Help This Rescued Kitty Heal and Find a Home

My husband and I were driving home very late on night of Friday 9/20 from Rochester, MN and pulled off to get gas from KT at the Nodine exit. Thankfully my husband noticed this little guy laying along side the exit ramp.

When we first came across him we feared the worst. He was barely moving, rail thin, with blood in his mouth and on his ear, but we did our best to gently scoop him up in a fleece blanket we kept in the back of our car for our senior pup. We stayed at the Nodine KT for some time asking if any of the locals might recognize the kitty or know the owners, but no one knew what to do. Since it was so late and no shelters were open we brought him to our home on French Island.

We isolated him in our bathroom, away from our other pets and kept him warm and as comfortable as we could until the dawn. If he made it the night we promised we would get him help first thing in the morning.

Beginning around 7a on Saturday morning I started calling around to rescues, shelters, and vets to begin leaving messages. When open hours finally rolled around I started making more calls. I was given some guidance on "territory" rules from more knowledgable animal rescuers in the area and made sure to abide by them. Winona HS was the nearest shelter to where we found him, but we were advised that they were over capacity and unable to assist.

I called a few vets, but they were understandably reluctant to administer much aid until full financial commitment was agreed upon. La Crescent and Hillcrest were the most receptive animal hospitals to respond early on Saturday morning. I said I could front up to $200 and they asked for at least a stretch of $300 to do the bare minimum assessments and xrays. I agreed to in order to begin helping the tiny skin and bones kitty knowing it had already been hours of pain for him and he needed to get help as soon as possible.

La Crescent Animal Hospital managed to squeeze us in immediately, so I rushed over there with kitty in tow. After a couple of hours of care, we discovered NO broken bones on the xray, but a severely dehydrated, malnorished kitty with a fever. Unfortunately, the final bill was significantly more than originally agreed upon, but at least we felt good that kitty was probably going to make it! We were sent home with a much more positive diagnosis than expected, but still a long road of recovery ahead. We also received some medication and special nutrition food to aid in his recovery.

I have two other cats of my own and a large senior dog that is struggling with his own health issues so I didn't really anticipate taking on another struggling critter, but we happened to be at the right place and right time and couldn't say no.

My husband and I are just looking for some financial assistance in this little kitty's medical care since we already have litter, food, toys, etc from our own cats.

We plan to foster him until he is deemed fit and healthy, with vet approval ready to be adopted into his forever home.

*Amount was detemined by current expenses, follow-up vet appointment, and anticipated vaccines needed.