Support KP's Fight for a Second Chance

Dear friends, family, animal lovers and generous people of the world;

My beloved cat KP, aka KittyPoops aka Pooperdoopers (Thank you Alek) aka Poops (Yes her name is weird!, but so is she and that's why we love her) is currently hospitalized in the ICU at the Hospital for Small Animals at Tufts University.

For those of you who don't know her, KP is a beautiful long haired domestic kitty. She is 15. She is loving and affectionate and prefers human attention over anything else. KP is the only cat in our home who has taken a liking to our 8 month old baby boy Hudson, and will often come sit next to us for cuddles while I feed Hudson his bottles. (We are still teaching Hudson how to pet her gently so she can keep her hair.)

KP has been battling chronic respiratory illness. The lack of smell due to her last URI left her eating significantly less and losing weight. She had a vet visit and took medication but her weight never fully recovered before she came down with another URI. She lost more weight and became weak. She stopped drinking water and became dangerously dehydrated. I contacted Tufts and brought her in. She was hypothermic and her kidney & electrolyte levels were completely off the charts. She wouldn't have survived the night. She was barely there; a tiny shell of her former self.

KP has since began a slow albeit hopeful recovery. Her electrolytes have balanced. Her creatinine level has gone from 13mg/dl to 2.5mg/dl and continues to show improvement. Her heart and respiratory rates are great. Her mentation, which was severely depressed, has improved to the point where she is looking around and starting to move again. She is on the path to recovery. We don't know what life will look like for her yet if and when she makes it past this point.

She is far from out of the woods.. She could continue to improve, or she could plateau in which case I will be faced with the tough choice of ending treatment and saying goodbye. This is still a very real possibility. The bill is reaching a point that could end up making that choice for me.

I didn't initially plan to spend so much to treat her. People will see the number and think I'm crazy for trying to save an old cat, but let me explain how I got here:

I feel responsible for her condition. The symptoms that got KP to this point were treatable, and while I implemented some interventions at home, it was too little too late. I should have brought her in sooner. I should have understood that she needed help. Because of this, I feel she deserved a fair chance at survival. The initial estimate was manageable. But her recovery began very slowly. I held on because all signs have and still are pointing in the right direction. I am realistic in that there is a physical and financial limit. If it is determined that she is suffering with no progress, I will make the call to end her suffering. If she continues to improve, financial restraints will leave me no choice but to end that progress and euthanize KP. It breaks my heart to type those words.

I don't like to ask people for money. I plan to take steps to raise funds in other ways, such as selling personal belongings and picking up OT shifts at work when I can.

If you are reading this and are capable of donating any amount at all, I will be eternally grateful for your generosity. I hope to bring KP home and let her live out the last years of her life in comfort at the top of the couch near the window. (It's her favorite spot among several in the house.) I will post updates over the next few days, but time is running out. I will have to make a choice before the end of the week.

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. If you can't donate, sharing the link is still a big help, and I appreciate it very much. Thank you.

Update Tue 11/12 a.m: I'm waiting to hear from the doc this morning, but the last update is that they have increased her feeding and she has gained over 1lb since being admitted, which is a ~16% increase in body weight. This is good! Unfortunately her mentation, after some improvement, remained the same throughout the day yesterday. Im concerned she may plateau. We will see what today brings. Thank you all so much for your support.

*All donations will go toward the cost of KP's medical care at the Foster Hospital for Small Animals at Tufts University*