Vet Care for 20 Adorable Kitties and Mama!

 

 

 

This money will be used to pay for vet care and continued home care of 16 adorably adoptable kitties and their Mama through the entire adoption process.

 

A very timid, rail-thin black feral cat started coming to my door about nine months ago, hungry enough to approach but clearly afraid of people. Over time I slowly earned its trust and befriended it, with the intention of giving it love, ending its hunger and most importantly, hoping to be able to crate him/her in order to get them vaccinated and fixed.

 


It turned out that she is female, and after having her first litter under my deck, she is about to have another litter of kittens any day now. (The newborn kittens can’t be separated from Mama and adopted until they are 12 weeks old.)

 

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to handle her enough to get her into a carrier and take her to the vet before she got pregnant the first time, giving birth to her first litter of 8 kittens. (Sadly, one was eaten early on by a wild animal.)

 

Given that she was nursing her kittens, I was waiting until the three-month mark to catch her and get her spayed, but the tomcat across the street beat me to it, and she got pregnant before I could do it--she got pregnant way earlier than I realized was possible actually.

 

At about four weeks, the kittens started slowly coming out from under the deck with Mama cat. After spending lots of time with them, now at month three-plus, I now have them all living inside my house, where they’ll be safe and loved until I find their forever homes.

 

Living out in the country as I do, it’s rare for people to spay or neuter the feral cat population. The feral cats who live here in the Sierra foothills, tragically, tend to one at a time get picked off by coyotes. I’ve sadly been witness to this, not once but twice. I’m working hard to do my part in reducing the feral cat population. It's not an easy life for them.

 

The seven littermates are about 3.5 months old now. They’re completely socialized, happy, loving and playful, perfectly well-adjusted kitties. They come running when they see me and always want to be in my lap; it’s soooo cute!

 

The rub is that I cannot keep them. I have to get them adopted, and getting them vaccinated, socialized, spayed, neutered and fed, is part of it.

 

I wish I could do this and not ask for help but it’s just too expensive to handle alone. (Please know that if you ever have to raise money in a GoFundMe, I’ll pay it forward and promise to be there for you!)

 

These hilariously funny, little purring fluffballs had a rough start and deserve to have a great life. Thank you for reading my GoFundMe and contributing whatever you can- xox

 

With love and mews,


 

Pam


 

 

 

The Cost breakdown:

 

Please see Hope Foundation, (Fresno) for price list verification

https://hopeaf.com

 

FVRCP (upper respiratory) $272

($17 each)

 

Spay/neuter 16 cats $1,040 
($65 each)

 

Post-Operative Pain Management $320 ($20 per cat/ 16 cats)

 

Vet care Reserve $500


From experience, I know that there will also be a couple of kitties who will need to go to the vet for one reason or another. That’s always a minimum of a $45 office visit, whatever’s going on, plus medication usually. I can bank on it being at least $100 each visit per cat. Need to budget in 1/3 of them needing some kind of vet care, so that’s $500.

 

Food $750

A month’s worth of food for seven smallish kittens and a Mama costs $150, which I’ve already spent, plus some. The second newborn kitten litter will start eating kibble when they’re about a month old. That’s another $450-$500 to take them up to the point of being adoptable. They almost certainly won’t get adopted right away, so I can bank on 2-3 months of food (the first litter is growing and eating more every day!)

 

Mama and her seven kittens consume 1 quart of food a day; that’s $25 every five days. When I’m feeding both litters in two months, that will be $50-$75 a week in food. I’ve been already feeding them for two months and will need to continue until I get all 16 adopted.

 

Litter $200

The litter is $16 for 50 lbs. I bought two rubber feeding troughs I use as cat boxes and go through one of these bags a week. Soon it will be two!

 

2 Cat Condos for Scratching / Climbing / Playing $151.53. ($69.99 each)

This is to help keep my house from being destroyed and healthy play, lounging and of course for luxurious back stretching!

 

Toys and beds $200

A friend gave me peacock feathers from a neighbor’s farm which they love. I've been hitting thrift stores for used toys, rolling up socks for them to play with, and I’ve got balls of tinfoil they love to bat around. I’ve also bought them small tennis balls and balls with bells inside that they love, but they really need larger, plush stuffed animals that resemble things they like and can wrap their whole body around, snuggle with or play-bite and kick. Also, the toys lose their novelty, so they need new ones introduced regularly for enrichment. The plush toys are about $8 each.

 All toys and beds will either go with the kittens to their new homes or be donated to our local ASPCA at the end of the adoption process.

 

Thank you!!