Help Crystal Care for Special Needs Kitten & furry family

Hi! My name is Crystal and recently, a stray cat had her kittens in my yard. I was able to rescue Mama Cat and her 4 kittens and they are being fostered by myself in my home. One of the kittens is unfortunately ‘special needs’. She was born with deformed front legs and I am working with her (along with our vet) to help her strengthen them so that she can walk. She will never walk ‘normally‘ and will need to be an inside kept cat and she will have more medical needs than the other kittens. She is also the runt of the litter.

So far, I have spent about $400 in vet costs for Mama Cat & the kitten and I expect to spend about $2000 more on vet costs, although that is liable to change if anything was found during bloodwork/testing at their next checkup in 2 weeks.

Any funds collected will be used for Mama Cat (including getting her shots, getting her spayed, etc) and for all the kittens, including the special needs one, to receive vet care. I will be getting everyone tested for FIV, Feline Leukemia, etc. The kittens are a little over 4 weeks old now and they will go back to the vet in 2 weeks for their 6 week checkup along with Mama Cat. Once the kittens are weaned, then Mama Cat will get spayed.

My vet gave me an estimate of getting Mama Cat spayed, have all bloodwork done, get her shots, etc and it’s right about $600. There are 4 kittens and their vet costs are estimated to run about $350 a piece (not including spay and neuters, I talk about that more below). One of the kittens is special needs and we aren’t sure what all she is going to need yet so I expect her vet costs to be more than the others.

I would like for all the kittens to be spayed and neutered. If I pay for those, that is going to end up being an additional $300 for the 2 females & $200 for the 2 males. Even though I would love to keep all of the kittens plus mama cat, I am a widowed lady with children and 3 adult indoor cats - one of which is another special needs rescue and another is a stray cat that I recently rescued and spayed and I am still in the process of getting her & my other adult cats used to each other. I am considering keeping the disabled kitten, Scoot, and Mama Cat - but I have not made my final decision yet. The kittens are not even 5 weeks old yet so I have some time to think about it and see how they get along with my other animals. So with saying all that, I am not sure if I should go ahead and pay to have the ones I am adopting out spayed/neutered or if I should require that of whoever adopts them as a way to prove they are serious about caring for them. Either way, I want them to be spayed and neutered.

Any extra funds collected will go to help spay and neuter the other stray cats that come to get fed on my property. Currently, there are 2 more. I have tried to trap and release but neither of these cats ‘fall for it’ and wont ever go near the cage, regardless of what kind of yumminess is inside. So, I am trying to gain their trust and this morning I was finally able to scratch the head of one for a second before they pulled away.