Riley's Urgent Surgery: A Family's Plea

Meet Riley Lamberson, a 10-year-old male tabby who needs to have his left rear leg amputated. My family adopted Riley as a kitten from Ten Lives Club when it was in the Eastern Hills Mall in Williamsville, NY (a suburb of Buffalo). My daughter used to visit that location to play with the cats, and fell in love with him. Another family had previously adopted him and returned him because he was a handful.

They weren't kidding! Riley is an unusually intelligent cat who found all sorts of ways to get into trouble that none of our other felines had. But he's a very sweet and affectionate pet, and part of our family. My daughter named him Riley after a character on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (another cat we adopted two weeks before Riley is named Xander).

Our cats are housecats, and historically have lived between 16 and 18 years. Collectively, they've had few serious medical issues. Three months ago, we discovered a large growth on Riley's rear paw. Our vet prescribed medication that might reduce the size of the growth, but we knew that was a longshot. I took him to a clinic, which prescribed a steroid and antibiotics, and for the last few weeks we've had to keep the poor guy in a dog kennel because the growth was bleeding all over our furniture, rugs, and clothes.

It briefly appeared that the growth might be shrinking, but it was only changing shape. Just over one week ago, it began ballooning in size, and is now larger than Riley's paw. Because the mass is woven between his toes, the clinic believes the best solution is a complete amputation of Riley's leg. He was scheduled for a follow-up visit tomorrow, but after viewing photos of the growth the clinic decided the leg must come off immediately, so he will be coming home without his leg. Cats get along fine with three legs, and he's active, so we're going to make this adjustment and hope he has a long life. My immediate concern is the surgery, but there are other associated medical costs involved.

I'm a PT college instructor whose job ends in one month, and my wife's high school job ends for the summer one month after that, so this couldn't come at a worse time - but we all know there's no such thing as a convenient medical emergency. I'm putting this surgery on a credit card, but with zero savings paying that down will take a long time.

This is an awful time to ask people for money, but if any animal lovers out there can contribute to this fund my family would appreciate it. My daughter loves these two cats, and when she went off to college Riley attached himself to me, and I've become his primary caregiver.

I ran a GoFundMe six years ago when my daughter experienced a medical crisis. Since then I've contributed to 50 GoFundMe's for others (often strangers and sometimes pets) when I couldn't afford it, so I do know what I'm asking, appreciate anyone who's able to help, and understand that some people can't.

Greg Lamberson