Whisper needs your help!

Melissa Barrup is organizing this fundraiser to benefit Queen City Cats Inc.

Tax deductible

Whisper has had a horrible year and needs our support.

My name is Melissa Barrup and I'm a nurse practitioner. Whisper and her sister, Silver, were my patient's cats. He was elderly and blind and sadly passed away at the end of October, leaving his cats without anyone to care for them. I offered to help get them into foster, so they could find their new forever home, but then learned that Whisper had fallen out his second floor window and had been missing for a week. With the gracious assistance of Sue Wear, Tracey and Connie, we began the arduous process of trying to find her. It took a month of monitoring game cameras and feeding stations, and 31 days from the day she went missing she was spotted and then trapped! She was extremely malnourished, but so happy to be inside again and soaking up the affection!

Unfortunately Whisper has not been able to recover and has declined rapidly over the last week. Her appetite has been poor and she's not gained much weight. Her vet found that she had some very concerning lab values: elevated white blood cell count, very low potassium, and anemia. We tried an appetite stimulant and 2 rounds of antibiotics, but then on Wednesday she developed some concerning neurologic signs and was lethargic. She went to BEVS last night and was found to have severely low potassium, dehydration and they admitted her for IV fluids. The update this morning is that she has not recovered as they had hoped. She has a consultation with an internal medicine specialist this morning and will need an ultrasound and likely further testing.

Queen City Cats (https://www.queencitycatsvt.org/) has been covering her care, but the expense has been a significant strain on their resources. They have had multiple cats requiring high levels of medical care and have dozens of other healthy cats who are they are fostering ahead of adoptions. I don't want Whisper's life to be a financial decision, but without additional financial support, that decision may be out of our hands.

My goal with this gofundme is to raise enough money to cover Whisper's expenses, so that Queen City Cats can focus their efforts on other rescue cats just like Whisper. If you are able to donate even just $10 today, then you will be helping Whisper get one step closer to reuniting with her sister, Silver (who I've also been fostering) and eventually being healthy enough to find a loving home. We want to see her playing again and begging for food! If you could also share this with your network, we would be forever grateful!

Old North End Vet has been caring for her prior to last night's admission. The cost of the testing and treatment there was $600. The BEVS bill last night was estimated at $1328.74 on the low end and $2130.95 on the high end. The low end does not cover the ultrasound that she will need which is $560. As she has not responded as well as we had liked with treatment last night, she may need another night's stay and further testing and treatment. I will post copies of the invoices and updates on gofundme as we know more.

All donations will go directly to Queen City Cats and any extra money raised will go directly to helping other needy cats in their care.

Please help us make a miracle happen for Whisper this holiday!