My name is Elizabeth Estrada. 5+ years ago, my son & I noticed a black cat that was living in the sewer by our townhouse. At first, I would go over & leave some treats by the sewer. Over the course of a month or two, she began to inch her way over to our sidewalk where I would give her some dry food. She would never get close enough for us to pet her. In another couple of months, she inched her way up to our front porch. I began giving her dry food in the morning & wet food at night. Then she began jumping up on my lap when we were sitting on the front porch.

When winter came, we tried to get her to come inside. She wanted nothing to do with that, so I bought her a small cat tent & warm blankets.

Fast forward 5 years & Itsy was a HUGE part of our lives. She would come inside for brief periods of time, especially during thunder which she hated, but she was a free spirit & wanted to live outside.

On September 24th, after being inside overnight, she went outside & disappeared. This was extremely unusual for her. She stayed very close to home. She never missed breakfast or lunch. We searched & searched for her during the day & at night. We were baffled & extremely alarmed that we could not find her. On September 29th we found her collar under a neighbors car 2 doors down. We were not sure what that meant exactly, but it gave us hope. On September 30th, my son, after walking the neighborhood at 3 a.m. searching once again for her, returned back home. He thought he heard purring & was sure he was imagining things, then he heard it again. He looked in her tent but didn't see her at 1st but there she was under her blankets. He ran upstairs to wake me. That precious cat was standing in the doorway making very distressed sounds. I went over to pick her up & discovered she had a very large gash along her left hind leg. We put her in one of her beds & looked up emergency vet clinics. We put her in her pet carrier & rushed over there. After waiting at least an hour, the vet assistant entered the room where we were sitting & said, "I have a very graphic picture to show you." We took a deep breath & she showed us the pictures you are seeing. The vet came in to explain what our options were. The first option (with no guarantee of success) was that her tissue had already begun to die around her wounds. They proposed debridement & then attempting to pull the skin around her wounds over what they were able to clean up & pray that her skin would begin to "rebuild itself." This option would be $3300.00 just for what they would do that day with ongoing treatment. The other option was to put her to sleep. My son & I were beyond heartbroken. We stepped outside to discuss all we had been told. Neither of us are in a good position financially. When we went back inside, they presented another option. A vet clinic 60 miles away in Murfreesboro, TN that operates with a much lower overhead. They gave us that address & we were off with high hopes they could help our precious Itsy.

We arrived at this clinic & after another 45-minute wait, they took us into an exam room. We took her out of her carrier where they examined her again. The vet looked over her wounds, explained they could try basically the same as the first vet at a cost of $1600-2000. Again, if successful, there would be a lot of ongoing treatment. We knew we HAD to try. The clinic required us to pay the $1600, so my son put it on his credit card.

We were told they would keep her comfortable until surgery later in the day on September 30th. We told our precious Itsy we would see her soon & left her with her favorite blanket.

Having had very little sleep, we returned home with very high hopes. We decided what room we would use for her "recovery room". We received the devastating phone call around 4:00 telling us that her injuries in her belly were so very extensive that they felt certain she would never be without pain, that she would find her mobility very limited & that there would be no way of knowing if she could live much longer.

We both knew Itsy would be miserable never being able to go outside again. She would never be able to walk upstairs in our house & jump on my bed to sleep. We had to make the decision to put her to sleep.

This precious little cat, with devastating wounds, having been gone for 6 days, found the determination to get back home to my son & me. It is simply miraculous that she was able to do so, especially with the injury to her left leg. She wanted to be with my son & me so we would know what had happened to her. And through it all, starting at 4:00 a.m. that Tuesday morning, through 2 vet visits, she purred the entire time. She was back with the two of us who loved her so very deeply. And we are devastated by the loss of Itsy.

We are fundraising to cover the vet bills and expenses incurred during this heartbreaking ordeal.