This is a plea for donations. But first, you get Fanny's whole story!
On the morning of October 30th, one of my housemate yelled up to me to wake up. I stumbled downstairs and, not seeing him there, continued to the basement. He was digging in his toolbox for wrenches. I followed him out to the alley and saw a little black & white cat caught in the fan belt of a big old car. The elderly owner of this car was wringing her hands in distress, my neighbor who feeds stray cats was freaking out, my housemate was trying unsuccessfully to loosen the fan belt, and the little cat was wailing (and occassionally chomping on his hand).
The wrench broke, he went to our basement to look for another, I ran to the house of another neighbor - whose garage holds every tool known to man - to borrow another one. Not knowing the size needed, I hauled his whole wrench box into the alley (musta weighed 40 pounds!). But meantime, the lady had been so heartbroken by the kitty's cries that she cut the fan belt herself.
So the cat is in a paper ream box, the lady's car now has no fan belt, my household's car is off on a road trip, and neither of the neighbor ladies who were trying to help have cars. No cars anywhere! So, back to the tool-man neighbor. Yes, he can take us to the vet. But it's barely 9am, and none of the local vets open until 10. So, it's a half hour ride to the emergency center in Langhorne.
We get there, hand over the cat and wait for the news. I'm expecting the worst - internal organs damaged, broken back - but the doctor says that she has a badly broken leg - poking out of the skin, and scraped against the inside of a car, well, you can imagine how horrid that must have been. And she's young - only 6 months old! And they have an orthopedic surgon there that day, so they can figure out if there's a good prognosis for repairing the leg. The alternative is amputation.
Well, I've never met a three-legged cat and amputation sounded like a dreadful, last-ditch option. (Many days later I had a chance to look up info on amputation and cats and realized that wasn't so horrible, but my belief at decision-making time was that amputation was an outcome to be avoided.)
The surgeon said that since we had brought her in so quickly, they could start antibiotics right away and minimize the risk of infection, so she thought there was a good prognosis. Wow, it was expensive, though - the estimate was $1400, but the doctor said that the surgeon would donate time and they'd give us a donation from their stray fund.
I crossed my fingers and hoped that I'd be able to get donations from neighbors (and hoped that this cat would be a nice cat and not a feral) and told them to go ahead. Then I got to work with fliers and Craigslist and donations started to come in. The final emergency bill was $817.75. That's steep, but at least it wasn't $1400!
I borrowed a big wire dog crate from a phillyfreecycler and we set it up in the laundryroom - the only place where it would fit, and one of the warmer rooms in the house. She spent almost 4 days at the emergency center. I got a clear look at her for the first time on the night that we brought her home. She's so cute!!! And she's nice (what a relief).
The cast on her leg was enormous, as big as her body. It was actually a bandage to protect the pins that are holding her leg together. The doctor said we should keep her confined for a month, then they'd take x-rays and see how well it was healing. The x-rays (another $88) showed that healing had started, but the doctor said that it would be another two months before the pins come out. The x-ray really made me shudder. There are so many pins in her leg, and they're not much smaller than her bones!
This poor little cat! Three months of her kittenhood are being marred by this big thing on her leg, and frequent confinement.
She was going stir crazy in the laundry room, and badly needed more social time, so we took her to a local vet and got her vaccinated and treated for ear mites, rearranged our living room, and moved the crate upstairs. She likes it up here, she gets to come out because we can supervise her, and the other cats have adapted well to her. She is so frisky! We're always worried that she'll hurt herself, but she's only had a couple of mishaps. I'm anxiously awaiting the next x-rays.
I've had a lot of cat expenses this year... Jessie's (a stray) kittens - one had to be euthanized, getting Jessie an emergency spay, Lightning's end-of-life care, Bully's kitten vet bills, getting Momcat (another stray) and her kittens fixed and vaccinated, getting Shadow emergency care after Momcat clawed her cornea... we've cared for 16 cats this year!! So I'm in debt and Fanny's impending vet bill is causing very stressful household finances conversations.
Donations came in from some of my neighbors and several people on Craigslist, totalling $641.26. I think most of the cat lovers on the block have already donated, and it's a working-class neighborhood, so I don't really expect more.
So here's my appeal for money: I still need to raise about $400 to cover the rest of the surgery bill and the x-rays. I would be very grateful if you can spare anything.
Donations can be made by calling the Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Center (http://www.vsecvet.com/) at 215-750-7884. Say that you want to make a donation for "Fan Belt Cat" under the name of Confer. (They are kindly keeping my account open so that donations can be made directly to them.)
