2mato

Lev had an active life to say the least. When his mother, Markiza, had complications post pregnancy, he and his siblings (Lev, Lastotchka and Altai) were put in the care of a step mother who was a domestic cat. They also had a step sibling!

(The images I sourced these from was from ZveriDoma article dated August 4, 2014. These images appears to be screen grabbed from a Комсомольская правда photoshoot or video)
It is almost as if mother cat didn't want to be caught up in their shenanigans!

The Flower Five are iconic manuls. They are the children of the late and beloved Shar and Lev. Their names, though written in Katakana, come from Russian terms in honor of Lev's heritage.

Did you know, that much like Lev when he came to Saitama, people were able to vote for the 5 kittens? Contemporary blogs and posts shows this. I looked around plenty for official Saitama Children's Zoo posts about this. The only thing I found was that they announced there will be a vote for the kitten's names and a ceremony for that.

We all know the one and only Lev and his upbringing with a domestic cat for a step mother (and a step brother I found out recently) and his journey from russia to japan and various zoos within japan <3

It was at Saitama Children's Zoo where he got his name Lev, which means lion in Russian. His other proposed names were Plushenko (perhaps after Evgeni Plushenko, the russian figure skater and coach), Vodka, Shilo, Borscht and Lev.