Vetting and Feeding Frances' Cats

The mother of my very close friend Patty lived on the edge of a small town. People sometimes dumped cats on her property, so she would befriend and tame them, then get them the appropriate vet care, love them and take care of them as her own. Over time, her family grew to 21 cats, because she never rejected a needy cat. But then, younger than was expected, she died. It was a very hard blow to Patty and her sister and brother, even though they had the opportunity to talk with their mom before the end. Patty's sister lives nearest to their mom's place and promised faithfully to feed and care for all the cats until she was able to find them loving homes or the last one died of old age. And she has done that. But, living 15 miles away and having a full time job makes it difficult to do much more than feed and clean up and pet each cat for a minute or two. Without realizing how it was happening, more cats arrived and set up their families on the property. By a year after her mother's death, there were about 30 cats. I adopted 2, which swelled my family to 4 cats and a dog. I helped catch a few to bring in for fixing. But by this winter (2 1/2 years after her mother's passing) they are up to about 40 cats. Now we are all making a concerted effort to catch and fix everyone on the property.  This winter, our count is up to 19 caught and fixed, with about 5 or 6 left to capture. That should help slow down the population growth, but there are so many cats and kittens, and the original ones are not getting the love and attention they had grown used to.

My goal is to help finish the capture and fix of every breedable cat, and then, especially, to find loving homes for every cat whose nature craves a home. Because of the large population, they get and share colds, fleas, etc. So far, all the tests for Leukemia have come back negative. We're running out of money, and I just don't have the heart to abandon my friend, her sister, or these sweet cats. Being a partially employed artist, I'm barely paying for my own pets' vet bills, so a good friend recommended I try GoFundMe.

Please, if you can't adopt a(nother) cat, but would love to help, money towards vet bills would be gratefully put to proper use.  And if you are interested in adopting, please contact me so we can talk about the ones who might meet your hopes and needs.