Help Us Get Needed Surgery for Our Kitty Nica!

Hello, animal lovers!!

Adorable kitty in need of urgent surgery!!

My name is Brian. After my wife, Ann, and I lost our very dear cat a few years ago, we decided that a good way to slowly bring kitties back into our lives and also help out would be to foster cats for our local shelter--Paws Crossed Animal Rescue in Elmsford. We ended up becoming the foster parents for Nica (previously named Nikita), a sweet senior tuxedo kitty (about 12 years old) with a serious personality!

It soon became apparent that Nica had several hard-to-diagnose medical issues. Stomach problems, skin issues, eye irritation, you name it! No one could get to the bottom of her problems. Through our own research, we found that she might have intestinal small-cell lymphoma. Yikes!!

At that point, we knew that this senior kitty needed more than foster parents. She needed a family that would give her the dedicated care that a shelter could not. And so knowing she had health challenges, we adopted this senior girl!

Unfortunately, we were right: she DOES have small-cell lymphoma. We got her the testing and specialty care that she needed. Diagnosing her accurately and treating her has cost us many thousands of dollars in less than a year, far more than we ever expected. She had to have a specialty surgery (a surgical biopsy) to confirm her condition, and she takes many meds and undergoes frequent testing to treat it and some other ongoing conditions. Despite all of this, she has done well and has an excellent quality of life!

BUT ... the journey continues.

Recently, she developed a large growth on her abdomen--likely a soft tissue sarcoma. (It's pretty icky. Oy!) It has to be removed, and the hope is that it is contained and will not recur--we've been told the odds are good. But this surgery is estimated to cost another $4,000, and that's after a significant price reduction!

We are committed to taking care of Nica. We knew from the start that she had complicated issues. But her care is costing us way more than we anticipated. We are reaching out to you, dear animal lovers, to help us if you are able to. Any donation to help us move forward with this surgery would be greatly appreciated. We want to give Nica a shot!!

On behalf of Ann, Nica, and myself, I thank you!!

Brian