Friends, we are desperate for your help!

My sister found 6 baby kittens, no more than a week old, hiding outside in a wood pile, cold and crying. One baby had already passed, mama was nowhere to be found, and a fox was stalking them. Being the animal lover that she is, she had to take them quickly, or they wouldn’t have seen the light of day. She was promised help with finding fosters and splitting time and expenses until then but was ghosted. They all immediately needed medicine for upper respiratory infections and fleas, in addition to formula, food, litter, etc. I stepped in the first week to help her as much as I can, and we have both fallen completely in love with all 5. I just lost my beloved basset hound over the summer and wasn’t expecting to find love in the form of abandoned baby kittens, but here we are…

Unfortunately, an emergency trip to Cornell last week and a handful of local emergency visits since early September have resulted in at least one of the orange girls having a potentially fatal diagnosis of Vascular Ring Deformity, in which the blood vessels running along the coronary artery are wrapped around her trachea and esophagus, quite literally choking her out when she swallows. The ONLY chance we have at saving her life is an outrageously expensive corrective surgery, which is not even 100% guaranteed. Still, we HAVE to try. Although this situation is emergent, she’s currently too underweight for the surgery per Cornell, due to the inability to consume normal quantities of food and keep it all down. One of our gray girls and the only baby boy have begun to exhibit similar symptoms as their tiny little 7-week-old bodies are growing.

Cornell quoted us the cost of the life-saving surgery to be $8-$10K. Our little orange girl may require a pre-op feeding tube if she doesn’t gain weight quickly, which will cost us $5,000 right now. Mind you, these quotes are for only one kitten and don’t include pre-op imaging to confirm the diagnosis. We are beside ourselves, selling everything we can, working overtime and second jobs to come up with whatever we can as soon as possible. Time is a huge factor for all three, especially our little orange girl, who is in critical condition.

I have not told my sister that I’ve created this campaign. We are both hard workers, independent people, and hesitant to ask for help… but we’re also desperate to save these babies and give them a chance to LIVE. They’re all SO sweet, funny, loving, and try so hard to be happy when they’re not feeling well. We absolutely cannot bear the thought of them losing their precious lives just because of money.

THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for any kind of help you can give us and for caring about these beautiful, innocent babies!!