Support: 12 week old Kitten, Paulie

It all started in February of 2016. I noticed a stray cat outside, very frail and thin, searching for food in the dead winter. I didn't have any cat food and so I offered it tuna. She was very hungry. I started to see her everyday after that. And then I noticed, more and more cats. It was a colony; a family of ferals. They were all terrified of people and wouldn't let me come within a 30 ft radius, but they were friendly. It took months and months for them to warm up to me. I was able to determine that there were 2 females and 2 males. They began to allow me to pet them…that was a huge milestone! One of the females, who I named "Chloe" became pregnant in the early summer. I was worried about her having her babies outside, for their safety but also for the sake of creating more "ferals," afraid of human touch. (I have been working hard to trap, and fully vet each individual one, so they can't continue to reproduce but I knew I needed to get Chloe into a safe place to have her kittens, as I'd be able to adopt them out, when they were ready.) 

I was able to get Chloe and bring her into my basement. She was terrified at first, had never been inside before and for the first time in her entire life, she had a warm bed, shelter, consistent food and water and love. She gave birth to five beautiful, healthy kittens after spending 5 days inside. They were doing wonderful, all nursing, hitting kitten milestones until about 4 weeks old when we noticed the 3 were starting to walk and the other 2, who we named "Pandora" and "Paulie" were very unbalanced, they had "bobble heads," and were unable to get around-at all. I rushed both of them to the vet, for the vet to tell me that they were "healthy kittens" aside from contracting distemper, while in utero and they both had CH. Cerebellar Hypoplasia (cer·e·bel·lar hy·po·pla·sia) is a disorder found in cats and dogs which causes jerky movements, tremors, and generally uncoordinated motion, just like ataxic cerebral palsy in humans. A cat with CH often falls down and has trouble walking or cannot seem to walk at all. CH in cats is non-progressive, meaning it does not get worse with age. They weren't in pain, they were just "special needs" and weren't able to get around on their own.

Their mom, Chloe started to favor the other 3, who were perfectly normal kittens, and we noticed that Pandora and Paulie really needed some extra supplementation of milk, attention and care. My beautiful friend, Ashley stepped up to the plate and volunteered to take both of them under her wing and to become their new mama. She bottle fed them every 2-3 hours for weeks. They began to thrive. She takes them with her, just about everywhere she goes. They have a wonderful life with her and everything was going great until October 21, 2016. Paulie started to unexpectedly experience seizures. He was having them every 6 hours or so. Ashley rushed him to an emergency vet, who advised her to travel to their Neurological Center in Yonkers for further testing. She didn’t hesitate, she wanted to get him into the proper care so he would survive. Paulie was put under general anesthesia and received a spinal tap-aside from these seizures he's been a very happy, healthy little boy. He wants to live. He never cries-he is an amazing little kitten. He's just 12 weeks old. Multiple tests have been sent out and the vet has placed him on 4 different medications and as of today, he has been seizure free for 24 hours!! We are praying for him to continue to get better and are optimistic about his prognosis.

Ashley was an angel to take these two special needs kittens on herself. She is busy, just like the rest of us and these two are not "easy" kittens. She has grown to love them as her own babies and would do anything for them. She now has a medical bill, that is THOUSANDS of dollars. We are trying to raise money to pay for Paulie's medical bills and would be ever so grateful for ANYTHING you can contribute. It takes a very special person to adopt a kitten, an even more special person to adopt 2, but to adopt 2 with super high special needs and then to have to spend so much to keep him alive, just doesn't seem fair. 

We are offering incentives to those of you who would like to help the cause...And if you can't donate, please share this story to spread the word. 


For every $30 you donate, you will receive a hand-made scarf for your fur baby, by Danielle.

For every $50 you donate, you will receive a hand-made, high quality beaded bracelet, by Ashley AND a scarf for your fur baby or to re-gift to someone else! It’s up to you. :)

Please leave your email with the size of scarf you'd like for your fur baby, in the comments. (XS, S, M, L, XL) And send Danielle a private message with your address to ship. We appreciate all of your help, support, love and donations!



If you wish to support Ashley in a different way, this is the link to her shop. Anything will help!
 https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheTypsyGypsyCorner ‌ business! ‌