Please help me help Bada Bing
Donation protected
Bada Bing was born on a hill in Noe Valley in San Francisco to a mom in a feral community that my roommates and I used to feed. All the cats soon told each other about that last house on 25th St, and before we knew it we were feeding 9 cats, two raccoons, a couple of possums and skunks... and all their babies, too! I'd been waiting for ages for Annie (named after the old film 'Annie of the Green Gables' because of her wild green eyes) to bring her new litter to our house, but the day after I left for a work trip, she did just that and I missed seeing the three kittens for the first time and my roomie's named them Meadow, Pauly, and Bada Bing after the Sopranos tv show.
Let me tell you, Bada Bing has NEVER been that tough. Quite the opposite! He decided he didn't like that lifestyle and I would be his new mommy, so he camped out on the back porch till his mat became a box, then a discarded kennel, then a full-on "kitty condo" complete with a tarpauline and viewing windows. Eventually, the owner wanted to return the house to her son and Bingy became mine. It took a while to socialize him, but within a year he became the lap/Velcro cat he remains to this day. People have followed his adventures through story telling and Facebook. I swear, he's more popular than me!
This has been my boy through hardships and my own surgeries. We've moved from San Fran to Santa Monica, New York, and even Paris France before moving to Las Vegas last year to help my mother, who suffered a negative reaction to a "routine" surgical procedure which has rendered her handicapped. Since moving here, I've handled my mother accidentally flooding her condo. We've been broken into my new apartment and robbed (Bingy was terrified and hid for weeks) and also dealt with a scary scorpion infestation. I've worked significantly less hours to care for my mom when I need the money most, and that has nearly bankrupted me, emotionally spiritually, and financially.
Strange things started to happen then like the sudden increase in vomiting and weight loss in my cat. I took him to vets twice in July and December of last year, and again in April, when the latest Doctor discovered Bada Bing had a severe case of intestinal parasites. The vomiting subsided, but the listlessness and weight loss continued. And now I've received the horrible news that my fur baby may have either lymphoma or mast cell cancer! They don't even know which one yet. That will take another lab test with his current samples, at a cost of $350.... Without that result, the oncologist doesn't know how to treat which cancer. Currently we are using steroids today is Day 3) and I've started him on an amazing product I found called Life Gold, but chemo is out of the question at least until we know which form of cancer we're dealing with.
Aside from this awful news, the worst thing for me logistically is that my job forces me to be away from home when my cat needs daily doses of life-saving medicine. Perhaps I can find a caregiver to help since my mom is unable. I'm hoping Bingy's appetite improves enough to where he'll simply take it with his food. Either way, if I go back to work and aggressively take on more hours, I'm not there to administer his medicine but it will help with the medical costs. So far I have spent about $2000 for several exams and rounds of Panacur, carafate, Famotidine and metronidazole. Worse for me, I knowingly took money from my rent to pay to get him out of the hospital... I couldn't afford to leave him and couldn't afford to take him home.
I am going to host a vegan challenge soon to raise money and begin to do health histories to generate clients as a health coach. (Through all this, I was taking classes and recently graduated from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition.) I can use that to pay back my rent and personal expenses, but I need your help to help me help Bada Bing. He's shown great improvement even after a few days of treatment. This gives me hope and so do your generous donations.
On behalf of my Bingy and me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Let me tell you, Bada Bing has NEVER been that tough. Quite the opposite! He decided he didn't like that lifestyle and I would be his new mommy, so he camped out on the back porch till his mat became a box, then a discarded kennel, then a full-on "kitty condo" complete with a tarpauline and viewing windows. Eventually, the owner wanted to return the house to her son and Bingy became mine. It took a while to socialize him, but within a year he became the lap/Velcro cat he remains to this day. People have followed his adventures through story telling and Facebook. I swear, he's more popular than me!
This has been my boy through hardships and my own surgeries. We've moved from San Fran to Santa Monica, New York, and even Paris France before moving to Las Vegas last year to help my mother, who suffered a negative reaction to a "routine" surgical procedure which has rendered her handicapped. Since moving here, I've handled my mother accidentally flooding her condo. We've been broken into my new apartment and robbed (Bingy was terrified and hid for weeks) and also dealt with a scary scorpion infestation. I've worked significantly less hours to care for my mom when I need the money most, and that has nearly bankrupted me, emotionally spiritually, and financially.
Strange things started to happen then like the sudden increase in vomiting and weight loss in my cat. I took him to vets twice in July and December of last year, and again in April, when the latest Doctor discovered Bada Bing had a severe case of intestinal parasites. The vomiting subsided, but the listlessness and weight loss continued. And now I've received the horrible news that my fur baby may have either lymphoma or mast cell cancer! They don't even know which one yet. That will take another lab test with his current samples, at a cost of $350.... Without that result, the oncologist doesn't know how to treat which cancer. Currently we are using steroids today is Day 3) and I've started him on an amazing product I found called Life Gold, but chemo is out of the question at least until we know which form of cancer we're dealing with.
Aside from this awful news, the worst thing for me logistically is that my job forces me to be away from home when my cat needs daily doses of life-saving medicine. Perhaps I can find a caregiver to help since my mom is unable. I'm hoping Bingy's appetite improves enough to where he'll simply take it with his food. Either way, if I go back to work and aggressively take on more hours, I'm not there to administer his medicine but it will help with the medical costs. So far I have spent about $2000 for several exams and rounds of Panacur, carafate, Famotidine and metronidazole. Worse for me, I knowingly took money from my rent to pay to get him out of the hospital... I couldn't afford to leave him and couldn't afford to take him home.
I am going to host a vegan challenge soon to raise money and begin to do health histories to generate clients as a health coach. (Through all this, I was taking classes and recently graduated from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition.) I can use that to pay back my rent and personal expenses, but I need your help to help me help Bada Bing. He's shown great improvement even after a few days of treatment. This gives me hope and so do your generous donations.
On behalf of my Bingy and me, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Organizer
Elaine Kennedy
Organizer
Las Vegas, NV