Hello, my name is Clarissa. I'm a pet portrait artist and have a small sanctuary farm here in Kansas. We have a variety of animals that reside with us, but my focus with the rescue side of things leans heavily towards cats. Most of the time my work painting is enough to cover a lot of the costs associated with rescue, but this time I need help.

This is Ness. She was a feral cat living in our local small town. When my friend spotted her she was too wild and scared to approach, but I could see that she was injured, bloody and unable to close her mouth. She was covered in burrs and matted hair, she clearly hadn't been able to groom herself for some time. The next day I was able to lure her into a pet crate with some canned food and get her to the vet. That was the 3rd of June and we (my vet, Ness, and I) have been battling abscess after abscess ever since. She had to have a toe, that had been bitten in whatever fight she had been in, removed. She has had a couple of abscess drained by the vet and a few that opened on their own. She's been on 3 different antibiotics and finally last week we sent off a sample to see if she had a resistant strain of infection. The bad news is yes. It is a staph infection, the good news is that there is ONE antibiotic that can treat it. The other very bad development is that the most recent abscess is behind her eye and will probably mean she has to have the eye removed, but the vet won't know for sure until she gets her sedated.

So that all the bad stuff.

The GOOD stuff is that she eats like a champ and has put on weight and if it weren't for a head full of infection she would look like pretty healthy kitty! She also began to trust me, even though for the first month it seemed like I was poking something in her or at her constantly. More than that she began to love me. She curls into me for safety, she clings to me when I pick her up, and today, at the vet when I had to decide if I should end her life or give her a chance at the impossible, she looked at me with determination and complete trust. I couldn't give up on her, because she hadn't given up. But this is not going to be easy or cheap, and I don't like to ask for help, but for her I will. So if you can donate that would be amazing, and if you can't, please share this link.

Thank you so much for helping me save my sweet Ness.