Hello, my name is Laura and this is my precious baby Damascus who is four months old.  I named him after the unique, stunning and strong Damascus steel.  It is very scary how our lives can change in an instant! Here is our story of how my life went from the highest of happiness to the lowest depth of sorrow.   I had dreamed of the day I would have this kitten my entire life (Yes, it has taken me a long time)!  My patience and perseverance was worth it as I felt the joy that only a few rare occasions in our lifetime brings.  When I first saw him I completely soaked him with tears of joy.   Damascus is an adventure cat.  He is extremely outgoing, curious, easy going, happy and loving.  He runs as fast as his little fluffy legs can go to greet the people that he loves and willingly accepts hugs and kisses from strangers even giving kisses in return.  He is very vocal and has A LOT to say.  He does not care where we go, what we do or who we are visiting as long as we are together.   Previous to bringing him home, he was cleared of all of the common kitten diseases.  However, once I got him home, he was sneezing constantly and had many trips to the vet to try and figure out what was causing it.  One day his eye changed to such a deep burgundy color that I could no longer see his iris or pupil so I rushed him to a 24 hour veterinarian.  They kept him over a couple of nights doing all different tests on his eye and sending out lots of blood tests to get to the bottom of his symptoms.    Then a few days later, I received a phone call that would cause my whole world to come crashing down.  The vet said the blood test results had come in and they believed him to have Dry Ocular Feline Infectious Peritonitis.  It is a 100% fatal viral disease unless they are lucky enough to receive a life saving medication.  I was completely blind sided by this news as I was expecting her to say it was a common sinus infection that would be cleared up with a 7-10 day antibiotic.  The vet indicated in her summary “the owner is distraught”.  That was a major understatement.  The diagnosis sent me spiraling into a very deep and dark emotional state. I felt every negative human emotion.  The anguish of those devastating days is something I will never forget.   Damascus is the love of my life.  I tell him every day, multiple times in fact, that I love him MORE than ALL of the stars in the sky, MORE than ALL of the birds in the trees, (even the leaves), MORE than ALL of the fish in the sea, MORE than ALL of the beautiful butterflies.  Yes, you guessed it, it goes on and on and on and on……   There was no doubt in my mind that losing him would break me and that I would never be whole or restored and would go on as only a shell of my former self.  WHY HIM, WHY ME, WHY, WHY, WHY.  I asked this a thousand and one times.  WHY? One morning with complete clarity I knew the answer to WHY….. The answer was simple, because the love I have for him would give me the strength to climb every mountain and swim every ocean to fix what is broken.  I knew what I had to do and that was to save his life with unwavering determination.    I began doing hours of research on this life saving medication and talking to other families who had or are going through the same horrific diagnosis. I learned a lot about their experiences with the medication and how others were able to save their pets.    So, that is what brings me here today.  The tests and medication so far have cost me $3,000 which came from my life savings and maxing out a credit card.  The medication is very expensive but has a 99% cure rate!  He must have a daily injection for 3 months.  Blood tests are done along the way to confirm the positive progression and more trips to the ophthalmologist to be sure everything is being done to save his eye.    As I write this, he has had 4 injections and I can already see improvement!  He is now waking me up at 5:00 am for breakfast and I gladly get up as I’m so grateful that he is hungry and can’t wait to see what the morning improvements are.   I am certain of this path and I am very confident that this medicine will cure him.  Damascus and I would have heartfelt thanks for any help to be able to continue his treatments.  We have a lifetime of kayaking, hikes and visiting friends planned.   Words alone could never describe the love and gratitude I have for Willow Street Pictures and Cindi.  You all amaze me with your time, love and devotion to help me save this perfect little boy.  The photos and video were donated by Willow Street Pictures to help with promotion and awareness of which I am so incredibly grateful for.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.   Lots of Love,     Laura and Baby Damascus

Help Damascus Grow Old With Me Without FIP

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

adyen_v6_suspend_unsuspend_TEST01

adyen_v6_suspend_unsuspend_PROD

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

externalAccountHolderAccountCode

Adyen Account Holders with a large number of accounts

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

countryCode

Recurring donations audience

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

currencyCode

Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

desktop

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fund country is US and user language is English (amp15)

Finland (FI) users

France (FR) users

Luxembourg (LU) users

Sitewide Banner: CA + en_CA

fundId

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD) (amp15)

Version 9.2.1 and above

Austria (AT) users

Netherlands (NL) users

United States (US) users

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Ireland (IE) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

United Kingdom (GB) users

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

Sweden (SE) users

ach frontend audience

Norway (NO) users

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

Excluded funds - Video Sharing (amp15)

smart goals test01

Team EGG - IP Address list

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

UC Tipping v20250107

en-us

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

Switzerland (CH) users

Recurring Upsell

Spain (ES) users

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

Portugal (PT) users

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link (amp15)

Denmark (DK) users

Australia (AU) users

Android v10.6.0 and above

Experiences Leads

Italy (IT) users

Giving fund alpha whitelist

Everyone except Update Enhancement exclusions

userEmail

NPO profiles test users (prod)

Belgium (BE) users

New funds eligible - Posters v2

fundcountry is US

Germany (DE) users

Optimizely-Generated Audience for Backwards Compatibility

ai_title_page

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Your donation

GoFundMe protects your donation