Last week, I went to the hospital every day but Sunday (Michael went on Sunday).
Garfield is doing great. The vet rechecked his blood on Saturday and his red blood cell level was still the same. He was given his last injection of the hormone that stimulates red blood cell production, and they said he was doing well enough to go home, and that they would like to check him again in two weeks.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a home, so he has to stay at the hospital. The vet is reducing the cost of the room from 250 a day to 200 a day, which is helpful. They have also advertised on their social media to try to find Garfield a home. I will advertise again myself, and try again to get people at Michael’s work to help a bit. I’m thinking if they wanted to, they would have done it already, but maybe they don’t read all their emails. Only three of his colleagues have donated for the animals…
Panda has been on a new kind of medication for a week now. I think his nose is a bit more pink, but I’m not sure if I’m seeing it because it’s real or because I want it to be real. He’s as cuddly as ever.
I settled their bills on Thursday, when I took Baby for her second FeLV vaccine.
I paid 11,705 baht for Garfield, and 21,785 baht for Panda, which is about £750.
Baby’s vaccine and deworming was only 410 baht, which is about £10, so I paid it myself.
Baby and Princess are still with us. They are adorable little kitties, they get along with all our cats, and it doesn’t really feel that we have two extra cats in the house. Part of me wants to keep them so badly, but I know that if I do, I just can’t go on rescuing cats. Getting them adopted means I can rescue more cats.
I have actually decided to pause the rescuing until someone actually steps up to help, by either adopting or fostering. Michael says I shouldn’t use this kind of vocabulary, that it’s likely to make people feel “attacked” or “judged”, but I don’t care. I’m thinking that if people really want to help, they will, whether I ask them to “please help” or to “step up”. I’ve been asking for help for a long time. I do believe in community effort, and what I’ve been observing since I started rescuing strays, is that it’s always the same people who step up. There is very little community effort when it comes to strays in this neighbourhood. Maybe the people who don’t step up, need to be shaken a little bit. Michael says we don’t want people to adopt out of guilt. And yes of course. But if they’re not willing to help out of the kindness of their heart, at this point, I’ll be happy enough if they donate out of guilt. I need money for Garfield and Panda’s meds and hospital bills, and the reason why people donate doesn’t really matter to me now.
I am so grateful to the people who donated through the fundraiser, all but 5 not having any connection to Phuket. It still seems crazy to me that I had to reach out so far, when there are so many wealthy people living here…
I still have about £740 available from the fundraiser, and then, I don’t know what I’ll do. Actually, I had an idea, but I’ll write about it next time if I go ahead with it.