<div>Hey, thanks for clicking.</div><div><br></div><div>I take care of cats that have nobody else.</div><div><br></div><div>That's the short version. </div><div><br></div><div>The full story is this: I have dedicated everything I have to providing urgent care, critical care, and end-of-life care to homeless community cats and rescue cats that have no one else looking out for them, in Gainesville, Florida, since 2008.</div><div><br></div><div>Below, I will explain the work I do, why why I'm asking for my goal amount, and what reaching that goal would allow me to do for cats. I know it's a lot to ask for, and  a lot to ask anyone to read. I'm just grateful for anyone who does. Supporting me won't mean I'll keep supporting cats, because I'll absolutely do that anyway, but it WILL let me support them better. </div><div><br></div><div>Here is the story.</div><div><br></div><div>I spent 14 years intimately involved with Operation Catnip, our non-profit local Trap-Neuter-Return organization. On my own, with just my bicycle, the local bus system, and some tolerant Uber drivers, I have caught and transported ~200 cats from the neighborhoods I frequent to be spayed or neutered and vaccinated, and then returned to their territories.</div><div><br></div><div>I care for five regular cat colonies of my own, and assist with care for three others, on a rotating daily schedule. I keep a close eye on these cats for injury and illness, and when I see anything that needs medical attention, I take them to the vet to do something about it. And when they can't be returned to the outdoors, I take them in for however much longer they have to live.</div><div><br></div><div>All of the long-term care those homeless cats have needed, beyond the spay/neuter, I have paid for myself.</div><div><br></div><div>Let me tell you about some of those medical cases.</div><ul><li>I couldn't even guess the number of infected or ruptured wounds I've taken cats home for, to treat and then re-release them. Those are simple at this point, lol. I have caught and treated cats for blood infections, sudden respiratory distress and pneumonia, leg and paw injuries, and tail injuries. </li></ul><div><br></div><ul><li>My attentiveness has let me help homeless cats countless times. I have an old lady named Morocco, who as a young colony cat of mine went missing for ten days. I finally found her with a crippling nerve injury in her front leg, and she became one of my first Gainesville rescues. She's never regained the use of that paw, and she's as much grey as she is black now, but she's gotten to have a long life of love and safety with me.</li></ul><div><br></div><ul><li>More complex are the sudden emergencies. Last year, for example, I happened to notice a colony cat of mine named Leo acting unusual at dinnertime. I turned out to be correct to suspect a urinary blockage, and acted immediately to grab him and rush him to the emergency vet. Leo was new to the colony and didn't trust me yet then, so I paid in blood, but I got him to the vet in time to save his life. He ended up needing surgery to prevent re-obstruction, and now he's the sweetest cuddly drooling purr-bucket.</li></ul><div><br></div><ul><li>I spayed a calico kitten named Little Girl, along with her mother, Little Lady, in 2010. They live in a colony I visit daily, and they love each other very much. I can cuddle Little Lady, but Little Girl has never let me handle her. Two years ago, Little Girl didn't eat one night, and then didn't eat for another 16 days. I started trying to trap her immediately, and she simply refused to be trapped. Ultimately, I was able to catch her in a pole net once she got weaker and slower. Cats can get liver damage from failing to eat, and Little Girl was in severe jaundice once we got to the vet. I turned my bathroom into a kitty infirmary, fed her with a syringe and gave her a liver enzyme medication for four weeks. I brought her mother along to her infirmary as well for emotional support. She managed to recover, started eating on her own again, and I released them both back to their colony, where they're living happily together still.</li></ul><div><br></div><ul><li>The hardest cases are the chronic and terminal illnesses, however. FIV is the cat version of HIV. Eventually, if the cat lives long enough with FIV, it can cause an immunodeficiency syndrome similar to AIDS. I still dearly miss my Pumpkin Man, a cat with FIV who showed up to one of my colonies one day nothing but skin and bones and covered with feces. My vet thought he had three months to live, but with dedicated care I was able to give him almost two years of a comfortable retirement and a good quality of life, where he got to have warm blankets and soft pillows for the first time in his life.</li></ul><div><br></div><ul><li>One of my colony cats named Annie may be developing thyroid disease. I need to get her worked up for that, and decide how best to go about treating it . Since she is otherwise healthy and my apartment is maxed out at capacity until somebody else passes away, it may be best for me to get her thyroid irradiated, which would be costly but allow her to continue living outdoors without medication.