Help My Cat Get a CAT Scan (yes really)

Hi, I’m Scarlett, and this is Butters, my beloved cat. I adopted him as a spunky young boy when I was a senior in college. Now he’s a grumpy middle-aged man, and I’d like to see how cantankerous he is when he’s an old man. To do that, I need a little help.

In September, Butters started wheezing, so I took him to the vet. His symptoms were odd for an upper respiratory infection, and over the last two months, it’s become clear that this isn’t a simple kitty cold. His breathing has become more and more labored. He went from nearly 11 pounds to 9.7 in only a month because he’s choking on his food and barely able to eat. After two rounds of antibiotics, steroids, nasal drops and ear drops, and an appetite stimulant, Butters’s vet says the next step is a CAT scan (or possibly an MRI). We don’t know what’s wrong yet, but the most likely culprits are either a foreign object or a tumor in his nasal cavity.

I’m asking for $2500 because my vet estimates that a CAT scan will be between $1500 and $1800, I’ve already spent over $700 on medication, and I want to account for GoFundMe’s 2.9% transaction fees.

If you know me already, then you understand that this year has been hard. So far in 2021, I’ve lost my marriage (and with it my only immediate family), my sweet dog, my financial security, and the place I called home. Truly, if I lose my cat too because I can’t afford to take care of him, I don’t know what I’m going to do. Butters has seen me through thick and thin. Grief and sickness, successes and failures, every major event of my adult life, I’ve had this cat by my side for all of it. Sometimes he felt like the only thing I had left to hang onto, and I’m not ready to let him go yet. Even right now, as I type this, he’s sitting between my arms, purring up a storm. Because God forbid I touch my keyboard without his help.

I’m disabled and living on a fixed income, so anything you can give will be deeply appreciated, whether it’s $2 or $20. Thank you for reading this, and even if you can’t donate, please boost!