Hi! I'm Lumi, a 15 week old rescue kitten living in Los Angeles. I was born in March 2023, and moved into my forever home in May 2023. After 6 weeks of living with my new family, I started to no longer feel like my playful kitten self. On Father's Day, my loving mom noticed I was very hesitant to jump down from the bed so she checked my legs and paws and I didn't flinch. I still had an appetite and was doing my business in the litter box, but only wanted to sleep. By Wednesday, my family knew something just wasn't right so we went to an emergency appointment, where the vet took x-rays and did blood work. She didn't find anything out of the ordinary so she recommended we see an internist the following day. On Thursday, I spent all day with the specialist who did an ultrasound, drew fluid from my belly (it was getting a bit round!), ran a more extensive blood panel, and took fluid from my spleen. Friday we found out I have FIP.

FIP stands for Feline Infectious Peritonitis. It is a mutation of feline coronavirus that was considered to be 100% fatal up until a few years ago. There is a treatment for FIP, but it's not covered by pet insurance (which thankfully my family signed up for!). It's still considered an experimental treatment and has a success rate of around 90%. Treatment includes at least 84 days of injections, with bloodwork done at 30, 60 and 80 days. If all looks good at 84 days, we move into an "observation" period for another 12 weeks before being considered cured. Bloodwork would also be done every month while under "observation".

Saturday night was my first injection and I've had two more since. By day two, I had my kitten energy back! (In fact, this morning I tried to wake up my 9 year old bff at 6am by biting her fingers and eating her hair.)

Here's to the journey ahead to getting well, and for me to finally be over my ringworm, too, so we can have visitors!

A note from the family:

Sure, all families brag about their kids/pets, but not all owners can say this about their cats: Lumi is a friendly, outgoing, playful (nonviolent), non-scaredy cat who loves to play hide and seek, go crazy over his mouse toys, chase his own tail, and make biscuits on his bed many times a day. We are in love with our sweet boy, Lumi, and want to help him fight FIP.

Go Fund Me takes a portion of the donations so if you'd like to contact us directly, please do. Our estimate is based on the cost of medication, medical supplies, vet visits & tests, and snacks to help with nightly injections.

Thank you for your support, financial or otherwise. We are grateful. ❤

For updates, follow Lumi on instagram @lumikittyla.