Meet Leelu & Zula. These two kittens came into our lives 4 weeks ago when we took them in at 4 (or 5) weeks old.
We were looking for one more cat to add to the family and came across a woman who had trapped an entire litter and a feral mom in her backyard. She had the kittens checked out with her vet, got them the medication they needed and took care of them one by one until she found them all happy homes. The mom got fixed and re-released back into her yard.
These two kittens were the inseparable, runt pair, so while I was trying to talk myself into just one of them, they managed to break us both down into taking them both home. They were the last ones in the litter available so it was all rather pathetic to have to pick just one. So, both came home with us!
Anyway, a week later, we noticed the kittens sneezing quite a bit so we took them to the vet. We find out that they’ve tested positive for FIV/FeLV and had a respiratory infection. We got medicine for the latter and a note to come back in 2 months to retest for the former. UGH! Now, there’s a 50/50 chance that it’s a false positive and because they’re so young, the kittens would test positive if they have antigens in their blood from their mother. At 4 months, there’s a good chance they could test negative and that’s that. The thing is, their mom was feral and may never have been treated for FIV/FeLV, but there is no way of knowing.
So, if they have FIV, we can keep them because usually, they should live healthy and hopefully long active lives and can intermingle with our other cats. However, if they have FeLV, then we’ll have to find them new homes because the disease can be casually transmitted to other felines.
It breaks our heart to have to wait 2 more months to find out the truth, but that’s how it’ll have to be. Their mugs are the sweetest, afterall!
Leelu, an orange short-hair tabby, was named after Leeloo from the movie, Fifth Element. All that orange hair!
Zula, a medium hair tortie, was named after Zula from the Conan the Barbarian film. Since Zu is as sweet as can be, it’s a funny name choice!
These girls couldn’t look any more different despite being sisters! It seems like they’re going to have the same eye color, though. They’re very, VERY playful and purr-o-matics. We keep them separated in their own room for now, so they’ve grown to be quite independent with us not around all the time. But they do have tendency to follow you around and climb up your pant leg. SweetHEARTS! Wish them the best of health!
OMG SO CUTE!! (How do you manage such amazing photography? I’m always so jealous of your pretty pictures… ♥)
Oh, precious! I hope everything works out and you get to keep them. So sweet.
They’re beautiful! And good on you for taking in the both of them. Chances are that they’ll end up incredibly bonded.
I haven’t been keeping track of my feral kitten trapping in my LJ, but I’ve been doing a lot more of it. I couldn’t be happier that I took in 2 extremely bonded brothers and managed to socialize them before they became completely feral.
If they’re 4 or 5 weeks, their eyes still have another 5 months to finish changing. When we brought in Damian and Tiberius, Damian’s eyes matched his dark gray fur and Tiberius’ eyes were bright blue. Now that they’re 10 months, Damian’s eyes have changed to green and Tiberius’ eyes are a blue-gray color with a teensy hint of green. Actually, Tiberius’ eyes match his fur now.
I’m also keeping my fingers crossed that the FIV/FeLV test was a false positive. That was my biggest concern when we brought in our kittens because they came from a feral colony but, at 10wks or so, when we got them tested, they were both negative. Good luck!!
omfg so cute and i love the name leelu for the orange kitty. i hope that you can keep them.