Greetings, FeLVie Fanciers! There’s a lot of news this month, so let’s get to it.

There’s some sad news first, I’m afraid: we lost our Arthur to liver failure at the end of October. This was not a shock; we knew from the start that his time with us would be very limited, and he was with us for longer than we expected (he rallied nicely when we took him out of a suite and placed him in the Adoption Office, where he was the only cat and got all of the attention).

But when he sought solitude instead of pets, and when he stopped eating, we knew he was too tired to continue. He was a wonderful senior, and we miss him very much. Our Development Director wrote a beautiful tribute to him in Forever Loved: Arthur.

On the same day we lost Arthur, Tortellini scared our socks off by going into a sharp, sudden decline. She loves her solarium, but she was hiding indoors. Worse, she stopped eating.

We discovered she was running a high fever, and blood work showed very few white cells. Because she is FIV+ as well as FeLV+, she is already severely immune-compromised, so for her own safety, she was moved to an isolation room to prevent any other infection from getting to her. She was started on broad-spectrum antibiotics while we ran additional tests to see if we could figure out what was happening.

Tortellini has shown distinct improvement since then. She’s much brighter, she’s eating again, and her temperature is within normal limits, though still on the high side of normal. She’s still in isolation as we wait for some test results to come back, including a bone marrow aspirate. Please keep a good thought for her.

Hoopla Green is still very shy with us. I sat about six or eight feet away from her in her solarium and read aloud to her, trying to get her accustomed to a human voice, but that didn’t last too long. Hoopla seemed fine with it, but suitemate Sammy decided that the silly human was paying attention to the wrong feline.

Sammy came into the solarium and was very insistent on attention for herself, so I had to put the book down for a while. Finally, Sammy jumped onto a solarium shelf for a nap.

I picked up the book again, but before I could read anything the newest resident of that suite, Puff, came into the solarium to mention that she wanted some affection, too. Puff is a pretty, medium-hair black-and-white girl, very fond of human company. She is being treated for hyperthyroidism and prioritizes poking her nose into all of the water bowls in her suite.

Alas for Charles, who cannot seem to catch a break from his ear problems. No sooner had he recovered from his ear surgery than he developed another infection—in the same ear! What is going on here? Charles has continued to be a little too rough with Oram and Tucker when they don’t want to engage with him, so we’re going to start Charles on behavior medication.

The only cat in the suite who doesn’t seem bothered by Charles’ rough play is Derby, who is apparently up for anything with anyone. He loves to play, and Charles will willingly wrestle with him. At first, I thought Charles was playing too hard with him, as Derby is so small, but we’re watching the two, and, so far at least, Derby is still supremely enthusiastic about these bouts.

Throughout all of the goings-on in his suite and elsewhere, Durin quietly keeps on keeping on. He loved spending time in his solarium during the summer, but now that autumn seems here in earnest, he’s been spending more time indoors. Were you introduced to Trifecta last month? If not, he’s a handsome gray-and-white boy, whose name comes about because he has FIV, FeLV, AND diabetes. A trifecta indeed!

So far, he is doing nicely with us, although he and Durin will compete for lap space when visitors enter their suite.

If you live near Tabby’s Place, come on down on Sunday, November 19th, for Thanksgiving with the Cats between noon and 4 PM. There will be refreshments, tours (and if you haven’t seen Quinn’s Corner yet, you really must), a silent auction, and, best of all, lots of time with felines. You can even help feed the cats a special holiday meal! We ask that you bring a donation of toys, treats, canned food, or non-clumping litter (the non-clumping part is very important!).

It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is almost here again. I wanted to take a moment to express my deep gratitude for you and your support of our FeLVies. You understand, as we do, that Special Needs cats deserve care and love; that’s not a sentiment you’ll find everywhere. Thank you. And may you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Your correspondent,
Stephanie