LEVON Domestic Short Hair & Tabby Mix Grand Rapids, MI

Fabulous four year old Levon (born in the summer of 2014) came to us in late July, 2018 as a FIV+ transfer from the Humane Society of Mid-Michigan in Montcalm county. Seems that this dapper tabby arrived at their facility in March, but given his viral status, they weren’t making any progress on promoting his adoption; when their shelter space became limited they asked us for help in housing him and giving him better opportunities for adoption exposure. One of our dual volunteers transported him to the vet clinic where I did my typical intake work-up and happily discovered he was FIV negative. However as (bad) luck would have it, he was free-roaming in an area with other FIV+ kitties and had suffered a bite wound that no one there was aware of until I examined him (he purred the entire time), so I had to schedule another retest a month later; at that time he retested positive once again. Cats with strong immune systems can actually clear the infection from their bodies, but since there is no effective vaccine against it, he picked it up once again after 3 punctures wounds on his tail drove the virus into his bloodstream. So after spending a month at Crash’s, at the writing of his bio he has become a Sid’s Kid; in a month another test will be performed to see where he will take up permanent residence until he can find a home of his very own and stop shuffling around:)

The interesting thing is that inititally Levon was a tough nut to crack, as he wasn’t a happy camper given the fact that his bite wounds had to be tended to twice daily and were taking their time healing, but once he was moved over to Sid’s he was like a different cat! He hooked up with a few cats whom he formed fast friendships with and began to socialize, versus hanging out on the toddler beds or sitting on the windowsills by himself; though he was quite content to engage in those solo activities, we are thrilled that he has found his niche. There is more space at Sid's but there is also a larger population, so we can’t help but chalk up his change in attitude—his finally showing everyone the softer side I was privy to while he was at the clinic—to the fact that his injuries didn’t require further medical attention. Levon also doesn’t have Hamish the Handful to contend with, a tabby that can be quite the terror when he is feeling sassy and saucy (which is most of the time:), so he has settled in quite nicely and is no longer trying to become a big fish in a small pond. Now that he has found his purr again, you get to hear it not just when we approach him, but when he hunkers down next to you. He isn’t fond of being picked up, nor is he one to actively seek out human attention that often, but if given to him he is now happily accepting and affectionate in return, versus trying to high-tail it on outta there:) We have no doubt that the more time he spends with us simply getting to enjoy himself as a resident versus a patient, he will fall as in love with his human caretakers as we all have with him.

Levon is a good cat who deserves a home of his own, with good feline company, an older kid or two and perhaps even a mellow dog—and a little Elton John music thrown in there for good measure:)