutrient can be obtained; some may even resort to such extreme measures as taking a daily vitamin pill just to be safe.  Whatever each of us does or does not do in order to ensure that we get enough B12, we all tend to at least have one thing in common: we generally don't worry about it too much.  I'll bet that the first time you heard that B12 wasn't found in plants, you thought one of two things: "So I guess I'll live without B12 then" (which is actually not too smart, although I'll confess it's what I first thought), or "Then I'd better make sure I'm getting some of the synthetic version" (which is the more intelligent, reasonable thing to think).  Either way, I'll bet you didn't think "Sounds like my hands are tied and I have to continue eating meat forever".  The fact that B12 can't be derived from plants doesn't lead any of us to the conclusion that veganism in humans is impossible.

                Compared to some of the other everyday synthetics that we completely take for granted (e.g., hormone and brain chemical analogs like Prozac, Viagra, and birth control pills), creating something as mundane as a simple vitamin from inorganic sources almost sounds like a rainy afternoon project for an eight-year-old with a chemistry set.  It would never even occur to us that it might be beyond our technological grasp.  So why would we ever think that synthetically producing a simple amino acid like taurine would be any more difficult?

                If Theodore Roosevelt had told you that taurine could only be derived from meat, he'd have been right-- but that's only because he died in 1919.  As long ago as the 1920's, the old method of isolating taurine from ox bile or abalone was already outdated, having been replaced by the more efficient process of creating it synthetically.  Those with more intelligence and/or chemistry background than I have may find it instructive to hear the most common method of taurine synthesis described as the result of synthesis by sodium sulfite sulfonation of ethylene chloride followed by ammonolysis with anhydrous NH3 (ammonia without water) or with aqueous NH3 (ammonia with water) and ammonium carbonate.  Blah, blah, blah.  I suspect that most people will agree with me in preferring the following dumbed down version instead: stuff goes in, chemical changes occur as if by magic, taurine comes out. 

                Today, taurine is a popular ingredient in energy drinks and bodybuilding supplements, and-- despite the nasty rumor that "Red Bull" got its name because its taurine is derived from bull testicles-- it should be unsurprising that most companies use the cheaper and more readily available synthetic form.  (Actually, the word "taurine" means "of or like a bull"-- just as "bovine" means "of or like a cow"-- so the brand name makes a lot of sense even without resorting to the bizarre testicle theory).  Of course, taurine is a nonessential amino acid for humans and there are varying opinions on what it actually does for us (ranging from "miraculously curing all cardiovascular problems, alcoholism, and diabetes", to "possible mild placebo effect among certain highly suggestible individuals").  I'm not an expert, but the only noticeable effect on humans I've ever observed is its remarkable ability to make them spend way too much on teeny tiny cans of crappy-tasting soda.  Nonetheless, I hope the availability of synthetic taurine since the Woodrow Wilson administration, coupled with the ubiquity of products containing it on store shelves all around us today, is sufficient to erase any lingering "taurine can only be found in meat" nonsense.  But I have to concede that none of this is a guarantee that the synthetic form will be metabolized by cats as efficiently as that which naturally occurs.

                Many vets-- those that are even aware that synthetic taurine exists at all, that is (and many do not, which is a scary thing)-- will raise this as an objection.  To be able to say with confidence that synthetic taurine is adequate we'd want to be able to look at a large number of cats that have been fed synthetic taurine over a lifetime.  Which is an easier sample to come by than they might imagine:

                The greatest irony in this whole foolish taurine issue is the simple fact that most cats living today have been relying on synthetic taurine all of their lives anyway!

                In the late 1980's, tens of thousands of regular old meat-eating cats were dying mysteriously each year from dilated cardiomyopathy (enlargement of the heart).  Although these cats were far from vegan-- they were being given a variety of popular brands of meat-based cat food, including many whose commercials you have seen and probably know by (enlarged?) heart-- it was ultimately traced to a deficiency of taurine.  At first glance, this seems counterintuitive: taurine, after all, is supposed to be found in meat-- in fact, isn't that the whole reason why cats aren't supposed to be vegan in the first place?

                The problem is that while historically, in nature, cats had no trouble deriving plenty of taurine from meat, historically, in nature, the "meat" they were eating was the whole bodies of raw, freshly-killed rodents, birds and insects with bellies full of enzymes.  Whereas now "meat" refers to the byproducts of the animal slaughter industry, along with other assorted odds and ends, that have been mixed together and rendered at an extremely high temperature.  Just as how soaking your laundry in hot water instead of cold causes blood stains to set, the high temperature of the rendering process was causing whatever taurine was present at the outset to denature. 

                These days, most manufacturers of meat brands are aware of this potential deficiency, and compensate by adding taurine supplements after rendering is complete.  These are the same companies that save money by supplementing their products with old, moldy grains and spoiled supermarket meats still in their Styrofoam packaging (and these are probably some of the least disturbing ingredients they use; I'm saving the truly shocking ones for later on)-- would it be reasonable to suppose that they've revived the more expensive, less efficient old ox bile/abalone method of taurine extraction for this purpose?  Just as you'd expect, they make use of the cheapest and most readily available form-- the synthetic one-- which is exactly the same taurine that the vegan cat food manufacturers use.”

I wish you all the best with your new kitty and hope that you find peace with whatever you decide to feed her.

I'm a big fan of Feline Pine litter, since it's one of the easiest to clean up.  Just be careful not to step on one of the pellets in the middle of the night, or you'll jump sky high like I do from time to time.

I hope you enjoy the kitty!

YogaFerret, do you have the link to the full legal document you posted regarding Eric Weisman?  I'd like to read the document in its entirety as well as the footnotes that are indicated in your post.  Thanks!