Happy Spring, FeLVie fans! It’s time for another monthly update, so let’s dive right in.

We’re thinking of renaming Regina “Houdini,” after the renowned escape artist. This sweetheart, pictured in the banner photo above, appears to delight in escaping both her scoot skirt and her crate, and she accomplished both over the past few weeks. If you’ll recall, she’s being crated for her meals now, and she has adjusted nicely to that. Even better, with her diet change, her stools have returned to normal.

Suitemate Pisa (click on her name to see a blog post about her) lost a little weight over the past month, but she stabilized quickly. We’ve been seeing her in the solarium with increasing frequency, and we’re pleased that she’s getting the benefits of fresh air, sunshine, and mental stimulation there.

And Sweet Pea continues to delight in human visitors. I did see one instance of Sweet Pea making mischief recently. It was his suite’s turn to have access to the Quinn’s Corner lobby, and both he and Regina were there and in close proximity to one another. Sweet Pea suddenly bent forward as if he was going to bite Regina’s front leg; there was no mistaking the gesture. Another volunteer was in the Quinn’s Corner lobby at the same time, and we gently separated the two cats, but Sweet Pea repeated the action a few minutes later, and I had to throw a toy to distract him. It’s possible that this was simply play on his part, of course, but we’ll watch him carefully over the next month.

Somewhat to my surprise, I’ve seen Hoopla Green inside her suite (as opposed to in the solarium) much more often over the past month. We’re used to her staying in the solarium even in cold weather (remember, she has a heated mat and several cozy houses out there), but she’s been inside in a cubbyhole, almost always next to the cubbyhole which Batty is occupying.

Speaking of little Batty, she’s certainly becoming braver around people and will emerge from her cubbyhole more often when the humans come to visit. She’s even come out for me once or twice, though as a rule I’m still expected to hand-feed her kibble when she’s in a cubbyhole, a ritual she seems to love. It’s fine with me if she sees me that way, because it’s more positive human interaction for her. Miss Puff goes through periods of decreased appetite that concern us, but then she’ll rally and eat normally for a while.

As for the characters in the double positive suite, well, we’re having some issues there. Dewie has become quite the bully and has been seen bullying all three of his suitemates over the past few weeks. This first manifested itself around mealtimes and human attention, but now it’s constant. Dewie will swat whenever another cat comes near him, and he low-level growls at the other boys even when they’re not near him. We’re crating Dewie at mealtimes so Trifecta and Luke can eat in peace and thinking about what we can do to restore a little calm to that suite.

In other news, Trifecta had his blood glucose levels rechecked and can continue on his lowered dose of insulin. Abacus had a decreased white blood cell count this month, which might indicate an immune response from his FeLV. He’s been started on a course of steroids to see if his levels improve. And Luke is definitely more at ease when humans enter his suite these days. It’s very sweet to see how much he loves Trifecta, but Trifecta remains uninterested in reciprocating any gestures of affection.

That’s all the news for this month. Thank you so much for your help in caring for these wonderful felines!

Your correspondent,
Stephanie