Mr. Bowie Needs Heart Help

Mr. Bowie has a bad heart.

He had a tough time at the start, my little friend. I found him at PetSmart in 2008, this cream-colored Flame Point with soulful blue eyes. I knew right away that he was the Thin White Duke and wanted to take him home, but there was another girl who was dead-set on taking him. We went into the room together to meet him. She grabbed him and hugged him tight and I watched him struggle to escape. He came to me and I just scratched him between the ears. She was there first, "I'm taking this cat," she said. I relented. "I don't compete over men," I said. I put down my completed application and left the store.

An hour later I got a call from PetSmart. They wanted me to take him home, even though I was not there first. I went straght there and picked him up. He was scared and had matted fur on his outer hips. We stopped to buy a litter box -- he waited patiently in the car. No meowing in travel. He seemed content to find a new home with me.

Once in his new home I fought with him over his mats until his fur was free and smooth. He had to contend with a cat-enemy here who hissed at him every day, but he gave her the benefit of the doubt. After his cat-frenemy died we had five months alone together peacefully curled up watching TV, until a new cat-frenemy arrived (Cats. Hard to get them to bond). But generally things were going well for us.

Mr. Bowie, named as such because he is a MEWsician, woke me every morning around 5:00 a.m. by tapping me on the cheek. We had a routine, we did, not always one I appreciated, but a comfortable routine.

Two months ago Mr. Bowie began to cough and wheeze. This was not a typical cold. I took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure. Get your head around that last word, if you can: "failure." I had a hard time with it - the finality - you know that means that his time here is limited.

Mr. Bowie is my little Cutie and I need to do what I can for him --  to make him comfortable. In the last two months this little cat has accumulated fluid on his lungs about every 3-4 weeks, despite his medications.  Now he has to see a cat-cardiologist to see if there is any other way to help him and make him comfortable. 

The cost for the procedures to drain his little cat lungs are astronomical, and the cat-cardiologist is even more costly.  I'm so embarrassed that I cannot afford these costs and moritifed that I would have to limit treatment to my little friend because of my own inability to afford his care.

If you can help to make his little life more comfortable it would mean a lot to me.