This is probably not allowed on this list but I can't just stand by and see my friend Karen suffer. She has been feeding about 16 outdoor colonies. She watches over the health and welfare of these cats as if they were her own house cats. Recently, she has had a really bad run of luck. She rescued a cat who needed over $1,000 dollars in eye surgery. i have him now and the surgery saved his one remaining eye. Otherwise, he would have been a totally blind cat. She also rescued a cat who was bone thin and combo tested positive for both FIV and FeLv cat. She spent several hundred dollars curing him of mange and anemia. I fostered the cat and he turned negative for FeLv. He's now in my FIV room with 4 other FIV+ cats. Karen has rescued and found homes for over a hundred hard case cats, including 3 FeLv+ cats who did not turn. One of them is still alive and enjoying life as a healthy pampered puss with a lovely lady. The cat is over 6 years old now. Karen works an 8 hour a day job. The trouble is that she spends all her pay on feeding the colony cats and her three remaining indoor cats. She has spent over $1,000 for a cat she rescued and took into her own house and who after a year, developed a malignant tumor in her ear canal. The cat lived with it for several months, on medication and vitamins until she passed away suddenly one afternoon. And now, another disaster has hit my friend. He car died. She has been relying on friends and neighbors to get her to work but she is struggling with the cat colony feeding and is running out of money to feed them and even to buy her own food. She needs help and there is very little available in San Antonio where we both live. I am almost at the poverty level myself, with an online job that pays sporadically and two other jobs which are exhausting because they involve a lot of driving and delivering so I can't help Karen financially. I have over 3 dozen cats of my own to deal with. Karen spends more than $70 a week every week. At that rate she will never be able to replace her car, even with a junker. Is there any help out there for Karen before she goes under? I was thinking that if people could donate pet food gift cards to her that would help alleviate some of the expense of feeding the colonies. One person has already done this by calling Petsmart and purchasing a gift card over the phone with his credit card. He then notified Karen that he had done this and the next time she went to the store, they told her she had a gift card credit. I think that all pet food stores have this system now. Anyway, if you are able to help, even a few dollars would be a blessing. I'm sorry to bother the list with this problem as we are all struggling with vet bills for our special needs cats but I am watching my friend get more and more depressed and desperate every day and I can't just stand by and do nothing. Lots of cats are depending on her for their very lives. Thanks for reading this long post. Contact me off list if you can help.
Spay and Neuter your cats and dogs and your weird relatives and nasty neighbors too!
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