Loki's operation!

My name is Sam Nolte and the cute kitty is my wife and I's cat, Loki. We adopted him from a local shelter and promptly lost him inside our house, you know, what with him being a shape-shifter and all.

As proof, here is him as a bunny rabbit. (Despite his expression, he actually loves having his ears played with!)

He is an amazing cat, in that he is also a mechanic. Here he is, helping me assemble an engine.

He loves napping:

People watching:

Attacking feet first thing in the morning:

He's an excellent supervisor, here he is supervising my wife and I as we paint the kitchen cabinets in our apartment. He only got a little paint on his whiskers, just enough to show that he knows how to do the job and so would make a good supervisor.

Here he is holding his mom's hand while we watch Netflix:

Sometimes he's a little derpy:

But he really is an amazing cat. We taught him to give high-fives for treats, and he is the sweetest cat I've ever seen.

                           (He really loves treats.)

        But this Monday he wouldn't come in for food when we called him. (He ALWAYS comes immediately, food is his favorite thing besides naps and petting.)

        We searched until we found him hiding under a bush, he wouldn't put any weight on his right rear leg. We thought perhaps he got bitten by a snake and immediately took him to the vet. They concurred that it was likely a snake or spider bite and gave him some antibiotics and some pain medication. We didn't take x-rays at the time because they were expensive and everyone seemed to think the original diagnosis was sound. 

       Unfortunately, he didn't make any improvement the day after, so the third day we took him to the vet again and had x-rays done, to find out that his right rear tibia bone is broken and had shifted to the point where it could not be fixed without inserting a pin in the bone. Our only options at this point were to amputate the leg ($2000) or have the operation to have the pin inserted so the bone could heal correctly. ($4000+) 

Here he is, back from the vet. He's not particularly happy at the moment, he's on the pain medication they gave us but you can tell by the way he's holding his back leg that it is still very painful. Still, even the vet told us how amazingly good he was. Even when she was moving his leg around and feeling for the injury, positioning him for the x-rays, etc. he didn't bite or scratch her at all, just meowed to let her know he was hurting. 

       The only option we could stomach was to have the full repair operation done. This presented a bit of a problem, since my wife and I don't actually have enough money to cover the costs. We are planning on opening a credit card that offers 0% interest for 2 years, but I am currently in school and applying to NC State for a degree in Industrial Design, as well as working as a mechanic part time. My wife Tieli cleans houses and works for a pet-sitting company full time. 

       We currently are also fostering three little kittens (our first time fostering!) to help free up space at our local shelter.  They are pretty fantastically cute. (Although Loki is not a fan of anything cuter than him, even through constant reassurances that he's my favorite!)

       Pictured here is Ghost (in the crotchal region) and Houdini. Ghost is so-named because he's there one second and then gone the next. Houdini got his moniker by not only making leaps that shouldn't be physically possible for a kitten his size to make, (in order to escape the pen we set up for them) but also for being able to squeeze himself under the door of our office area. (He was so proud of himself I could barely bring myself to buy something to reduce the door gap...but I had to anyway.)

       Anyway, I've taken enough of your time. Your donation would mean the world to us. If Loki's operation ends up being less than the amount donated, we will donate any money left over to the Wake County Animal Shelter to help other amazing animals get a loving home.

     Thank you.