Beerus is our 18 month old baby. He is the heart of our home. He's the most active, crazy and loving cat you could meet. He sleeps under the covers with us every night, he jumps up and rides our shoulders like a parrot, he is obsessed with cardboard boxes, he cries at the door when he can't find the kids. He's a puzzle piece in our family and without him, our puzzle is incomplete.

For most of his life, Beerus has suffered from periodic episodes of what we thought was low immunity - snotty nose and drooling, lethargy, and a desperate need for extra cuddles. We would carry him everywhere, keep him warm and support him back to health, and by the next day he was our crazy menace boy again. Our vet always chalked it up to a weak immune system, a lingering side effect of a terrifying event that happened when he was just 15 weeks old. What we thought was an anaphylactic shock, where we very nearly lost him, we've now discovered is much more sinister.

Because his regular check-ups and standard blood tests always came back normal, we had no idea he was actually fighting for his life this entire time.

On Tuesday afternoon, the symptoms returned. At about 2:30pm, Beerus became snotty, drooly, and incredibly clingy. We went to the vet expecting antibiotics for cat flu, but were instead rushed back to M.A.S.H. By 2:40 AM, we were told his condition was so grave we should consider putting him to sleep, and prepare for the worst.

Against all odds, our baby began to improve the next morning. He started eating and vocalising again, and we finally got the answer that has eluded us for 18 months. Specialised blood tests and a CT scan confirmed he was born with an Extrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt (EHPSS). He wasn't having allergic reactions; he was being poisoned by his own blood bypassing his liver and sending toxins directly to his brain. We were devastated to learn that the episodes he'd been having his entire life were actually seizures.

Between 6:00 AM and 7:00 AM this morning (Friday 29th May), he suffered five seizures in a single hour. He is very drowsy and heavily medicated while specialists work to stabilise his brain.

Today is Luke’s birthday. Instead of celebrating, we are waiting by the phone, desperate for a sliver of good news. Specialists have told us that Beerus is a good candidate for surgery to permanently fix the shunt, but he needs to stabilise first, which could take weeks of intensive care, and the path forward is very uncertain.

Every hour is terrifying.

We have already poured everything we have into his care, and the upcoming stabilisation and specialist surgery will cost thousands more. We just need him back. We need him home with his best friend Kovu and the kids, healthy for the very first time in his life.

Our hearts are completely breaking as we sit in this silence, waiting for the phone to ring with good news, but so scared it will be the opposite. We are exhausted, terrified, and we just want our beautiful boy to come home to the family that loves him so much.

Any help you can provide - whether it’s a donation to help cover the increasing ICU costs and his life-saving surgery, or simply sharing his story with your friends and family - means more than we can put into words.

Most of all, we just ask that you care and keep Beerus in your thoughts as he fights through these seizures and stabilises for the road ahead.

Thank you for helping us fight for Beerus' recovery and keeping us in your thoughts.

Thank you for the messages of support. Your kindness and positive thoughts for B mean so much to us.

Thank you to the staff at Lilydale Vet Centre - especially the amazing Dr Miranda.

Thank you to the staff at M.A.S.H Ringwood, for their outstanding care for B and their compassion towards our family. They've saved his life once before, we have faith they can do it again and give our baby a chance at a real life.