This is Rumi; our curious boy. On an average day, you can catch him hunting bugs, begging for food or helping his blind brother groom those hard to reach areas. He’s always looking for the next space to explore and has a specific anxiety when it comes to closed doors. Seeing as our apartment has no air conditioning, we made a screen so we didn’t roast inside our fifth floor apartment in the upcoming summer months. Our cats had experience with screened windows in our previous place with no problems. Unfortunately the other day, curiousity got the best of Rumi, and he chewed through the screen door to explore the balcony. But the world is a big place and he wanted to see more. He climbed up on the ledge and slipped.

Yesterday, our loving, beautiful and goofy Rumi fell five stories onto the concrete sidewalk below. His instincts were strong and he managed to bring himself into the building entrance with a broken leg. Luckily, I was home and noticed immediately. We rushed him to the vet for emergency testing. He suffered a shattered back leg, a fractured hip and a pulmonary contusion (blood in his lungs.) He was stable enough to be transferred to a specialised surgical vet clinic where he’s waiting to be operated on; since they first want to make sure that there’s nothing in his leg that could cause an infection later on.

Because of this, he’ll have to stay at the clinic for multiple days. We haven’t been told exactly how long. What we were informed of is how much the surgery alone will cost: upwards to €1,500. This does not include his clinic stay, medical supply cost or the bill from the emergency clinic we first took him to. We expect the total bill to run well north of €3,000. As of right now, Rumi is at the clinic alone, scared and hurt. His blind brother, Albus, keeps searching for him in our empty apartment and we are at a complete loss unable to help or explain to him. All we want is for them to be healthy, happy and safe together under our roof again.

The clinic bill will have to be paid in full in order to bring him home. Where we live, payment plans are not offered.

We have some savings but not nearly enough for an expense this large and this immediate.

My wife had a cat named Howie who suffered from kidney disease a while back. At the time she couldn’t work due to the language barrier living in a new country and those vet bills were also hard to conquer. Seeing as she already had a gofundme for him, she feels guilty starting a second one.

But we need help, so I’m starting one.

Rumi was the cat that I found online and fell in love with. Rumi is my first real pet that I adopted myself; I have never had my own pet before him. He’s my guy and I have to help him and get him home safe.

I understand that times are a mess at the moment. So only if you can at all, please help us bring Rumi back home.

We will post updates as soon as we get them.

Thank you

Laurens