Hi, my name is Marie (otherwise known as Mars), and on Tuesday night, my soulmate cat, Elwood (pictured in the cover photo), was admitted to the emergency hospital. He is 7.5 years old and I have had him since he was 3 months old. I have been having so much anxiety because I do not know how to navigate life without him. I am so terrified. I really want him to be better. :(

We noticed him feeling extremely ill the day prior (Monday) and he would kind of smack his mouth a lot, but due to a tooth removal and some small periodontal issues, we thought that was causing him some pain. He was still acting like himself: loving, cuddly, excited, playful, and wanting to eat and drink; however, this became difficult for him. He would go to his bowl searching for his food when we fed him and his sister (our 2.5 year old cat), and try to drink from his water fountain but couldn't. On Tuesday morning, he got desperate and fought through whatever was going on inside and drank and ate some food, which made us slightly relieved, but we couldn't take knowing he was in pain or feeling ill, so we took him to the emergency veterinarian here in Boston called the Veterinary Emergency Group. They noticed some slight yellowing in his mouth, and were concerned so did the usual tests (x-rays, bloodwork, ultrasounds), and saw that his blood work was great other than slight anemia, his x-rays were great, but his ultrasounds showed issues with his pancreas, liver, and gallbladder, what they call a trifecta. The veterinarian suspected the disease cholangioheptatis, and suggested we keep him there overnight. We did and spent roughly $2,189 for that overnight care.

The morning after (Wednesday morning), he was transferred to Angell Animal Medical Center, where he saw an ultrasound specialist who could give us a better an idea about what was happening. That doctor had stated that yes, he is dealing with the trifecta, but his issues are stemming from pancreatitis, causing immense inflammation of his liver and gallbladder. He was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday morning and the doctors could not tell us how long he would need to stay, but that it would likely be a week or more. We then spent an additional roughly $3,669 for his next stay, but that was just the low-end deposit-- we have no idea how much more money we will need to spend (the high-end states $5,825 on the Angell bill, so we expect an additional $3,000 and more accumulating on top of what have spent). Over the past few nights now, as I am writing this Friday afternoon, he has not gotten better and has had several blood pressure drop scares. He is responding well to the treatment, but the costs have been exponential, with more to come, as even with his good response, he is still very ill.

My boyfriend and I are trying our best to cover his costs, but we are just administrative assistants (ages 24 years old and 23 years old) here in Boston so we do not make enough. We have thrown all of the costs on our credit cards and plan to pay what we can monthly, but we are feeling so overwhelmed. Any amount of help towards his treatment would mean the world to us. We are setting the goal amount at $8,000 (updated to $14,000 now due to more costs since posting this) which is around what we will need to have spent (on the high end estimate of his current stay as we put down the low end deposit for now-- tbd costs on further stays), as we do not know the further costs yet, and want to be as transparent as possible. We will increase the goal when we know more. Thank you so much for reading all of this!

Attached below is a photo of my dear, Elwood. I do not want the only photo you see of him to be miserable in the hospital! I will attach more photos (i.e., his medical bills) when I can. This is my first time using this platform so I am not sure what is next.