Gypsy "dafleukycat" entered our home in February of 2009. She was a rescue offered to me by a vet tech/bengal breeder. She was brought up with a bengal family from the age of 2 weeks old. So, she is quite the little acrobat as you would imagine. Originally, I had set to get Pudgy Pudzianowski who was a cute little snow bengal. He was offered to me as a special gift kitty since I had lost a bengal
to FIP. When I went to pick him up, I was told about Gypsy. Apparently, she was Pudgy's little buddy. I decided to get both kittens as I didn't want to split up the dynamic duo. Shortly after I got, them, they got what I thought to be a "kitty cold." Pudgy got seemingly better, and Gypsy ended up with the neverending sneezes (seriously, she still sneezes to this day). Well, life went on for a good year until late January 2010, and then Gypsy got very sick one day. We took her to the vet, and he ran some tests, and even though all my kitties are fully indoor, he said, "let's just run a FELV/FIV test just to be safe." I never would have imagined what would have happened next. The test came back positive, and so, we did an IFA test, and it too was positive. This meant kitty disaster for me! I had to test all the kitties in my household, and all of them were negative except for one...Pudgy Pudzianowski. Our hearts were broken at the news, but I said at least they have each other. I kept them in my bedroom isolated from the rest of the kitties. I couldn't with good conscience even chance risking the wellbeing of others. It was determined that most likely Gypsy (the rescue) was tested negative on an incubation period. I read and poured over all the literature and the statistics didn't look promising - 85% die within 3.5 years of infection (some sources say 3 years). I prayed and prayed that my kitties would be in the lucky bunch. Sadly, August 1st, 2010, Pudgy lost his fight to the illness. Our family was devastated, and Gypsy had lost her best friend. We were all preparing for what would come next, surely Gypsy would soon follow? Boy were we wrong...she really showed us! To this day, Gypsy still is thriving and living with the disease. She beat the statistics and is in that remarkable 15%! She is now roughly 4 years and 10 months old and is one of the most active kitties in the house. She is one of the most sweetest beings in the world, and she has yet to find a person or animal she didn't like. While, she cannot play with the other kitties, she now has a puppy buddy too.
