As many of you know, my cat Luna is pretty sick right now. She's been sluggish and not herself for several days, and not eating, so yesterday I took her to the vet. She was diagnosed with fatty liver disease, which is a condition cats develop when they don't eat. Their bodies are not designed to handle rapid weight loss, so when they don't eat, their livers can't metabolize the fat they're burning and it causes this disease. Luckily I took her in after only a couple days, so the vet seems confident that the condition is still treatable. They kept her at the hospital for a couple hours yesterday to feed her and treat her, but then sent her home with me. However, I haven't had much luck getting her to eat, and have had to mostly force feed her. So, she's not out of the woods yet.The bigger concern is: what else may be wrong with her which caused her to stop eating in the first place? They ran a slew of tests yesterday and didn't find any indication of organ failure, infections or anything else like that. But, there's still a possibility that something is there that is just not showing up on tests yet. I'm supposed to take her back in a month for follow-up.
Luna is 12 years old. Old for a cat, but not ancient. A chart at the vet's website said her age and weight make her the equivalent of a 65-year-old. And you certainly don't expect people to die at that age, so I'm really hoping for more time with Luna, too. She and her sister, Phoebe, have been in my life since I adopted them from the Animal Welfare League ten years ago. They are literally my children. Luna especially seems to have a knack for knowing when I am sick or hurting or sad, and has been a healing source to me for years. She was there with me through three back surgeries, a fall down the stairs and subsequent emergency surgery, six months of bed rest while dealing with my ongoing back injuries, the death of my father... I barely know my adult life without her. I know she will die someday, but I'm not ready to give up yet.
To that end, I am asking for your help in making sure she gets the treatments she needs over the next couple months. Now, let me clarify - if it turns out she has something ultimately untreatable like cancer, I will NOT spend thousands of dollars just to extend her life briefly. But as long as her conditions remain treatable and not ridiculously expensive, I need to keep treating her. Would you say about your child, "Eh, I don't know if I'll give them that life-saving treatment, it's just too expensive."
So, I stayed up until about 3:30 AM last night and completely revamped my CafePress store. I have created a special section with some notecards dedicated specifically to Luna, as well as several new sections featuring some of the fine art photography I've been working on over the past few months. I will add more and more over the next few weeks as time allows, so please check back frequently.
What I am asking is that you please peruse the store, and consider making even a small purchase to help offset Luna's medical bills. There are items such as calendars and notecards which run as low as $8.99. Depending on the item, I will get anywhere from $3.00-7.00 profit on anything you purchase from the store. I have almost 800 Facebook friends - if even 15% of you each bought one of the lowest price items, that would be around $350 which would at least cover Luna's hospital visit yesterday.
The store is at www.CafePress.com/artsgirl
Many of you know that things financially have been extremely rough for the past several months, and this assistance from you may LITERALLY mean the difference between Luna being able to be treated to live a few more years, or needing to be put to sleep because I just can't afford the treatments. And like I said, I'm not talking about thousands of dollars of treatment, only a few hundred... but I just don't have it.
One more thing. I did NOT want to ask for donations from people, which is why I spent so many hours yesterday making a way for people to help where they would receive something of value in return. However, I do understand that some of you may want to help, but really have no interest in notecards or calendars or fine art prints. So with that in mind, I will direct you to the donations link which already exists on my photography studio website: www.TobiArtAndPhoto.com/donations.html.
Please, forward the link to this to all your friends, anyone you know who may be interested in these products. Please consider buying even something small to help. Also, please feel free to look through my Flickr photostream and send me an email if you see a photo there that you'd like on a CafePress product - I can very easily accomodate these requests at no additional charge.
