Save Pierre: A Cat's Fight for Life

April 22, 2025 Update:

This is so hard to post but I wanted to thank everyone who prayed and donated to Pierre. I'm so grateful for such wonderful support. Unfortunately, she lost her battle with cancer and we helped her cross the rainbow bridge yesterday morning. My life with Pierre has come full circle as I was her foster mom at the beginning and am her foster mom again at the end. She was such a special cat to all that met her. I will truly miss her presence and the joy she added to our lives. I'm so appreciative of my sister-in-law, Dani Vergara, for giving her such a wonderful life full of love and happiness. We will never forget you Pierre....

April 17, 2025 Update:

Thank you to everyone that has donated and asked how Pierre is doing. Not much to update except she is doing great after her nasal flush procedure. The flush gave her relief from the mass that was growing in her nasal cavity. She has been eating on her own and is back to her old self. We are still waiting for a test to confirm what type of cancer she has. We should have some answers in about a week or so. Please continue to pray and share her story.

April 8, 2025 Update:

Thank you all that have taken the time to share and donate to help Pierre. This isn't an update I want to make. We found out the sample that was sent out has come back as cancerous. She is comfortable right now and seems happy. The procedure to remove the sample tissue to send to pathology actually cleared her nasal passage and she's breathing like normal. Shes able to eat on her own and is also playing a little. She started to gain some of her weight back as well. Unfortunately, since it's cancer, we know it's only a temporary relief until the cancer grows back. We are getting more tests to see if we can treat the cancer and her quality of life can be maintained. The cost of the additional test is $522. We hope to have a clearer picture of her prognosis in 2-3 weeks. But for now, she is comfortable and happy. Please continue to pray she stays stable until then.

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Hello my name is Ellen and I am raising money, on behalf of my sister-in-law, Dani, to help save her cat Pierre. Thank you for taking the time to read our story about Pierre, the cat we thought was a boy but ended up to be a girl.

Pierre was on the verge of being euthanasized this past Sunday due to her continued medical issues. We have spent close to $8,000 trying to figure out her diagnosis. We are raising money so we can pay for more extensive tests. We still do not have a definitive answer of what is causing her issues but we have exhausted our finances and are asking for help to keep her alive.

Dani wanted me to include this:

Meet Pierre, the girl cat. Since last summer, we have been going through a never ending medical nightmare with Pierre, and I’m hoping that my community of friends, families, and animal lovers may be able to help support her as she continues to fight. Before I share the current medical challenges facing Pierre, I want to tell you Pierre’s story and how she came to join our family.

During covid, my sister-in-law, Ellen, was having a conversation with a client about cats, who mentions to her that there is a friendly tuxedo cat that visits her house everyday. Unlike other stray cats, this tuxedo would roll around and beg for affection. We were told that this stray cat was constantly being picked on by the other cats, and decided to meet the cat and determine if it needed a home. With no microchip and a gentle, loving personality, I decided to care for the cat and help it find a furever home. I didn’t know yet if it was a boy or a girl - but with a jaunty white mustache, I thought “this cat is a Pierre.” We soon had our first vet appointment, where we found out that Pierre was a girl, approximately 1 year old, but unfortunately tested positive for feline leukemia. Our vet informed us that it was possible the leukemia would clear if she was under a year old. Since we couldn't be sure of her exact age, Ellen decided to take a chance on her in hopes she would shed the virus.

Ellen became a foster mom to Pierre. For 6 months Ellen took care of Pierre, creating a safe space for Pierre to stay while containing her three cats, Lucy, Axel and Howard upstairs. Ellen treated Pierre like her own, and for the next 6 months, we cared for her in hopes she would shed the virus. Most vets will eauthanize to prevent the spread of feline leukemia, but we wanted to give her an opportunity at life.

At her six month vet recheck, Pierre actually ended up testing negative - which meant she could be adopted! But in a twist that will likely surprise no one, both Ellen and I had already fallen in love with Pierre.

While Ellen was a long time cat mom, I had just adopted my first cat, Catalina from Animal Allies Rescue Foundation (AARF), earlier in the year, and the thought of adding another one to my family was scary. But, Pierre was incredibly special and it’s been one of the best decision. She has the calmest temperament, gets along with my other cat, and she is the best eater and eats anything I give her, unlike my other cat. Pierre turned out to be a gift to our family.

Unfortunately, last Summer, she started having an entirely new set of medical challenges. On July 11, 2024, I took Pierre into the vet because I noticed she was in pain when she would try to eat, crying out in pain then running and hiding. She also had a bad smell from her mouth. We were given pain meds to try at home.

