Support Miso's Fight for Life After Surgery

Miso’s Story

Miso has had megacolon since 2023, mild at first and remaining manageable, progressing to life-threatening levels in December 2024. After much deliberation and the complete tapping of my savings, I was able to get my beloved Miso surgery to treat his megacolon. He just underwent surgery, but now he is having postoperative complications that require more days in the hospital. I tried to save enough in case this happened, but it is worse than expected. He needs this high level of care to survive, but I don’t know how I will afford it. We are already up to another $5000 minimum after the surgery, which has been paid for. We were told he may need two more days in the hospital. The next two days are a matter of life and death, and getting him this care will determine the outcome.

I adopted Miso in late December 2018. I was living in a group house in Portland, OR, and Miso was my roommate’s cat. He was severely neglected and also had a history of being surrendered to shelters, three times in his five years. I began to care for him in lieu of my absent roommate, and he began to stay with me. Four months later, I knew I had to keep him, but my roommate said no. Two days before I was scheduled to move back to Seattle, she spontaneously said yes. But it was complicated; I was facing being unhoused and struggling with health conditions. I was able to secure a safe apartment for us, where we spent COVID quarantine together; I would have been wholly alone without him. Just as I rescued him, he rescued me.

By late 2021, I was healthier and had transcended less stable contract work for a job serving HIV+ populations in Public Health, but Miso began struggling with multiple health crises. As a designer Siamese-Manx cat, he was bred for being polydactyl (he has cute thumbs on his little mittens) and unbelievably adorable; however, this breeding made him subject to issues including IBD, HCM, arthritis, allergies, and eventually this diagnosis of life-threatening megacolon. I have sacrificed so much to support him through all this and would be happy to do so again.

He saved my life, and I want to do anything I can to save him. I hope that I can find a way.