Last week, we found our beloved cat Carl Sagan after being "lost" for 5 days. We quickly realized his back left leg appeared severely injured, so we rushed to the nearest emergency vet. It is assumed Carl got caught on something sharp (possibly a fence or dangerous tree branch) and had to struggle to break free. He had a deep cut on the inside of his belly running down the entirety of his inside left leg, in addition to another laceration on the outside of his left leg. The cut on his underside just barely stopped before breaking through the abdominal wall (which could have lead to fatal internal bleeding) and even cut through his prepuce (which any deeper could have severed his penis/urethra). His struggle was so difficult that he dislocated his left hip in the process and took him nearly 5 days to find his way back home (despite extensive searching by his humans - us). 

Carl was very dehydrated and was given iv fluids and pain meds before stabilizing for surgery. A urinary catheter was placed due to the location of his injuries, which extended his hospital stay to 2 overnights. The surgeons had difficulty replacing his hip into place due to the injury being "old". There is still a looming possibility of further orthopedic surgery due to this, but we will not quite be able to assess this need until he begins rehabilitating his leg following full recovery from surgery.  

Needless to say, the medical bills stacked up very quickly due to the extensive nature of his treatments. It is difficult for us to find the courage to reach out for financial help, but this debt places a very discouraging strain on our family and many of our friends suggested we start this page so they could help. 

All of you know we care for our felines like children, and really do in fact see them as our family. Even if we got $0 donations, we would not for a second regret maxing our credit cards to save the life of a creature that we hold so dear.  We thank the Universe every day for the roof over our head, the food on our table and the love in our hearts and in the hearts of the family we have built (see: cats ;).