BabyCat's Medical Fund

Christina Jay is organizing this fundraiser.

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I didn't think of using GoFundMe until a couple different Twitter friends asked the other night whether we were going to set up an account for BabyCat. Because of their encouragement, I decided to go ahead.

We always knew BC was special needs, but adopting her was never a question.

Two weeks ago, we were forced to pack up the entire family and evacuate when Hurricane Matthew blew into town. All 5 cats and 3 dogs spent the long weekend at the vet's because she has a generator and double concrete walls. BC was pronounced to be in excellent health for who she is. (But we also spent a small fortune on emergency board that weekend.)

Not a week later, I looked at her and noticed that her paws looked like boxing gloves and that she was burning up. I rushed her back to the vet, who was baffled by what she saw, and presumed she had burned her front paws on something. She spent days trying to bring her fever WBC & bilirubin down while tending to her paws, while I tried to figure out what she could have gotten herself into! Pizza was all I could think of, since it was a week where I hadn't been home to cook much. We ended up bringing her to a specialist due to complications. She had a feeding tube put in, and they took ultrasound and a biopsy of her liver. There was a concern. And we received the news nobody ever wants to hear.

"Your cat has a terminal illness."

She has Hepatic Amyloidosis.

The specialist told me that palliative care is all that is left for her. She is terminal, and it is best to spend our time and bring her in and say goodbye.

My regular vet, however, disagreed. She told me that she has seen shar-pei dogs with this who were able to regain their appetites and have some good quality of life for a period of time. They just have to want to. Will BC want to? That's up to her.

It's my job to feed her this special, prescription canned food and give her SubQ fluids every day for the next week or so, to try to fatten her back up. Then we will try to tempt her with food she likes and see if she wants to eat. Hopefully she remembers and will have the desire to try to eat again. She just has to be strong enough first.

Seeing her do things like climb the stairs and groom herself, really give me hope that she will come around and give us more time. The hardest part is watching each milestone and hoping to see it again. "Please groom yourself again tomorrow..." "Please purr again..." It's scary and sad to wonder if I've heard her purr for the very last time, or if I've watched her do her quirky forget-her-paw-in-the-air for the last time.

Please, treasure every special moment in your own lives. BC is so young. We never expected to see her live to be 15, but we thought she would live to see 5...

Thank you for loving BC.

This fund will cover about half of what I have spent to date on vet exams, specialist visits, medications, subcutaneous fluid set-up, x-rays, ultrasound, labs, overnight stays, and her feeding tube surgery as well as the extremely expensive prescription food.

Our family thanks you for your prayers, well wishes, support and love. We know BabyCat will not survive this completely, but if she can have even a few more weeks or months... it would make us so very happy. She is just such a darling little girl. And she brings us such joy.

Respectfully and humbly,
BC, Mama, and the crew in Jacksonville