Hi, I am Flossie (legal name Kath) and I run Flossie’s Cat Sanctuary in Canberra, Australia. My offsiders are Traecy and Marcus and we have a team of volunteers that help us do what we do.

We operated as a kitten rescue for 12 years, before closing the rescue three years ago. When we closed we had 16 unadoptable but healthy and settled cats and we decided to give them safe haven for the rest of their lives, because the alternative was just too awful for cats we had grown to love.

But 15 cats are expensive. It’s about AU$20 per week per cat, which is around AU$15,000 per year. Which is hard to do, but we are managing with some sacrifice and inventiveness.

But when the cats get sick it’s an additional burden, and we won’t be taking heroic measures for these ex farm ferals and ex antisocial street cats or victims of extreme hoarding. Unfortunately it’s just not realistic.

But. When Marcus saw that Abby had significant facial swelling on Sunday 9 Feb 2025 I suspected an abscess. We gave her pain relief and planned a vet visit for the next day. By the next morning it had ruptured and we got her to the vet. She needed to have surgery to remove 4 teeth which had abscesses under two of them. And she will need to have the rest of her teeth removed once she has recovered from this surgery. The vet quoted us very reasonable rescue rates which was amazing and we proceeded with stage 1. I just didn’t want her to die because of teeth!

Abby came from a winery outside Murrumbateman with her kittens. We were called to come and rescue her in August 2018, a few days after one of my closest friends had taken her life. We named Abby and her kittens by using the letters of my friend’s first, middle and last names. Which already makes me sentimental about this little cat.

It took us almost 4 years to be able to touch her, mostly due to Traecy’s hard work in gaining Abby’s trust. And now Abby insists on pats and scritches every single day. We can’t pick her up for more than a second or two, but there is a definite bond there. She meeps at us for affection and attention. I truly believe her life was worth preserving and that her quality of life is worth safeguarding through her second surgery to remove the rest of her teeth which are in bad shape.

Unfortunately Abby’s surgery came on the heels of Dusk’s dental surgery. Dusk is a cat with a grade 5 heart murmur who wasn’t expected to outlive his first year. He has been in palliative foster care, with my daughter Dawn, knowing he won’t make old bones. The little sod is now 6 years old! He had dental surgery in 2022, a repeat in 2023, and then his teeth had moved around and one of his upper canines was cutting into his lower gum causing significant pain. So he had another dental a couple of weeks ago.

So what does this mean financially? Dusk’s surgery cost $899.05. We’ve already raised $400 of that through our market stall.

Abby’s first surgery yesterday cost $1023. Her second surgery will be around twice that. Her quality of life depends on her having this surgery and I am determined to make it happen somehow.

If you can help us cover some of these costs it will make a big difference to us and to these cats. Any contribution will help. I’ve chosen the go fund me model so that there is transparency around how close we are to reaching our goal. If we raise more than we need for the surgeries, any leftover funds will go towards the upkeep of the sanctuary cats.