The Willow Fund

I first met Willow on June 7, 2003. I previously had two twin orange and white tabbies named Phobos and Deimos, but when Deimos developed cancer and died in April 2003, Phobos began acting as if he were lonely, following me around and constantly wanting to be with me. I was talking to a friend of mine about this one day, and mentioned I was thinking about getting another cat to keep Phobos company. She told me to try Stay A While Cat Shelter, a local no-kill shelter where her sister had volunteered. The next Saturday I went over there, and met about 100 different cats before deciding to adopt Willow.

Willow, as you can see, is a Maine Coon. I believe she's part something else as well, from her markings. She and Phobos didn't see eye-to-eye at first, but they gradually learned to get along and even would sleep together once in a while. Willow's favorite game is diving on plastic bags while chasing balls of aluminum foil. I roll a ball toward a bag, she waits until the ball reaches it, then pounces with all her might on the bag to get the ball. Being a very strong cat, she usually sends the bag skidding several feet. She's also very good at getting me out of bed at feeding time as well. She also loves supervising me, constantly following me everywhere to see what fascinating task I'm up to now. Then, as soon as I sit down somewhere, she'll roll over and start purring, which is the signal for a tummy rub.

Unfortunately, Willow came with a problem no one knew about. She had a chronic ear infection which could be controlled with Dermalone, but it kept coming back. I took her to the vet for more tests in the summer of 2007, and Dr. Hart discovered she had a growth in her left ear, coming out of her ear canal where it was impossible to get at without some very expensive surgery. In November 2008, Dr. Hart partially removed the growth by cutting out as much as she could reach. This was a stopgap measure at best, however, as it only slowed the inevitable. The growth is now the same size again, and another partial removal isn't an option. You can see the growth in the picture to the left. The only solution is to send her to a specialist to surgically remove it, and at age 13, she's running out of time to get it.

On February 23, I took her to see a specialist, Dr. Anson. He examined her and outlined what needed to be done, the tests required to determine whether it was a polyp, a benign cancer or a malignant one, and the kinds of surgical procedures available. Then he told me the cost: approximately $3,000. That pretty much ended the exam, as I didn't have anywhere close to that. I have had some bad financial problems over the past few years, took a nearly 20% pay cut this year to keep my job on top of that, and already owe too much money to be able to borrow more.

So I spent some time trying to find a creative way to raise the money, and came up with the idea of the Willow Fund. I had a Paypal account already, and created this web page in the hopes of finding some generous people willing to help out a wonderful and affectionate cat who needs some. If you can donate $5 or $10, that's great. If you could spare $20, that would be awesome. If you want to give more than $20 feel free, although given the current economic mess and high unemployment, asking people to donate more than $20 is more than I'm willing to do.

I know that some of you are wondering if this is some kind of scam. It's not, but you have any doubts along those lines, please don't donate, and thanks for your time. I will post the percentage raised thus far at regular intervals, and when/if the full $3,000 is raised I will be taking this site down.

If you would like to donate, please click on the "Donate" button below, and have your debit or credit card handy. You'll be taken to the secure Paypal site. Follow the instructions there to complete your donation.

Thanks for reading this. And if you do choose to donate, both Willow and I deeply appreciate your generosity.

Sincerely, Jim Shaarda