“It never rains but it pours.”
True that.
During a heavy windstorm two nights ago here in the Pacific NW, the tops of trees came down on my goats’ pasture fence. My goats are secured and uninjured, but they’re now contained in a much smaller area until the fence is fixed, which will happen this weekend with any luck at all.
It will take a big chainsaw to cut these tree tops off the fence so it can be erected again. My nephew Phil has one. I have two wimpy ones that require electricity, but my power cords won’t reach out to where the trees fell, so I need to wait for Phil to come chop them into movable chunks and off the fence so I can transport them closer and cut the rest up into firepit-sized logs.
My other challenge is one that I’ve enlisted many others to help with. I’ve set up a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for an expensive thyroid treatment for my cat Patches. She checks out in every other way, but her thyroid is dangerously hyperactive and it nearly killed her last month.
The vet gave me pills to give her twice a day for 10 days to bring her back from the brink, and then suggested that I have her thyroid destroyed (in a radioactive iodine procedure that he doesn’t do at his clinic) because it offers a long-term, one-and-done, solution that no other procedure can match. Other procedures cost less initially but end up costing a lot more over time because frequent blood draws and blood work become necessary to make sure the thyroid pills aren’t damaging other organs.
The radioactive iodine treatment is going to cost between $1200 and $1600. I’ve already spent almost $500 getting her to this point, so I’m hoping to get enough to cover the cost of the actual treatment itself, or as close to that as I can get. As a freelancer, I don’t have much disposable income; keeping my head above water (especially during COVID) has been a real challenge…
And people have responded. $1350 has already come in, in less than four days. I’m sooo relieved, appreciative and thrilled. Patches is a delightful companion and I want to give her the best outcome and a long life–one that won’t require follow-up stressful vet visits, needle pokes and manhandling. (Cats hate to be physically constrained. It scares them a lot.) She is a fighter; she had to be simply to survive just a few weeks ago. It was very scary…
But the pills have helped and the iodine treatment will put her back in prime condition, so I hope she can have it as early as next week. My vet is sending over her test results today to the place that will be doing the thyroid radiation. As soon as they have that, they should be able to schedule her in.
If you can help with a donation, please do! If you’re strapped for cash, please at least share the GoFundMe link with the animal lovers in your sphere of influence. That would be amazing!
Thank you!