</li></ul><div><br></div><ul><li>Cats can develop a dental disease called stomatitis, which is excessively painful. If left untreated, cats will starve to death because their mouths hurt so much. Treatment involves pulling out all of their teeth to prevent the inflammatory process involved in the disease, and sometimes they need lifelong steroid or immunesuppressive medication to manage it afterwards. I have rescued three cats specifically for stomatitis, have had to have dental extractions done for five more of my rescues over the years, and am treating three others with medication to manage inflammation until I can GET their dental extractions.</li></ul><div><br></div><ul><li>Terminal kidney disease is another case I handle in cats. I'm currently caring for a fluffy good boy named Fluffy, who lived at my biggest colony and is in end-stage renal failure now.</li></ul><div><br></div><ul><li>I rescue cats with cancer as well. I have given a comfortable retirement and eventual humane euthanasia to Simon, a beat-up old cat with a huge sarcoma on his hip; Jasper, an old man with lymphoma; Piper, a sweet tortie with a breast tumor; and her daughter Dart and their friend Rabbit, and a lonely orange boy named O.D., all also with lymphomas. F*uck cancer.</li></ul><div><br></div><div>I have a little shelf in my living room with fourteen little engraved wooden urns holding the ashes of rescue cats I have cared for until the end.</div><div><br></div><div>It's really hard.</div><div><br></div><div>"Why do I do it?"</div><div><br></div><ul><li>Cats matter to me. Animals matter to me. I'm vegan. I'm passionate about spay and neuter. There's so much suffering in this world that is preventable with some effort. A feral cat is not 'wild'. A feral cat is a domesticated cat that's just never gotten to learn what love and kindness are. Their lives are just as important as a pet's life, and they are just as deserving of effort.</li></ul><div><br></div><div>"But what about human suffering?"</div><div><br></div><ul><li>I work as a surgical tech in one of the ten operating rooms in this city. I spend all day helping save human lives and reduce human suffering. I've specialized in one particular rare and complex subspecialty, so I think I can assure someone that I work extremely hard to help people as well.</li></ul><div><br></div><div>But therein lies the problem: I simply make too little helping humans to permit me to help animals to the degree they need. The cost of living in Gainesville has gotten very bad - my rent is half my income.</div><div><br></div><div>I hate asking for charity for my animal work. Nothing makes me feel like more of a failure than to look at the animals depending on me and then have to tell people that spending 40 hours a week plus call, doing something remarkable and life-saving that only two other employees here can do, doesn't pay enough to let me both stay on top of rent AND cover veterinary bills. I haven't told many people this, but I've spent the last year+ going to a food bank to help cut costs, because I can't just NOT take care of animals. Neglect is abuse, and once I see a problem, I have to act on it, or it eats away at me.</div><div><br></div><div>It's very very hard to make myself post this, but too many people have encouraged me to do so, so here I am.</div><div><br></div><div>Since I'm here... I'm going to be thorough. I'm setting a goal of $15k. I don't expect to reach it, and I'm humbled to tears any time someone so much as offers me a dollar. </div><div><br></div><div>That goal will allow me to do the following:</div><ul><li>Catch up on $11k of care credit backlog for emergency vet bills and surgery that I have not been able to finish paying off yet, for Leo's bladder unblocking and urethral surgery; Peter's cardiac echocardiogram and euthanasia; Blossom's dental extractions, tumor biopsy, tumor excision, pain control, tumor rebiopsy, and euthanasia; and Rabbit's diagnosis and euthanasia.</li></ul><div><br></div><ul><li>Allow me to have dental extractions for three other cats dealing with stomatitis pain, Minsk, Z, and Nova, and for a cat with broken teeth, Butterbutt.</li></ul><div><br></div><ul><li>Get Annie's thyroid irradiated to cure her hyperthyroidism.</li></ul><div><br></div><ul><li>Allow me to be able to start saving again for future emergencies.</li></ul><div><br></div><div>Again, I know it's a lot to ask for and read. I'm just grateful for anyone who did read through this. I'm going to support cats until I drop, but if you'd like to help me do it, I'll never be able to thank you enough.</div><div><br></div><div>Thank you.</div>

Ann Marie Porter

Stacey Robinson

Barbara Smith

Anonymous

Khanh Huynh

Emily Caban

Livia Ly

Adam Garcia

Kelly Brown

Melanie Miles

Evan Munn

Sven Normann

Ann Porter

Shena Hays

Improve life for Gainesville cats with no homes

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