u/michaela_kohlhaas

but anyway this is Sabeka, named after a colleague with a similar personality. She is 5 weeks old!

PAYPAL: sfk.rescues@gmail.com

This is our second attempt at a fundraiser and we are so so grateful for all the donations received the last time around. Our goal is $3750.

Baron is one of many fluffy abandoned cats in Bahrain, where the stray population is out of control due to the absence of state-led TNR and the widespread practice of dumping pets, even expensive purebred pets. There is no penalty, there are no awareness campaigns and ‘supply’ far exceeds demand. In such a country it is nearly impossible to get cats adopted locally, which is why both rescuers and the few shelters we have send animals abroad more frequently than not.

BARON was first found with his hair all dirty and matted. An initial vet check-up revealed that his kidneys were huge, that his blood values were all off, and that he needed to take medication and prescription food every day for the rest of his life.  My fellow rescuers and I had had some success getting out stray cats adopted abroad, but none of them had chronic medical issues.

It was therefore nothing short of a miracle that we found an adopter through this sub who turned out to be the perfect person for Baron: she had experience with a cat who also had kidney issues, was unfazed by the prospect of daily medication and a longtime committed cat mom. We knew she was the one when she had more questions for us than we did for her during the vetting process, and she has a heart the size of a small planet. This was the original post.

The only issue is that she lives in Washington state (initially mistaken by me for Tennessee; don’t ask ). It is always cheaper to send a cat in the cabin with a flight buddy than in cargo, but we have been unable to find anyone flying to LAX or Seattle from Bahrain (the US Fifth Fleet is stationed here so we sometimes send cats with navymen returning home). It will therefore cost roughly 1000 BHD or $3750 to send Baron to his forever home.

Baron has been in various foster homes, at one point confined to a single hallway because he was not supposed to eat other cats’ food, for a year and a half. His current fosterer is extremely overwhelmed with other rescued cats, and Baron himself would be happier as an only child, as it were. The adopter we found is one in a million - it’s not easy to get such cats adopted anywhere - and we really want to make this happen.

We would therefore be grateful if you could help us get Baron from Bahrain to his forever home and eager new mom in WA. Thank you!!!

PAYPAL: sfk.rescues@gmail.com

Baron is one of many fluffy abandoned cats in Bahrain, where the stray population is out of control due to the absence of state-led TNR and the widespread practice of dumping pets, even expensive purebred pets. There is no penalty, there are no awareness campaigns and ‘supply’ far exceeds demand. In such a country it is nearly impossible to get cats adopted locally, which is why both rescuers and the few shelters we have send animals abroad more frequently than not.

BARON was first found with his hair all dirty and matted. An initial vet check-up revealed that his kidneys were huge, that his blood values were all off, and that he needed to take medication and prescription food every day for the rest of his life.  My fellow rescuers and I had had some success getting out stray cats adopted abroad, but none of them had chronic medical issues.

It was therefore nothing short of a miracle that we found an adopter through this sub who turned out to be the perfect person for Baron: she had experience with a cat who also had kidney issues, was unfazed by the prospect of daily medication and a longtime committed cat mom. We knew she was the one when she had more questions for us than we did for her during the vetting process, and she has a heart the size of a small planet. This was the original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/rescuecats/comments/1kikd4x/bahrain_baron_is_the_most_affectionate_cat_ive/

The only issue is that she lives in Tennessee. It is always cheaper to send a cat in the cabin with a flight buddy than in cargo, but we have been unable to find anyone flying even close to Tennessee from Bahrain (the US Fifth Fleet is stationed here so we sometimes send cats with navymen returning home). It will therefore cost roughly 1000 BHD or $3750 to send Baron to his forever home.

Baron has been in various foster homes, at one point confined to a single hallway because he was not supposed to eat other cats’ food, for a year and a half. His current fosterer is overwhelmed with other rescued cats, and Baron himself would be happier as an only child, as it were. The adopter we found is one in a million - it’s not easy to get such cats adopted anywhere - and we really want to make this happen.

We would therefore be immensely grateful if you could help us get Baron from Bahrain to his forever home and eager new parents in Tennessee and share this fundraiser with others. Thank you!!!

PAYPAL: sfk.rescues@gmail.com

First of all, I wanted to include ‘PLEASE’ in the title but think it violates the rule against pleading language, so in lieu of that, thank you for reading this post.

