Surgery day!

**UPDATE** The vet has agreed to do Hilary's surgery. It is booked for February 29th.

**UPDATE**Hilary has her assessment appointment tomorrow (Feb. 21st) at the vet!

Hi, my name is Allison. My 8-year-old cat Hilary needs both of her eyes removed and I am humbly asking for help to raise the necessary funds to pay for her surgery. The Vancouver Humane Society will donate $500 but this offer expires on February 24th.

I adopted two 6-week old kittens in 2015 from a cat rescuer who was going to euthanize them due to them being blind. Their mom and siblings had been killed by a dog when they were just a few days old and the rescuer bottle-fed them. It became apparent when their eyes started to open that they were infected. The vet that she brought them to gave her eye drops that didn't work, but instead of trying different medications the vet told the rescuer that their eyes could be removed when they got spayed/neutered. At 6-weeks-old the rescuer was contemplating euthanizing them because 'who would want cats who are blind?'. I quickly said I do! and took them to a different vet who gave them different medications that stopped the infection but it was too late to save their vision.

The boy, Windy, got 1 eye removed when he got neutered and the other eye has glaucoma but is stable. The girl's name is Hilary and she is the one who I am asking for help.

Despite problems with her vision, Hilary has always been a fearless explorer and always rode on my shoulders as a kitten as I went about my day. This fearlessness gave her her name; she is named after Sir Edmund Hillary, a mountain climber who reached the top of Mt. Everest. She is a loving, sweet cat who wants nothing more than to sleep on my lap or snuggle under the covers at bedtime. I have other cats but Hilary is my best friend and I desperately want to help her.

Hilary's eyes burst as a kitten due to the untreated infection but once the infection healed the eyes (or what was left of them) stabilized and were okay to leave as-is. They weeped a little but otherwise were fine. Fast forward to last fall and Hilary's right eye started to weep excessively, to the point that it would be glued shut, and she was showing obvious pain (she wouldn't let me touch her head when before she didn't care). Then earlier this year a brown piece of tissue erupted out of her right eye but the weeping mostly stopped and she seemed less painful. But now a few days ago I noticed her left eye changing. Her usual vet cannot do diagnostics or surgery to remove her eyes and I am asking for funds to help pay for a consult and surgery at a specialist. It will cost at least $2500 to do this but I am still pricing out different clinics so it might change.

Thank you for reading her story. If you can help, thank you from the bottom of my heart, and if you can't that's okay, please just share her story for others to see.