My name is Lawrence!

Lawrence: 8 yr old male Brown and White Turkish Angora

Update Jan, 2016: What a great cat Lawrence has shown himself to be as we have gotten to know him better. He is very much a kitty companion. He likes to follow us around and watch what we are doing. He is not demanding and has really excellent manners. He loves humans, is friendly to strangers, and is fine with other cats. He would probably be contented home alone all day and be very glad to greet you when you came in and then be happy to sit with you and watch TV. Lawrence is quietly interested in everything and has a very calm presence. He will sit and wait for his dinner very expectantly but never meow and make a fuss. At the same time, his wishes can clearly be felt. (He is hard to resist) He will be a very easy, loving cat to live with.


Original post: His owner had him since he was a kitten. She gave him a baby name that was supposed to be funny. Maybe it was more suitable for a kitten. He was undoubtedly a very cute little fluffy kitten with his one brown round spot. Now that he is an adult, I have given him the more elegant grown up name, Lawrence. He is a super nice boy. He came from a shelter where he had been owner surrendered.

He was glum and filthy when I went to get him. We gave him a bath and what a great difference that made to his snow white fur. He is now very striking with his long, sleek body. What a handsome boy! Of course his very round brown spot on his all white flank makes everyone smile.

Turkish Angoras are known for their exotic, almond-shaped eyes, their medium length, trouble free coat, and their unusual, active intelligence. These cats are companions. With their good-natured personalities, Angoras make excellent family cats for children. They are a playful, healthy, long-lived breed.

So how did this wonderful boy end up in a shelter.? This is my sense of his life story based partly on info and partly guesswork: His owner, a young woman, got him as a kitten. We know this. She let him go outside or put him out as an unneutered teenage kitten. Mother Nature pushed him to fight for the in-heat girl kitties. Lightweight young males are at a great disadvantage when in confrontation with heavier, street-wise, fight-experienced alley cats. Lawrence got beaten up and sustained a deep bite that transmitted the FIV virus to him. He is now FIV+. Unless transmitted from the mom while in the womb, the FIV virus almost always comes from fighting over females. That is generally--and there are exceptions--but generally that is when real fights occur between cats. Lawrence was taken to a vet and patched up and neutered.


He continued to be put, or let, outside. His feet were very dirty. On the shelter’s Owner Surrender form where it asked for “vet,” his mom wrote “None." He clearly did not have a good home.This woman who was “moving,” took him to the shelter, said he was FIV+, and left. She had to know this sweet boy’s chances of getting out alive were slim to none. Her action is hard to understand.

FIV stands for Feline Immunological Virus. Studies are now saying that 4% of all cats in this country carry this virus. Most are not diagnosed and their owners never know they have it. I would not want Lawrence to carry this virus, but I know that the great majority of cats with it live long, healthy lives. Some shelters no longer test for FIV because it is so common and they know it is still mistakenly over-discriminated against by many. I have fostered and adopted out many FIV+ cats and have had no trouble finding them homes. Most homes they go to are multi-cat homes since many people feel these cats do not need to be only cats.

If you are interested in Lawrence, I suggest you go online and read the new research about this virus. The understanding of FIV is changing as new studies are done but there is still disagreement and you will need to decide for yourself what you think. FIV kitties need to be inside only and fed a healthy diet and have good vet care as they go through life. Their immune system may not be as strong at times as a normal cat’s, so they need to be well cared for, protected ,and loved.

When the shelter said, “He is FIV+. Can you take him ?”, I immediately said, “Yes, I will.” I am so glad I did.

I didn’t realize what a great guy I was getting. He’s very wonderful! And I had no idea what a handsome boy he really was. I like the photo below of his sitting and waiting for a wet food treat. He is very communicative and interactive with his humans. He loves to sleep in bed with you and greet you at the door, his surrenderer said. I am not sure I would put him in a home with another cat. With a slow, careful introduction, he would probably be fine, but I think his first choice would be to have all of his new family’s attention as an only cat. He evidently does not like dogs. I expect he is fine with gentle children over four feet tall. He let us trim his nails with no trouble and was a real gentleman, albeit miserable, when we bathed him, I rather thought it was his first bath he was so surprised. He is a gentle, well behaved cat which is entirely typical of his breed.

Someone will have a great companion in this big boy.

He eats wet and dry food and is litterbox perfect.

His foster mom is Harriet in Santa Cruz.