Hi, I'm Liz, and I am a foster and the treasurer for North County Paws Cause in Paso Robles, California. We are a volunteer-based, certified 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the betterment of felines in Northern San Luis Obispo County, California. We aim to spay/neuter as many feral and domestic cats as possible through trapping and community involvement. In doing so, we are improving the lives of these cats and decreasing the impact on local animal shelters, as well as reducing nuisance abatement calls for ferals to animal control. We also aim to find homes for abandoned domesticated cats/kittens through fostering and adoption events.

This year, we have also been pulling kitties from shelters around California, including Fresno, Avenal, Bakersfield, Porterville, Kerman, and San Bernardino. The kitten I am raising money for is Cheerio, and he came to me in July from Devore, along with his sisters. They were scheduled to be euthanized because they had ringworm—a very treatable fungal infection of the skin. This is a sad reality of overcrowded municipal animal shelters—simple illnesses aren't able to be treated due to a lack of resources.

Once Cheerio and his sisters came to me, it was clear that Cheerio had more issues going on. He had labored breathing and was lethargic. We took him to our local pet ER, where they found he was suffering from severe aspiration pneumonia. He was hospitalized and placed into an oxygen chamber, and set up with IV fluids and antibiotics. It was close—he almost didn't make it. I am so glad that he pulled through.

His pneumonia has been an ongoing issue, though. He is still fighting it six weeks after being hospitalized. He has been adopted by a neighbor of mine (along with his foster brother, Molasses), and she is continuing his medicine. He has yet another follow-up at the end of September, which will be covered by our rescue. We will cover his care for this illness until he gets signed off by the vet.

We are $2,500 in so far, excluding his neuter, microchip, vaccines, and FIV/FeLV testing. Bills like this are a huge burden on small rescues like ours, especially when we are trying to help as many kitties as we can. I'd like to fundraise to pay this amount back to the rescue so that we can continue to help little lives like Cheerio. They all deserve a chance!