Help Six Boonie Cats Get to the United States

For those of you who might be reading this and don't know us, our names are Monica and William. We are husband and wife and currently live on the island of Guam where William has been stationed for the last two years. In that time, we have rescued and fostered over 20 cats and kittens. The unfortunate reality of the island is an overwhelming number of Boonie (that is what feral animals are called here) kittens, puppies, cats, and dogs, and there are not enough fosters or animal rescue groups to save them all. There are a few groups of us that do try to make a positive impact though. Most of these poor animals do not live long lives. They are constantly (multiple animals per day) hit by vehicles and even if they survive the initial impact, unless they immediately receive medical attention (which is unlikely since there is no emergency veterinarian on island) they likely pass away from their injuries. Many of them die of starvation/dehydration or diseases like Parvo, and often times sick animals are literally eaten alive by maggots.

 

Out of the 20+ cats and kittens we have rescued, six remain with us. Two of them we have foster-failed, as they say. Four of them are available for adoption. We got here in October of 2019 and the Air Force planned on keeping us here for three years, which means as of now we should have about a year left on the island. We have known the entire time we've been here that it can be very, very expensive to fly your pets with you to and from Guam, so we knew we needed to keep that in mind during our stay and (financially) plan accordingly. Fostering in general is expensive though when you are coming out of your own pocket for everything, so all of the “extra” income either of us have had has gone to fostering expenses. Once I realized the sad reality that there are just too many kittens and puppies and not enough homes that want to adopt, I planned on saving as much income as I could to fly as many animals as I could off the island.

 

The arrival of Covid to the island put some road blocks in my ability to run my business. My photography business was obviously considered non-essential, so I could not operate. After what seemed like forever, non-essential businesses could start opening back up, and I was allowed to start photographing clients again, so I began advertising and networking, and I also volunteered my photography services at a few animal rescue events as well. I was able to get a few photoshoots in the books and I had potential clients I was communicating with every day.

 

Here comes the reason for this fundraiser. We have to leave Guam and move back to the United States now. An entire year earlier than we expected. An entire 12 months of photoshoots that I expected to have income from. Last month (September) I ended up in the emergency room due to severe abdominal cramping. The doctor had a CT scan done and then told me they were pretty sure the pain was caused by an ovarian cyst that had started leaking fluid. It’s fairly common and not life threatening. My doctor then mentioned that the CT scan also showed a part of my colon that looked abnormal. They asked me to come in for some more tests a couple days later, and a few days after that, I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Colon Cancer. I was 30 years old when they found it, I had turned 31 the day before my diagnosis. I will spare you even more details (unless you truly want to know, in that case I will answer any questions I can). I had my first appointment with my oncologist yesterday, and he told my husband and I that he strongly recommends I seek cancer treatment in the United States, so the Air Force is moving us immediately.

 

We are humbly asking for help getting our six cats/kittens to the United States. We do not know exactly how much it will end up costing us (veterinarian visits for microchips and vaccines that are required for travel, pet travel fees/tickets for the airlines and/or pet shipping companies, etc), but most people pay about $3,000 per cat. I have reached out to multiple pet shippers and am waiting for quotes. As far as I am aware, if we can fly United Airlines, we can fly four of our cats with us, so we will probably need to hire pet shippers for the others.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read our story.

 

Oh, and for anyone curious, their names are Serrano (female black cat), Saffron (female gray tabby cat), Kimchee (female orange tabby), Chainsaw (male tuxedo tabby), Tiramisu (female tabby kitten) and Toast (female black kitten).

 

PS. My location is set to North Canton, Ohio because that is where I am originally from. I tried to set my location to our Guam zip code but GoFundMe gave me an error message and said they aren't able to transfer money to banks in U.S. territories. We do not have a bank account with a local bank so it is irrelevant.