Lynn Nicholls

The Toy Stories

Fundraising for Yorkshire Cat Rescue
£2,102
raised of £2,000 target
by 151 supporters
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Yorkshire Cat Rescue

Verified by JustGiving

RCN 1160138
We rescue unloved & unwanted cats & kittens to find them permanent loving furever homes

Story

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page this means so much to me.

In August 2014 I began fostering Jessie and her 3 kittens for Yorkshire Cat Rescue, Buzz, Beau and Woody. Jessie had been a stray for over a year and gave birth to her baby's outside, 9 days later they were rescued and came into my care. From day one this family have had to fight for there lives and then things got worse for them even though they had been rescued.

 Buzz as many of you know that follow him on Haworth Cat Facebook is blind and couldn't walk when he came to us, we have helped him to overcome his walking issues through hours of baby yoga and resistance training and then walking correction and very soon may be having surgery on his eyes to see if its possible to give him partial sight. Woody and Beau were both fine, or so we thought but then disaster struck the family. The last week of October Woody became very sick and we had to rush him into the emergency vets for treatment. He had surgery the day after as we thought he had a twisted intestine but this wasn't the case. Woody got weaker and weaker every day regardless of what the vets did to help, we visited him daily and tried to get him to eat. Sadly he lost his fight on Thur 30th October. On the Friday his blood results came back positive for Parvovirus panleukopenia. This really was the worst news for us all.

 This virus is deadly for kittens and now explains why Woody became so sick so quickly. As if things couldn't get any worse for the family  poor little Beau began to show the symptoms that Woody originally started with. Beau was rushed to the vets and admitted straight away and put on supportive care. Parvo virus had got another of our kittens, at this point i didn't think it was possible for things to get any worse but they did. Woody's test results came back from the lab testing positive for compylobacter too, this meant that the whole family had Parvo and compylobacter . Both of these things on there own are killers in kittens never mind having both together. As the days passed Beau became weaker and weaker, we were watching her lose her fight and then the vets had to advise us that the kindest thing to do was to put Beau to sleep as there was no hope of recovery at that point. As a family we were devastated, i went to the vets and held Beau one last time, 11 weeks loving these little kittens, having them as part of the family, watching them grow and develop i was absolutely heartbroken, looking at her little face she let out one last little meow and i broke down, i cuddled her and kissed her little face as they injected my little princess and we said good bye for the last time.

I can't begin to tell you the pain we have all had to endure, losing Woody was bad enough but losing Beau a second kitten just 4 days later was even worse. Beau and Woody were inseparable as kittens and now they can rest pain free together, i kept wondering if i could have done more, why did this happen to our kittens ?. Even knowing this situation was completely out of my control i felt responsible as there fosterer.

Our trauma and pain wasn't over yet, we still had Buzz and Jessie at home who were still in danger and would be carrying both of these horrible virus's.

We believe Jessie came into contact with the virus while pregnant and passed it to her unborn kittens, because she is an adult cat she has been able to fight the virus with her own immune system. Her kittens have not suffered any symptoms until now as they have received her anti body's through her milk when feeding. Because the kittens were old enough to feed themselves there body's had fallen risk to the virus's they have carried since birth. Woody and Beau have lost there lives already and poor  Baby Buzz is blind and has other health issues which we now believe was due to contracting parvovirus through his mum before birth. 

Although  Baby Buzz was not showing any symptoms  he was far from safe. Buzz and Jessie were on a very high concentration of antibiotics and various other medicines to try and prevent any infections starting in there body. We had to put them in isolation for a month in the hope they were able to build a strong enough immune system to get over this and not fall victim to either of the virus's they caried, the worry was horrific for us, not knowing what the next day would bring.

Yorkshire Cat Rescue are funding all the vet bills for this family, they believe as I do that a life is far more important than a vet bill and if there is a chance of recovery then we have to try.  With that in mind the charity already have £1200 a week vet bills for all the other cats and kittens in there care.

Woody's bill was approaching £1000 when we lost him and Beau's bill £1000 after all the treatments and supportive care.  Buzz and Jessie have been given vaccinations as well in the hope they won't show any symptoms as well as the other medications I'm having to give them daily which is costing hundreds of pounds. All of this is pushing YCR's bills to an astronomical high to support this family. 

Jessie and Buzz have spent 5 months in foster care, we finally got the all clear in December and Jessie was spayed, we struggled with the fact that we were going to have to let Jessie move on and find her very own forever home because we had become so attached to this beautiful girl who had been through so much. Thankfully her happy ending wasn't so far away. I took Jessie back to YCR on the 29th of Dec and volunteered there for the day with my husband. Then as fate would have it, a lovely young girl called Beth turned up at the centre with her mum, they had been following the story on Facebook and wanted to meet Jessie. I think it was love at first sight, Jessie rubbed against there legs and wanted tickles, they adopted her on the spot and she went home with them the same day. Although it was very hard for us to watch her go, she has a wonderful home and I'm positive she will be spoiled rotten.

Buzz had his neuter surgery also on the 29th, they also investigated his eyes and he will need to have surgery on his eyes at a later date to remove them. There is no chance we can give him any sight unfortunately. He has had a pretty bad reaction to his anaesthetic and has been struggling for the last 24 hours as he's very confused and stressed. We are hoping this will pass within 48 hours. 

I'm trying to ease the cost for YCR by asking everyone of you to help me raise as much money as possible to pay the whole vet bill for this family. 

We lost Woody and Beau and with all that sadness i would like some good to come from this situation. All of this could have been prevented if Jessie had been vaccinated, Parvo virus is out there and you need to make sure you vaccinate your animals all the time. Every singe £1 will help us to pay this bill,  Buzz and Jessie are survivors but only because they were given the chance to live regardless of the cost. if we can pay this bill the centre can help other cats/Kittens with the funds they are not paying towards this bill. Over 800 cats/kittens have been saved by the centre this year.

Please help me reach my goal. We have fought for 5 and a half months to keep Buzz and Jessie alive and get them well, help me complete this final part of my goal and pay for there treatment.

Help me make something good come from a tragic and heartbreaking story, help me honour Woody and Beau by raising this money, i want there short lives to mean something to others not just to myself and my family.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story, Lynn, Pete, Baby Buzz & Jessie

In Memorie Of Woody & Beau

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About the charity

Yorkshire Cat Rescue

Verified by JustGiving

RCN 1160138
Yorkshire Cat Rescue exists to save the lives of abandoned or unwanted cats and kittens across Yorkshire and beyond. YCR operates a no-kill policy and neuters all cats and kittens before rehoming. YCR receives no central funding and has to fundraise to meet its vet, food and heating bills etc.

Donation summary

Total raised
£2,102.00
+ £421.75 Gift Aid
Online donations
£2,102.00
Offline donations
£0.00

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