Hello, FoO! That's "Friends of Obie," of course...

As many of you know, I adopted this ridiculously handsome little orange fur-ball early last year, my first kitty in nearly a decade. Cat rescue friends found him roaming the streets of Pico Rivera, flea-ridden and abandoned, and through their heroic efforts, cleaned him up and brought him back to health. Shortly after, I saw one of their photos of him on Facebook, enjoying a chin-scritch, and I couldn't resist.

This was unfortunately about the same time as my last regular entertainment industry paycheck, but I didn't know that at the time. Flash forward 18 months, and even though I've pretty much drained the life savings, I've been able to at least provide a roof over his head and full bowls of kitty food... until this week.

As is often the case with boy cats, Obie had been producing "bladder stones" for some time, and Friday morning, they caused a sudden and complete shut down his urinary tract. Within 10 hours, he went from playful, to bloated and nearly unconscious from pain. Luckily, I lived literally 4 blocks from an emergency vet clinic, and was able to get him treated in time. Apparently, a few hours more and it would have been disastrous.

He spent the weekend recovering at the VERY expensive emergency hospital, where they relieved the pressure and got him temporarily flowing again, but then came the really bad news after a $5900 emergency bill: he was going to need immediate bladder surgery to remove the stones, or it was guaranteed to happen again, possibly as soon as I got him home. Little Obie had become a ticking time bomb. The emergency vets were very helpful, suggesting low-cost alternatives to their emergency-room level prices, which brings us to this GoFundMe...

This of course all happened the week before end-of-month bills, which I was concerned about anyway... the problem being, I maxed out a credit card paying for the emergency room, and I'm now facing a minimum $3500 surgery, necessary to keep it all from happening again at any time.

This is such a difficult thing for me to ask, especially during a year where close friends and tens of thousands of fellow Angelenos lost their homes to massive fires, but I'm kind of up again a wall at the moment. I'm currently arranging a surgery for Obie, and hopefully that will fix the situation for many years to come, but with funds being short here at the end of the month, I could really use some help with the Orange Boy this week. And I know Obie-Juan would appreciate it... Thanks for reading this little request, everyone!