Happy Unofficial End of Summer, FeLVie Fans!

As usual, there’s a lot of news, so we’ll dive right in.

I’d like to introduce Mr. Man, the cat with the silliest name at Tabby’s Place (yes, he came to us with that name; I proposed a contest to change his name, but my idea was shot down). Mr. Man is a very large black and white cat; he’s not chunky, just a fine big boy. He settled into his suite quickly and is rapidly earning a reputation as both a gentle giant and a wannabe lap cat.

Why wannabe? Well, he’s just too big to fit into my lap, at least. He gave it his best shot and tried several times, but we couldn’t make it work. He still stuck around for attention, though. Suitemate Regina initially approached him with great suspicion, but it seems that the two of them have become buddies.

Little Batty is still timid with us, but she happily allows me to feed her kibble. My hand goes into the cubbyhole she occupies with one piece of kibble at a time; she still won’t let me touch her often, but she’ll scarf down the kibble and wait for more. Mr. Man has discovered that he can get in on this action, too. If he sees me feeding Batty, he comes over and looks pathetic. I’ll start laughing because his ploy is so obvious, but I can’t deny its success, and he gets one piece of kibble every time Batty does.

When I went into that suite’s solarium a couple of weekends ago, Hoopla Green actually emerged from an enclosed cat bed. I sat about four feet away from her on a bench and talked quietly to her, and she didn’t withdraw back into the cat bed—a good sign. She seems to get along with Mr. Man; he came into the solarium while I was talking to Hoopla Green and settled down on a horizontal scratcher, and she’s clearly not afraid of him at all (the contrast in their sizes is very amusing, as Hoopla Green is so petite).

We are increasingly concerned about Puff. She lost weight over the past month, and she’s been very quiet lately. We know she has renal disease and a heart murmur, and we’ve sent out blood work for more in-depth testing. Puff also has spastic pupil syndrome. This is a known condition in FeLV+ cats and periodically causes the pupil in their eyes to be of different sizes.

Turning to a different FeLV+ suite, Tucker also lost some weight over the past month, but that’s of much less concern to us than Puff’s weight loss, as Tucker can stand to lose a little bit. I saw Tucker curled up in a cat bed with his head flipped upside down; he was very comfortable. Oram had just woken up and seemed to want to play, as he walked over to Tucker and tried to put a paw around his neck, but Tucker was having none of it. He whacked Oram sharply with a front paw just once, but the warning was all that was necessary; Oram, trying to pretend like he didn’t care, went out into his solarium and lay down in the sun.

Sammy still comes up to inspect each visitor and demands a little attention. She’s particularly fond of trying to shove her nose deep into my backpack. I have to make sure the backpack’s main compartment is zippered shut because if it isn’t, I know she’ll make herself at home in there. I’m still hearing that Sweetie will sometimes be out in the open if no people are near his suite, but I haven’t seen that myself.

And finally, we turn to the Boys’ Club. Abacus (shown in the header photo) is being a nuisance. Some of it is a desire to play (he’s very playful and loves toys), but some goes beyond that. Over the past month, I personally saw him corner Trifecta and try to bully him. It was bad enough that I went to find a staffer, who crated Abacus for a while (our equivalent of a “time out”).

Checkers is trying to be out and about more often, but he’ll stay in the solarium if Abacus is in the suite. We’ve seen scratches on Checkers’ nose, poor boy, and we’re certain they’re not from Trifecta. Our medical and behavior teams are discussing this to see if they can find a good solution. And our little four-footed celebrity Trifecta once again charmed people at an appearance at our local Tractor Supply Company store late in the month.

We know you share our love of these special felines. Thank you for so generously helping to care for them!

Your correspondent,
Stephanie