The vet was surprised when I brought Bruce back into be re-tested for feline leukemia, since he didn’t seem to think there was much point. So imagine his surpris4e when, less than an hour later, he came out to speak to me and told me that the re-test shows that Bruce is FLV negative.
This was a pleasant surprise for me, and I guess a bit of a shock for the vet. He’s never had an FLV-positive cat turn into a FLV-negative cat. But he did some research and printed out some stuff from the database showing that in Stage Three of the infection, when it sorta busts out and spreads throughout the system, the immune system and sometimes rally and defeat the virus. Stage Three lasts just a few weeks. The database suggests that 2% or so of cats beat the virus. So… Bruce is a two-in-a-hundred cat.
So, he now has the run of the house. It’s a tentative thing… he’ll probably go back downstairs tonight. But overall it has gone well; no fighting. The process of keeping the critters separate but within sight of each other with a screen door seems to have largely worked… they’re used to each other and don’t feel the need to tussle. They’ve spent the past several hours playing, more or less.
Except for Raedthinn. He *hates* Bruce with a growling, hissing passion.
Note: my respect for Bruce went up a notch at the vet. He fought them so hard when it came time to draw blood that they had to gas him to calm him down. You go, Bruce!
So, the lesson here: when someone tells you that the best option is to pt down a cat… they might not be right.