Another year and another birthday fundraiser to support my cat rescue work, which gives abandoned friendly cats their best and brightest futures! Oh, and it also turns out my birthday coincidentally — or not — falls on International Cat Day! Even more to celebrate!

First off, I want to thank the friends and family who have already supported this fundraiser, as I preempted this official GoFundMe with some “teaser” posts once I rescued French Fry and took him to the vet and knew he was going to be a significant expense (good thing he’s so cute and sweet!). The funds already received amount to $605 and you’ll see them reflected in the GoFundMe.

Goal: $1600 to start, knowing there will be more costs incurred to help French Fry (details below).

Costs already incurred:

CJ Smudges: $496 ($396 vet bill + $100 transportation)

Hudson: $377 (vet bill)

French Fry: $371 (vet bill)

Upcoming bills confirmed:

French Fry surgical consult: $324

Upcoming bills to be confirmed, so not included in the total here (yet):

FF bloodwork: $175

FF CT scan: $1000

As noted above, this year's fundraising effort will cover some expenses I incurred already:

- CJ Smudges (below) needed an emergency vet visit after his foster noticed rapid breathing. Thankfully, they found nothing wrong with him, but he had to get checked out and some diagnostics had to be run to confirm he was okay.

- Hudson had complications after his neuter and needed extra support. He is 100 percent now!

- After rescuing French Fry, I noticed he was favoring a leg, so I took him to the vet and the X-rays showed that he had an old injury, a dislocated hip. You can see this in the main image for the fundraiser, which also shows the weird position he sits in to ease the stress on his hip.

The future bills will be for French Fry, because his veterinary journey is just beginning. I’ll be taking him to Animal Medical Center in Manhattan for a surgical consult on Sep 9, which will cost $324. I’ll know more about next steps for him after the consult, but it’s highly likely I’ll be applying for an AMC to the Rescue Grant and hope, hope, hope I get it because I’m sure his corrective surgery will be thousands of dollars.

The complication of the grant is that one must get certain diagnostics done before even applying. They are: a CT scan, bloodwork, and X-rays, which at least have already been done. The cost of these additional diagnostics I will need your help with, but I’m not including them in this GoFundMe total just yet.

Rescue Update in General

Thank you for supporting me and my rescue work. No one wishes it wasn't necessary more than me -- it's stressful and time-consuming, not to mention expensive. Unfortunately, rescuers like myself, are finding ourselves rescuing abandoned pets at alarming rates. I literally could rescue an abandoned pet once a week, but that is, of course, not feasible, so instead I and fellow rescuers try to help finders of abandoned pets help these poor cats by offering advice, spay/neuter appointments, etc. The NYC government does next to nothing to help, and now our city shelter, like many across the country, are full and have closed intake. Let's not forget that rescuers are taking a huge burden off of the shelters already by rescuing so many abandoned cats and trapping kittens born outside.

When I got into rescue about 12 years ago, I really wanted to focus on TNR (trap, neuter, return), which gives cats born outside a better life by getting them spayed and neutered, and of course decreases the numbers of kittens born, and dying, outside. I still do some of that work and cover those costs myself, but much of that work has been supplanted by helping abandoned pets, who are the least likely to survive outside and need to be rescued ASAP. The animal welfare crisis in NYC is awful, and isn't of course limited to cats. Dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, and more are dumped. I guess what gives me solace is that every cat I rescue, whether friendly or feral, will have a better life. It's that direct, and few things today have such an immediate, direct impact.

Thank you!

I truly appreciate your support -- in any amount. I never know what I'll be faced with when I rescue a cat, but once they're in and under my care, I do everything I can for them -- with your help! Thank you so much!