We are Morgan and Can, a young couple living in Berlin, Germany, with our two silly cats, Cosmo and Stella.

We adopted Cosmo and his birth mom, Stella, just over a year ago when Cosmo was only five months old. He quickly outgrew her in size but remained a needy kitten at heart. He loves food (an understatement), soliciting attention from Morgan (especially eye contact), and zooming up and down our hallway and cat wall with Stella.

After initially being treated for an upper respiratory infection, on September 19th Cosmo was diagnosed with feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a systemic inflammatory disease caused by a mutated feline coronavirus. Until a few years ago, it was considered untreatable by the veterinary community and a swift death sentence for kittens and young cats like Cosmo. Fortunately, that is no longer the case for the 1-2% of the global cat population afflicted with FIP, thanks to incredible research efforts by Dr. Niels Pedersen of UC Davis on the bioactive metabolite of Remdesivir (an antiviral), GS-441524.

GS-441524 showed remarkable efficacy in FIP, with 80% of cats in Pedersen's clinical trial cured after 12 weeks of treatment. Though the compound is not licensed for human or animal use (more on that here), tens of thousands of cat owners worldwide have bravely (and successfully!) pursued experimental treatment and networked online to share their stories and offer guidance and resources to new FIP+ cat parents like us.

We are very fortunate that Cosmo was relatively quickly diagnosed and able to start GS treatment immediately. He belongs to the 1% of FIP+ cats who require hospitalization because of advanced symptoms (both "wet" and "dry"). His respiratory and nervous systems have been the most negatively affected; last week, fluid was aspirated from one lung, a sizeable granulomatous formation was discovered on the other one, and he lost most of his motor and coordination skills. After two nights in the hospital, we brought him home on the 21st of September.

26 September: Cosmo is now on his 5th day of GS treatment and showing tiny improvements every single day. There's no question that he's feeling better than he was a week ago, when his life hung in the balance. We have high hopes that he will return to his playful, active self with continued GS treatment, which is why we're here...

We estimate that the recommended 12 weeks of GS-441524 treatment will cost us between 4000-5000€, on top of the 2500€ hospital bill.

As a young couple finishing their PhDs (Morgan) and just starting their careers (Can), Cosmo's diagnosis and treatment are frankly way beyond our budget. We are more fortunate than most to have incredibly generous parents that would stop at nothing to help a sick animal, but it's still a considerable sum of money. For that reason, we'd like to share our story with other family members, friends, acquaintances, and cat-loving strangers who might be willing and able to help Cosmo in smaller increments.

We have opted to purchase Cosmo's treatment formulations from CURE FIP, an organization that generously matches any funds raised when used toward the purchase of GS-441524.

Thus, we hope to raise at least half the money needed to cover his injections. Should we raise more than we're asking for, it will go to another cat and family suffering from this very curable disease. We send our deepest gratitude to all who read this and care about Cosmo's outcome, whether they can contribute financially or not. Thanks in advance <3

Morgan, Can, Cosmo, and Stella