Kitty with Heart Disease

This is Happy. He’s your average 11-year-old  orange cat. Anyone who’s familiar with me knows that my cat means everything to me. Happy and I have been family from the moment I found him besides a garbage can when I was in the 2nd grade. I had named him after a dog from my favorite cartoon at the time, “The Mighty B!”. Unfortunately, the memo never got around to my family so they ended up calling him “Gato” which literally means “cat” in Spanish. But to me, he’ll always be my Happy.  

Just like any other cat, he has a personality of his own. I’ve always described him as a diva, which still remains true to this day. Despite this, he was always there to comfort me. Through stressful school nights, breakups, or just me being overwhelmed, he was always ready to snuggle next to me. 

On October 12th, I noticed something off with Happy. He was struggling to breathe and could hardly walk. Later that night, I decided to take him to the emergency vet. He was diagnosed with congested heart failure and was suspected of having Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) which is a heart muscle disease that causes abnormal thickening around the muscle walls. Because of high costs, testing was limited. I was told that he would be fine for now but he would need to check in with a vet ASAP for further diagnosis the following morning.

Given the nature of the illness, it was all really unexpected. Between my dad and I, we spent $500 on emergency vet services alone. Because we had spent so much money last night, we cannot afford to take him to a regular vet as of now for further testing/treatment. I understand times are very tough right now and how important it is to save as much as possible these days. Any and all support is very much appreciated whether it is through donations or even just a share. Thank you so much!