This kitty was found on New Year’s Eve. He’d come by our house very late at night and eat food we would leave out. We weren’t able to get too good of a look at him, but at first we thought he had a pink collar on and was just an outdoor cat, but upon further inspection, we realized that the pink wasn’t a collar, but his literal flesh! From just under his jaw up to just before his shoulders are missing skin. He had dead skin and matted hair rolled up around the edges of his exposed flesh and scratches along the top of his head.

We were able to capture him by using a cat house covered with a blanket, and with food luring him inside. We watched the house during the night using a baby monitor and snuck out to quietly close the house without him noticing. We immediately took him to a 24 hour vet nearby to get him treated ASAP where the bill for a full diagnosis came out to be just over $2,000. We named him Mochi because of the way his lips were caught on his tooth while waiting for the doctor to come see him.

Mochi spent over 12 hours at the emergency vet where we found out he has FIV and there was no living tissue on his neck except for the part covering his chin to his chest. They had to take him to surgery to stretch his skin to cover as much of the wound as they could, but his recovery process will be very tough on him, especially with his immune system compromised. Much of the wound was left open which required bandaging and frequent cleaning. The best option was to keep him hospitalized for a couple of days, but this came out to be an additional $7,000 which we just simply could not physically pay. Putting Mochi down was introduced as an alternative, but he had already fought so hard and he was so kind to us when he was seriously injured and coming over for dinner. We just couldn't make that decision.

The vet offered another solution which is doing the surgery and having us take him home and the additional cost would come out to be just over $2,300, totaling about $4,300 to save Mochi's life. We of course took this opportunity.

He is expected to have a second surgery to cover more of his wound once he has had a chance to heal and we can only expect the price of this surgery to be similar to the first ($2,300) and we simply cannot keep up with these expenses.

Update 01/04/2026:

Mochi's surgery went well, but he still has far to go. They covered as much of his open wound as they could by stretching his skin. They coudn't cover the entire wound as stretching his skin further would compromise his healing abilities more than they already are.

He has been taking his medications and eating so incredibly well. He even ate food out of a bowl I was holding. He is so gentle and kind, just very cautious and scared, understandably. His behavior ever since we got home has honestly been relieving. Tomorrow he goes back to the vet to take his bandages off and to assess his wound further.