Help Ivy beat cancer

Hi everyone!

Last August a beautiful little cat named Ivy came into our lives. My roommate, Jaime, and I found her at a local animal shelter hiding in a box barely visible to passing onlookers. Ivy had come into the shelter with her 4 kittens from a feral colony. All her kittens were quickly adopted yet she kept getting overlooked. When we met her she was scared and overwhelmed and we knew we had to bring her home. Since having her home she has really started to show her personality. Whenever Jaime or I are around she runs up to us and rubs up all against our legs for affection (and then proceeds to complain about her food bowl being empty even if we just fed her). She also loves to follow us to the bathroom where she proceeds to sit on our feet. But I can't say I can complain at a free foot warmer!

And of course one of our favourite things about Ivy is her extra toes! We didn't know she was polydactyl until we got her home and it makes her feet look HUGE! She also doesn't have teeth so we always say that what she lacks in teefies she makes up in toesies! Her lack of teeth also make for some A+ bleps, especially when she's sleepy!!

Despite her settling into our home wonderfully, she has been faced with several health issues that we were not made aware of when we adopted her. We started our journey with her trying every eye drop under the sun to try to figure out this mysterious conjunctivitis that just wouldn't go away. After several visits, we were referred to a veterinary ophthalmologist because they found a lump on her eyelid that looked very angry. At the veterinary ophthalmologist we tried more treatments to try to resolve the issue, including an 8 week long treatment for a co-existing Bartonella infection that she had not been treated for at the shelter. The other treatments helped reduce the swelling of her eyelid, yet this lump remained. We decided to get a biopsy performed in December and our vet has discovered that it is Squamous cell carcinoma of her eyelid. This cancer is very locally invasive and so she will require surgery to remove her eye to prevent the cancer from spreading to other structures as well as to provide her more comfort from the irritating lumps and bumps on her eyelid.

As students we have tried our best to cover Ivy's significant medical bills up to this point, however, we were not expecting the volume of medical concerns that Ivy has experienced just in the 6 months we have had her. And as pet owners we tried to prepare ourselves for this by obtaining pet insurance, but our pet insurance has rejected our claims for her cancer biopsy and refuse to cover any treatment related to her cancer.

We want what is best for Ivy and want to be able to stop this cancer in its tracks so she can be more comfortable.

We know this is a HUGE ask and understand that not everyone will be able to donate. Any donations are welcomed and greatly appreciated. Any funds that we are able to obtain through this fundraiser will directly go towards the cost of Ivy's surgery.

Please feel free to share our gofundme if you are willing!

Thank you all so much for taking the time to read our story

-Pip, Jaime and Ivy