My beautiful friend, Lana and her precious cat baby needs our help! His name is shnurik. He's been through so much in his life, starting with being left in a shoebox at Lana's place, finding out he's been abused, his tail was broken and bleeding and left to suffer. Lana took him in and loved him. He has been her beloved baby for several years. He's currently receiving vet treatment and my friend is struggling to keep up with his needs. She is a hard worker, recovering from multiple foot surgeries but is actively working on getting back into the working world. As we all know, tragedy knows no timing. Shnurik has fallen ill, barely eating, has made twice daily trips to the vet for IV antibiotics, has a jaw infection that has required all his teeth to be pulled. He is slowly showing signs of improvement but the bills for this type of care is a heavy burden, and he is requiring ongoing care that is going to require an upkeep of payments. My heart hurts for them. I have known Lana for several years. She has been a precious friend to me. She has been there for me when I was lost and struggling to find my way after the loss of my daughter and subsequent divorce. She has been there for me as a loyal friend, even when she was going through her own things. I want to support her through her traumatic events as well, as I know she would for me. This is what she wrote:

*****

Shnurochek (a little shoelace - in my language) is 11 now.

He's pretty young in the cat's age, pretty much like myself, I'm 37.

Some kids from our building abandoned Shnurik in a shoebox when he was a bit older than a month. His tail was broken in half and bleeding. At first, his name was Pupochek ("Little Belly Button") or Pirozhochek ("Little Pie"), but as soon as his tail was treated and healed, Shnurochek turned into Shnurochek. I honestly tried to find him a home and managed to place him with a neighbor on the first floor who had a Chihuahua. The next day, she called me screaming, saying that this little button-nose baby guy, who hadn't yet learned how to steer with half a tail, was bullying her "baby," and that we had to take him back. And that's how we got the most well-mannered, most gentle, yes, autistic and severely traumatized in childhood, but completely beloved boy, Shnurik. For obvious reasons, we didn't look for a new home for him after that.

He was the third cat in our cat family, but the most devoted to me. He only sleeps with me, accepts affection and food only from me, and if I go away on business, he sulks for days.

Right now, Shnurik is very sick. We spent our entire small financial cushion (I've had around 1000$+ in savings and I work part time earning very little), collected through our joint efforts, in just one week. It started with severe fever, puking and diarrhea. I took him to the vet right away. We spent 3 days on IVs,every 12 days day and night(antibiotics, painkillers and anti vomiting meds)

His bowels peristaltic nearly stopped.

Shnurik has been stabilized, but as the bacteria is growing the most in his gums and teeth (he has stomatitis and gingivitis, hence he might have autoimmune disease from this)

Finally we got the surgery on 1st of October to get his teeth removed (all except five), and biopsies were taken from his upper and lower jaws because both upper and lower bones looked like cancer. We didn't biopsy lymphatic knots because they got smaller on prednisolone. The prognosis is extremely cautious because there is a possibility of aggressive jaw cancer which won't be treatable but we'll do out BEST. The biopsy results will arrive next week

Right now he's very weak, getting antibiotics, painkillers and prednisolone and home but I'm getting morally ready for more bet bills. I'm scared that I wouldn't be able to afford it. Lymphatic knows will he byopsied in 2 weeks since we lowered the prednisolone dose. I'm hoping it's not a lymphoma.

For everything he has done for me, for all the love he has given me, I won't be able to just let him go, and I will fight for him to the very end. He's my baby, he's my child, we're so alike and it's my duty to fight for him till the very end. Please please PLEASE help me win this fight. He's my anchor. I'm nothing without him.

*****

She's taking such amazing care of this sweet boy. Right now, the update is that there's no cancer in the jaw but they screened his lymph knots and they're swollen again. Still waiting on those results. Any amount will help. Please help my precious friend help her precious baby.