Help Hannah and Gavin Cover Hazel's Surgery Costs

Hi (again)! We are Hannah and Gavin from St. Louis.

As you may remember, in January 2024 we lost our 1.5 year old buddy Sedona very suddenly to heart failure. After grieving and healing (are we ever really done?) we decided to take the plunge and adopt another kitten in November.

Enter Hazel! 10 months old at the time and nameless for a few weeks, she revealed herself to be named Hazel -short for Witch Hazel- with markings on her chest similar to her namesake’s bark used to cleanse evil or unwanted spirits and even heal broken hearts.

As (bad) luck would have it, a few days after Christmas, a month after her adoption, we noticed her breathing was erratic and labored. So after an emergency room visit and a transfer to the animal hospital 2 hours away, we learned Hazel had a Diaphragmatic Hernia causing her organs to seep into her chest cavity through a tiny hole in her diaphragm, compressing her lungs and heart, that needed to be repaired as soon as possible. With the surgery and over a week of ICU and hotel stays, the bills racked up, resulting in us having to max out our credit cards to pay for everything.

She needed a board certified surgeon to perform this surgery since it is not a routine surgery done at every animal hospital, and the closest one to us that was even taking patients was at Mizzou. So we knew it would cost a pretty penny but hoped we did our due diligence by getting her insured.

The silver lining is that it was a successful surgery and she healed perfectly and is now enjoying her new life as a 1 year old, living a life fit for a queen!

The bad news is that both of the claims we submitted to insurance were denied. We’ve also reached out to the APA where we adopted her hoping for some kind of assistance but keep getting ignored.

We are only asking for a small portion of the total cost. We know that it’s our responsibility as pet owners to be prepared for emergencies and just roll with the punches, and we thought we were prepared this time, but life decided to throw a few too many punches. And especially after reaching out to friends and family hardly a year ago, we tried to avoid another fundraiser but finding out we aren’t getting a single dollar from the insurance company or the APA put us in an impossible spot. We just can’t believe our luck (or lack thereof) as pet parents.

We know times are hard for everyone, the world is quite literally up in flames right now. But we also know that we are surrounded by love and support in our tiny little corner of it, it was shown to us clear as day in the loss of Sedona. If you or a friend can throw a little love and help our way, we would be over the moon with gratitude and appreciation.

Peace, love and kitties,

G, H, & WH