A few weeks later, I took her in for a recheck due to nasal discharge - her gums were red and inflamed. At that point, I was told she has stomatitis, a condition that causes painful swelling and sores in the mouth, and needed dental surgery. They removed eleven teeth and the total cost reached $2442.56. Without insurance, I paid this in full.

Luckily, she went back to being her happy, affectionate self until late November 2024 when I again noticed a nasal discharge. The disease was causing her pain again, and with additional medications, the price tag reached $488. On February 4, 2025, she returned to the vet for the same issue again, with the added complication that she stopped eating and drinking for 3 days. It was decided that the best course of action was to remove all of her teeth.

We scheduled the procedure for March 11, 2025, but on February 21, 2025, I had to take her to the ER because she again refused to eat for several days and she started having trouble breathing. Dehydrated with significant weight loss (half her body weight), the vets were extremely concerned about her ability to pull through and go through another surgery. They provided fluids, put her on antibiotics, anti-inflammatory meds as well as anti-nausea meds, and appetite stimulants. It was all overwhelming, as was the vet bill of $1088.

For the next several weeks I kept her separate from Catalina and her human brother, and despite her pain and lack of energy, she was still as sweet as could be. Finally, on March 11, 2025, she had the second dental surgery (at a cost of $1971). We were so hopeful that this would cure her - but sadly, she still wouldn’t eat and her breathing got worse. In addition, she started to bleed from her nose. She again was put on a cocktail of meds, another vet visit with xrays to check for pneumonia, another $172. We noticed she was interested in food but wouldn't eat on her own. We decided to syringe feed her to force her to eat but she started to take it on her own. Her breathing condition still didn't improve but at least she had a little appetite.

At this point, we began to lose hope. On March 20, 2025, we were back at the vet to check her breathing and her bloody nose and the vet sent us home with nasal drops and a recommendation for a nasal scoping test to try to determine what else could be at play- at a cost of $3,000.

I felt defeated as I was faced with the hardest decision a pet parent can make. On top of the financial decision, I wasn’t sure I could continue to put Pierre through more procedures - syringe feeding her and back and forth to the vets were stressing her out more. Euthanasia was our best option. But Ellen didn't want to put her down without knowing what she has and convinced me to get another opinion. We took her to Veterinary Referral Associates as an emergency on March 28, 2025. The vet said it could probably be a cancer or tumor but wouldn't know for sure unless they scoped her. Doing a CT or scoping would cost us $6000-$7000 - double our original estimate. All they could do for her that day was hydrate her and give her more pain meds to keep her comfortable.

With our hearts broken, we decided to make an appointment for in-home euthanasia. But of course - we began seeing glimpses of improvement: still eating with syringe, using her litter box, rolling around. She was still fighting, and we felt we needed to also.

Ellen reached out to Animal Allies Rescue Foundation (AARF), a Baltimore-based animal rescue with whom she volunteers with. AARF graciously accepted Pierre into rescue, with Ellen fostering her, so that Pierre can get the vital care she needs from here on out. On March 31, 2025, Pierre officially became an AARFie.

This entire health journey that Pierre has been through has been emotionally, physically, and financially exhausting. To date, I have personally spent $6,500 since this started in July 2024. As a single mother with a limited income, just doing the first dental surgery was tough. But when I adopted Pierre, I promised to care for her and ensure she didn’t suffer, and I made it work. As her battle progressed, I’ve kept up every step of the way, taking out Care Credit to fund her second surgery, and paying for all the other vet and ER visits along the way - but I am financially spent, and I love Pierre enough that I still want the best for her. Ellen couldn't let me put her down without another opinion so she paid for her last ER visit. Without any good news, our last hope was AARF.

AARF has a network of care providers that can give Pierre the medical attention she needs. Ellen and I are creating this GoFundMe to help raise funds to cover Pierre’s medical bills with AARF and for additional tests she needs. Thus far, $1,038.04 has been spent by AARF, and we anticipate it to be $3,000 depending on her diagnosis.

Animal Allies Rescue Foundation, Inc. (AARF) is an all volunteer run, foster based 501(c)(3) non-profit based in the Baltimore region, dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and adoption of abandoned, abused, homeless, and senior cats and dogs. And as a long time supporter and volunteer, Ellen knows how hard they work to care for animals, with a strong network of veterinary partners. But, like any rescue, they can only save lives with the financial backing of donations.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Ellen and I will keep you updated on Pierre’s progress. No amount is too small. We are grateful for whatever amount we could use towards her medical costs. We are praying and hoping that we get answers.

Since gofundme has fees, please feel free to Zelle or Venmo Ellen instead if you prefer.

Zelle: 3015268818

Venmo: @Ellen-Vergara

Thank you to those that have already donated. You have no idea how much this means to Dani and I. If we end up raising more money, we will donate the rest of the funds to AARF.

Ellen and Dani