Hi, I'm John Roberson, a cartoonist, and I'm raising funds for the last medical and cremation expenses for my poor 10-year-old cat Chester.

You may have seen something about his previous sickness this year, which thankfully he got over.

Since then his brother Roscoe passed away from his own illness, and in the couple of months and change that happened, Chester started getting sick again, and hiding deep in places hard for me to get him out of in the house. But a short time ago I could tell he was no longer eating his dry food and very little of his wet food, and less and less till I got him a vet appointment. I thought it might be something dental, because he was drooling a lot. But today the vet found out the issue Chester wouldn't let me examine: he had a huge and quite ugly tumor that had apparently only started 3 weeks ago. By now it had taken over his poor mouth, and that was why he could not eat anymore. And soon he would not have been able to breathe as well.

So I had to make the decision all pet owners dread and he's at peace now, though I hate myself for it.

Chester was my best friend for the last ten years. He and his brother and sister have been the only constant in my life all that time, ever since I rescued them from the backyard when they were just feral kittens and my late cat Charlie took a liking to them, and became their dad till he passed away in 2019. All three were sweet but Chester was the sweetest one of all of them, and the most innocent, non-mischievous cat you ever saw. He didn't know HOW to be bad. He and his siblings learned form Charlie, who was an unusually good cat. And he was intent on being FUNNY(knowing this would get him more attention than the others), and indeed he was quite the cat comedian.

I'm going to miss him so hard as it is, but i was also barely over his brother dying at the end of August.

It just seems wrong. They're all ten, yes, but they've always been healthy. It was sudden. Not as sudden as Roscoe but sudden enough and my heart is completely pulped, not just broken, at this point.

I however am not a man of means as it is; I work dayjobs to make a living, as do many artists, but I am recently unemployed. So I am asking for your help with his sudden expenses, including his cremation.

Which the vet chose to discuss with me before he'd even been put to sleep, which was...not helpful.

Anyway, as you may imagine writing all that out was no fun and I'd rather not be asking. But please help, and please share, because I don't have the means to deal with this by myself now.

Thank you.