Surgery for Gremlin

The long story starts when I was volunteering at an animal shelter and I fell in love with a cat.


Her name was Inga then, and she was as sweet as she could be.  

She was a little shy, she didn't like to be handled/picked up, but she let me pet her and scratch behind her ears. We bonded, and I fell head over heels. I made plans and got to adopting her soon after.

Unfortunately things started falling apart right after that. When I adopted her the shelter said that they would be the ones to put her in the carrying case, because she didn't like being picked up/handled. Which didn't bother me then, I was still very excited to take her home. But when I did get to taking her home, and handling her, what I felt wasn't right.

In the time that the shelter had been caring for my cat, it had gone unnoticed, but I could feel a number of lumps all along her body. It wasn't like anything I had felt before. Her hair was greasy and when I went to gently combing it I found out that the lumps on her were matted hair. More alarming than that, underneath the layer of matted hair, she was very boney, emaciated.


We quickly found out why, as she wasn't eating at all. She didn't eat wet or dry food, she wouldn't even lick at the semi-liquid premium cat foods. She had such a pain in her mouth she wouldn't eat, and she wasn't cleaning herself. When I watched her, she would make sudden pained noises and bury her head under herself.

We took her right back to the animal shelter (which has its own clinic) to get her seen by their staff, and possibly get her health record.


The staff there seemed very surprised to see the condition she was in, and the veterinarian admitted to me that they should not have adopted her out.

She was extremely under weight, and received a total of three injections that day. She needed medicine for the pain, so we could get her to eat, and medicine to fight the infection in her mouth. They also had to sedate her so they could shave off all of her matted hair.

She was 5.5lbs. with all of her matted fur, and under 5lbs. without, which is very unhealthy for a cat her age and build.


This is how I settled on the name "Gremlin." It may sound mean, but it was a term of endearment when I saw her big ears and boney little body creeping around the house.


The condition, called "feline stomatitis" can sometimes disappear after one major treatment, and routine care. Unfortunately, it left and returned, just as bad as it had before. There was about two months of pain free-happy recovery time with Gremlin before she became reluctant to eat again. She did gain weight, and the boney little bumps started to disappear, and her scrawny self started to bulk up.


I have been able to pay the few treatments she has needed so far- but in order to prevent this condition from returning, she will need dental surgery to remove the offending teeth causing the reaction.

I am selling many of my possessions to raise this money as well as this fundraiser, she's much more important to me than material things. I would like to get her this surgery as soon as possible, hopefully before another round of anti-biotics are needed because of a flare up.

Any amount of money is appreciated, even a few cents can get me closer to getting Gremlin her needed care. If you would like to know more about her condition, I found this article to be very helpful.

I have decided not to post any "call-out" posts or information about the animal rescue. The information I give about them is just what is needed to talk about Gremlin's situation.

Here are the details about that: I have spoken with them and I am disappointed that they have refused to help me with her surgery, even in the least. They are a no-kill shelter and they agree they should have been treating her. They have no health records of her during her stay, other than vaccines, flea/tick treatments, and getting spayed. Which means she was completely untreated for her dental condition (including hair matting and starving) since her initial intake, where there was no record of her being noticeably unhealthy. Their solution to me, since they are in breach of their contract, (the contract stating that the cat was in good health and cared for up until the time of adoption) was that I could switch my cat with them, and adopt another cat instead.

Needless to say, I do not want to "switch out" my cat for a new one. I love Gremlin very much, and as sad as her case has been, I wouldn't want any other cat but her. She goes to sleep with me at night, and she wakes me up in the morning. She's the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing before I go to sleep. I can't imagine replacing her, and I can't imagine doing anything else but making sure that she is healthy and happy.

So thank you for reading this incredibly long story! Please consider making a donation, even a small one. Every little thing helps.