This little female was at the county shelter and very sick. Alexis WAS shy for us, now she's not. She settled in just fine :)

Alexis is white with a little black, just like a Turkish Van. She is testing FIV+ and we are sure that has alot to do with how sick she was at first. She gained a couple pounds very quickly, and is thriving. The county shelter can be a scary place for a timid kitty!

FIV is not the "big deal" it was at first when FIV was discovered. Everyone panicked, including the vets, who used to constantly put cats to sleep for this virus. However now that the dust has settled, more research has been done, we are smarter. We are no longer killing for this benign disease. If the cat is healthy, we have found FIV to be no big deal. It is a virus, spread by mating and bloody fighting (usually tomcats). So as long as no kitty is aggressive in the house, it is not going to spread. It is not contagious thru eating, drinking or sharing a litterpan. It is an anaerobic virus which means oxygen kills it.  You can learn more at the Cornell University website. Postives and negatives for FIV can coexist as long as every kitty is fixed and no kitty is overly aggressive.

Alexis was a train wreck when we got her - sick with a kitty cold from being at the county shelter, earmites, the works! Now she's been treated for all that.

She feels much better & is now having such a blast in the foster rooms. Every toy she is trying out - it is really cute. She is a pistol and knows her name. She is now okay being picked up from the right and lifted to face you. Any other method of picking her up and she'll be a wiggleworm to let you know it's not right!

Alexis has adjusted to being in a home with multiple kitties. She loves being with her humans, too! She's a very friendly girl and as you lay on your side in the bed, she will nestle on top of your ribcage! She also won't let you sleep in past 7:30, no way! LOL

She also loves being a lapcat while you watch TV. If you pet her she will dance around your lap and loves attention to her face and head more than any other petting.

Alexis is now called "Lexi-Lou" and she loves that!  Her health began to decline in 2013, and she has been diagnosed with Stomatitis which is a very painful mouth disease where the gums ulcerate and the body starts to reject and reabsorb the teeth (painful).  We are treating her as much as we can...she will not take pills so we take her to the vet for a prescription antibiotic shot, and steroid shots. 

Alexis update: as of December 2014 we made the decision to have the surgery done on Alexis' mouth, because after months of shots she was getting worse, so we opted to go for it. For Stomatitis, most, and sometimes all of the teeth need to be removed. She also had some sort of yeast in her ears and on her skin, which was causing her to scratch constantly (but was not contagious to the other cats). Alexis is very fractious so we could not treat her ears or bathe her easily. During the time she was under for surgery the vet flushed her ears and got a good look, and it ended up being fungus and bacteria. The GREAT news is Alexis is doing extremely well after surgery, she is eating much more comfortably and her skin after 30 days is improving on the meds. We are also treating her ears, she is difficult to medicate but we are wrestling with her for a few seconds every day to get it done! She looks like a different kitty now and feels great, she's romping around the foster home now!

Her surgery total was $500 so any donations are greatly appreciated!

Update, March 2015: Now that Alexis is off her anti-fungal meds, her skin has started to flare up again. We discussed with the vet and agreed the anti-fungal meds are too risky to try again, so we went with a natural remedy and it worked! We used blue-green algae from Norway in her food.

Contact Mona at [email protected]