GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/5afebfc71
Venmo: https://www.venmo.com/u/Jehoseph
PayPal: https://paypal.me/TheDivines
WHAT THIS IS FOR
I am keeping three rescued cats housed, fed, and in care while I get stable work underway. The emergency part is behind us. The part that keeps us here is not.
I am not asking for help with a crisis I created. I am asking for help finishing something I started, which was pulling three animals out of bad situations and giving them a stable life.
WHERE THINGS STAND, AS OF LATE OCTOBER
We moved on October 10. Two bedrooms on five wooded acres outside Eugene, with a landlord who approved all three cats and agreed to split the deposit rather than demanding first, last, and deposit up front the way most places do. That flexibility is the only reason the move happened at all.
It happened because of this campaign. One person gave $1,900 in the week before the move, which covered the day itself. Everyone who gave before that got us close enough that it was possible.
What has not changed is the underlying situation. Rent comes due. The second half of the deposit follows. I left a shared household where almost nothing in it was mine, and furnishing an apartment from zero has cost more than I budgeted for. My account has gone negative more than once this month.
The work I am currently doing is unpaid until the organizations I am with secure funding. I have interviews and conversations actively in motion and I am pushing on several at once rather than waiting on any one of them. Nothing signed yet. I will say so here the moment that changes.
ON THE $10,000 GOAL
I have been asked about the number, so I want to address it directly rather than leave it to interpretation.
The goal has not moved, and I have not raised it. What has changed is that roughly half of what it was meant to cover has already been spent. The deposit, the first month, the move itself, and the initial round of setting up a household are done. The campaign sits at under half of its goal because that money went where I said it would.
What remains is the part I was always upfront about: a few months of margin while income stabilizes, and ongoing care for three cats. Securing a place is not the same as keeping it. The difference between a stable outcome and doing all of this again in the spring is whether there is any buffer at all.
I could lower the number to make the progress bar look better. I would rather leave it honest. If I find work sooner than expected, unused funds go entirely toward the cats' ongoing care and I will say so publicly.
BOOTS
In late June, a grey and white cat was living outside in my neighborhood. She weighed 6.7 pounds. Her spine and hips were visible. She drooled constantly and she would cry out and back away from her own food because eating hurt too much.
Her previous owner had loved her but had gone through years difficult enough that she could no longer provide care. She surrendered her so that Boots could get help. Her original records showed proper kitten care in 2016 and 2017, and then nothing at all. Roughly eight years without a veterinarian.
On July 21, Boots had nineteen teeth extracted at Echo Hollow Vet Hospital and Urgent Care in Eugene. Her surgeon described the inside of her mouth as destroyed and said she had likely been enduring about the highest level of oral pain a cat can experience. The tissue was too damaged to hold sutures, so the sites healed open.
That surgery cost approximately $3,450. I could not have covered a fraction of it. Neighbors covered it and strangers online covered it. A woman I had never met paid off the remaining balance out of her own pocket.
Boots turned ten in September. She weighs 8.26 pounds now. Her bloodwork has normalized and her vet, the same doctor who performed her surgery, said she looks like a new cat and does not need to see her again until spring. She grooms herself. She sits in windows. In July, dry food hurt too much to attempt, and she now eats it by choice.
She remains on a low dose of prednisolone twice weekly to keep the inflammation in her mouth under control, likely for the rest of her life. Her ongoing medical care does not pause because we moved.
SABLE
A young tortoiseshell I took in as an emergency foster in May after she was abandoned. Intelligent, cautious, and slow to trust, which given her history is entirely reasonable.
COSIMO
A grey kitten, now about twenty weeks, who came to me as a rescue in late August. Vaccinated, with a full workup done, and a neuter scheduled for November.
WHY THEY CANNOT BE SPLIT UP
Sable and Cosimo have bonded. They play, wrestle, and share space by choice. Breaking up a bonded pair is a known harm to both animals and I am not going to do it.
Boots is housed separately for now, in the second bedroom. Her introduction to the other two moves at the pace she sets rather than the pace that would be convenient for me. After what she survived, she is entitled to that. It is also why a two bedroom place mattered rather than being a preference.
WHAT HELPS MOST
Sharing this. If you have already given, a share is worth more than another donation. Your networks reach people I have no way to reach. Send it to one person who likes cats.
Supplies. Wet food and litter are the ongoing need. I can tell you where to send a Chewy gift card if that is easier than shipping.
Furniture, if you are near Eugene. I am furnishing from nothing. A bed especially, for the room where Boots spends her time. A table, chairs, a dresser. If something has been sitting in a garage waiting for a purpose, this is one.
VERIFICATION
Every claim here is documented and I will provide records to anyone who asks.
Boots's complete veterinary file is available, including surgical records, radiographs, bloodwork panels, and itemized invoices from Echo Hollow Vet Hospital and Urgent Care, 1980 A Echo Hollow Road, Eugene, Oregon. The clinic has previously confirmed her case directly to third parties during her surgical fundraiser.
I went through full verification with the moderators of r/rescuecats in July, which included submitting the vet bill, photo identification, a photo of myself holding that identification, and clinic confirmation.
I have posted continuous public updates since June, including the ones that were not good news.
THANK YOU
To everyone who funded Boots's surgery, to the person who covered her follow-up bloodwork, to the woman who paid off her remaining balance herself, to whoever anonymously sent the cat tree that made the move with us, to everyone who has sent food, and to whoever gave $1,900 the week we moved.
Four months ago Boots was starving in the dark and in more pain than most animals ever experience. On October 10 she rode to a house in the woods and now has a window to sit in. That happened because people who had never met her decided she was worth it.
I am not taking in additional animals. Three is what I can responsibly care for, and keeping these three housed and together is the entire goal.