AND if you would like to adopt her, please let me know! She would do well with another kitten her age - she really wants to play more than even Bully is interested in. I have pictures of her at http://www.actionpa.org/kittens/fanny.html
On the morning of October 30th, one of my housemate yelled up to me to wake up. I stumbled downstairs and, not seeing him there, continued to the basement. He was digging in his toolbox for wrenches. I followed him out to the alley and saw a little black & white cat caught in the fan belt of a big old car. The elderly owner of this car was wringing her hands in distress, my neighbor who feeds stray cats was freaking out, my housemate was trying unsuccessfully to loosen the fan belt, and the little cat was wailing (and occassionally chomping on his hand).
The wrench broke, he went to our basement to look for another, I ran to the house of another neighbor - whose garage holds every tool known to man - to borrow another one. Not knowing the size needed, I hauled his whole wrench box into the alley (musta weighed 40 pounds!). But meantime, the lady had been so heartbroken by the kitty's cries that she cut the fan belt herself.
So the cat is in a paper ream box, the lady's car now has no fan belt, my household's car is off on a road trip, and neither of the neighbor ladies who were trying to help have cars. No cars anywhere! So, back to the tool-man neighbor. Yes, he can take us to the vet. But it's barely 9am, and none of the local vets open until 10. So, it's a half hour ride to the emergency center in Langhorne.
We get there, hand over the cat and wait for the news. I'm expecting the worst - internal organs damaged, broken back - but the doctor says that she has a badly broken leg - poking out of the skin, and scraped against the inside of a car, well, you can imagine how horrid that must have been. And she's young - only 6 months old! And they have an orthopedic surgon there that day, so they can figure out if there's a good prognosis for repairing the leg. The alternative is amputation.
Well, I've never met a three-legged cat and amputation sounded like a dreadful, last-ditch option. (Many days later I had a chance to look up info on amputation and cats and realized that wasn't so horrible, but my belief at decision-making time was that amputation was an outcome to be avoided.)
The surgeon said that since we had brought her in so quickly, they could start antibiotics right away and minimize the risk of infection, so she thought there was a good prognosis. Wow, it was expensive, though - the estimate was $1400, but the doctor said that the surgeon would donate time and they'd give us a donation from their stray fund.
I crossed my fingers and hoped that I'd be able to get donations from neighbors (and hoped that this cat would be a nice cat and not a feral) and told them to go ahead. Then I got to work with fliers and Craigslist and donations started to come in. The final emergency bill was $817.75. That's steep, but at least it wasn't $1400!
I borrowed a big wire dog crate from a phillyfreecycler and we set it up in the laundryroom - the only place where it would fit, and one of the warmer rooms in the house. She spent almost 4 days at the emergency center. I got a clear look at her for the first time on the night that we brought her home. She's so cute!!! And she's nice (what a relief).
The cast on her leg was enormous, as big as her body. It was actually a bandage to protect the pins that are holding her leg together. The doctor said we should keep her confined for a month, then they'd take x-rays and see how well it was healing. The x-rays (another $88) showed that healing had started, but the doctor said that it would be another two months before the pins come out. The x-ray really made me shudder. There are so many pins in her leg, and they're not much smaller than her bones!
This poor little cat! Three months of her kittenhood are being marred by this big thing on her leg, and frequent confinement.
She was going stir crazy in the laundry room, and badly needed more social time, so we took her to a local vet and got her vaccinated and treated for ear mites, rearranged our living room, and moved the crate upstairs. She likes it up here, she gets to come out because we can supervise her, and the other cats have adapted well to her. She is so frisky! We're always worried that she'll hurt herself, but she's only had a couple of mishaps. I'm anxiously awaiting the next x-rays.
I've had a lot of cat expenses this year... Jessie's (a stray) kittens - one had to be euthanized, getting Jessie an emergency spay, Lightning's end-of-life care, Bully's kitten vet bills, getting Momcat (another stray) and her kittens fixed and vaccinated, getting Shadow emergency care after Momcat clawed her cornea... we've cared for 16 cats this year!! So I'm in debt and Fanny's impending vet bill is causing very stressful household finances conversations.
Donations came in from some of my neighbors and several people on Craigslist, totalling $641.26. I think most of the cat lovers on the block have already donated, and it's a working-class neighborhood, so I don't really expect more.
So here's my appeal for money: I still need to raise about $400 to cover the rest of the surgery bill and the x-rays. I would be very grateful if you can spare anything.
Donations can be made by calling the Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Center (http://www.vsecvet.com/) at 215-750-7884. Say that you want to make a donation for "Fan Belt Cat" under the name of Confer. (They are kindly keeping my account open so that donations can be made directly to them.)
AND if you would like to adopt her, please let me know! She would do well with another kitten her age - she really wants to play more than even Bully is interested in. I have pictures of her at http://www.actionpa.org/kittens/fanny.html
