Hello, my name is Jess. If you know me, you know this cat is the light of my life. I got him the day he was neutered, the day he was Allowed to be neutered. So from two months old, until today. At the ripe age of 9. He has been by my side the whole way. Loving me, and giving me all the snuggle. Meeting me at the door every day when got home. Forgiving me when all I could afford to feed us was mashed potato’s and gravy. I’ll take him with me when I go on hikes, random adventures to the mountains, and obviously, wherever I move to with the sointaneous and rather nomadic life I live. If you’ve met him, you can see that he is simply made out of love. And I can’t even take credit for that one. It’s funny, When I adopted him, I didn’t even want him. I didn’t see him in the crate to be completely honest. But he saw me and when I went in to reach for his gray and white brother I felt a few tiny claws digging into my shoulder and then I felt wet sandpaper on my face and I look at him and there he was perched on my shoulder. He chose me that day, and he’s chosen me every day since. He has very well saved my life on days, weeks, months where I felt I couldn’t keep going. He was there. Always.
Now, I need to be there for him. For years since birth he’s has horrible respiratory issues. For years I’ve been taking him to the vets. Usually a different vet each time because they keep doing the same. Sending me home with a diagnosis and some antibiotics. But never any long term solutions. Never any real help, it’s a consistent issue, his breathing. Why do we keep doing the same thing if it continues to happen??? Recently we found that it had progressed to calcification on his lung lobes. He was diagnosed with chronic bronchitis and he is now in the middle of yet another flare up but this one is worse than I’ve ever seen. I have found a vet that was immediately looking for long term solutions but there is a myriad of other diseases and conditions that we have to rule out before getting him on a long term treatment plan. They are reasonably priced, and absolutely fantastic when it comes to truly caring. They gave him snacks and let me hold him for his ultra sound so that he didn’t freak out. They are very concerned with his coughing and they provided me an estimate for his diagnostics which is attached.
My goal is a little higher than the estimate because I anticipate We do find some long term treatment options and the remainder of the funds would be used for said treatment.
This whole flare up started when I rescued a puppy from the Dekalb animal shelter here in Chamblee, GA. I was notified by one of their volunteers that this dog, sweet as pie, was going to be put down in two days. He was going to be put down because of a puppy playtime gone bad when he nipped at the owner. He broke skin so he was deemed unadoptable and sentenced to three months in a tiny cage, in the back with no attention paid to him because he was a “biter”. I don’t care what anyone says, he is the sweetest thing I could have ever laid my eyes on. But unfortunately due to the shelter being over staffed and over crowded they sent this puppy home with me without being checked, without any warning that he may be sick. He was coughing but I assumed it was because they were using a collar on him when he should have definitely been in a harness only because he is strong. And he’s a puller. Without knowing he was sick, I brought him home and allowed Stark to hang around him. With his already compromised respiratory system, he caught whatever the new puppy had. And it has just been getting worse and worse. So I rescue a PUPPY from death, only for the negligence of the shelter to put my light (stark) in danger. I would have kept them separate if I had known.
I truly hope I am able to raise the funds I need to help him because it would kill me if he got worse or died because I simply don’t have the finances to help him. I need him. Thank you for reading this. And thank you for any help you may be able to offer. let’s help stark breathe again. Please 🙏
Jessica Bubb