One of the stray cats fed by my fellow volunteer Alina in her garden, Tiffany, has 5 leg fractures as a result of a suspected car accident. Alina has been taking care and her brothers for over a year.

A few days ago she disappeared and when Alina’s husband finally found her not far from their place, she couldn’t move at all. Due to the injuries in only one leg, they believe she was hit by a car.

Despite the severity of her injuries the clinic insisted on a 50% down payment on the surgery cost, which totals 576 BHD or ~$1530. Of that, we were able to cobble together $360, so we have a remaining $1170 to raise.

She is expected to recover from surgery in one week and, further down the line, recover her full mobility (the vet is optimistic about it). She is currently on painkillers and eating again, at least.

We would be immensely grateful for all contributions as Tiffany will not be discharged until the surgery has been paid for.

For reference, Alina has 21 cats in her care (home, foster homes including our shelter, colony cats), I have 12, one of our fellow shelter volunteers has about 20 and the other has about 60. These numbers mean that it’s never just one payment we have to cover. We rely heavily on fundraising even though, in Alina’s case and mine, most of our income goes towards rescue.

Photos of bills from the vet in the comments as I couldn’t post both photos and a video. Thank you so much

I am helping Kausar, a fellow cat rescuer who used to live here in Bahrain, relocate her four cats with her as she cannot afford it despite working on the side; she is a 20-year-old student who recently moved to India with her family. We are both fundraising for this as we are part of the same cat rescue group, and other members are also helping, so we do not consider this fundraising for a third party.

Please read what she has to say:

Everyone who meet me knows about my cats but, all most people see are just four cats. I see four miracles that I have raised since I was 16 years old. My relationship with my cats is like a mother and her babies; they have been my world through every high and low.

My journey as a "Cat Mom" began in the peak of a 45°C Bahrain summer in August. I found a box someone had dumped by a neighboring building; inside were four tiny, dehydrated kittens. I didn't know anything about kittens or cats, so I was basically just using Google and YouTube as my learning source, and thanks to Facebook chat groups, I learned how to care for them. Sadly, one of them couldn't survive, but three did: Ginger🧡😼 Lizzy🐱, and Rubi😽.

A year and a half later, in the freezing peak of a Bahrain December, I found Suleiman😼 He was just a week old, abandoned by his mother outside my building. He was freezing and nearly blind. Since then, he has survived eyelid surgery, dental issues, and even had to be neutered twice because of an inverted testicle. He has grown up to be such a healthy and literal "maniac"—a survivor who proved the world wrong.

Meet my babies💕:
• Ginger🧡: My typical orange cat. He’s a "fatty" with a huge attitude who knows he is beautiful. He’ll charm you for food and then ignore your existence once he’s fed!
• Lizzie😺 & Ruby😽: My two beautiful calicos. They are "Mama’s girls" through and through. It’s been 7 months since I last held them, and they still call out for me whenever we video call. They use me as their personal chair, and Rubi is so bonded to me she often won’t eat unless I feed her with my own hands.
• Suleiman😼: My brave black-and-grey boy. Despite his rough start and his vision struggles, he is the heart of the group. He owns the place he walks into.

Why I'm asking for help? My family has relocated to India, and after 7 agonizing months apart, I am fighting to bring my babies home. While I work hard at 20 years old to pay their monthly boarding fees to keep them safe in Bahrain, the cost to fly them to India is a mountain I cannot climb alone. I cannot ask my parents for this amount; it is unimaginable for them to spend this amount for cats specially with our financial condition in India.

The Goal: I am working with a wonderful agent, Venetia (Bahrain Pet Sitter), to get them home. Because of international laws, they have to fly in two separate shipments on the same flight. The total cost for all four is BHD 1,472.400 (approximately ₹3,70,000 INR or USD 3900).

They have survived the hottest summers and the coldest winters—please help them survive this final journey so they can grow old with the person who saved them. Any contribution or share brings me one step closer to hearing their purrs in person again.”

Thank you so much for your consideration, everyone.

PAYPAL DONATION LINK: sfk.rescues@gmail.com

TW: animal passing away

Hello everyone. I am extremely sorry to report that upon receiving a second opinion, which Ekram and his fellow rescuers wanted to do both for the sake of due diligence and because they had wanted that particular vet to perform the surgery, this vet recommended putting Hope to sleep. He came to this conclusion after sedating Hope to inspect his jaw injuries (what the bill in the third photo was for).

Contrary to the first clinic's report as presented to me by Hope's rescuers, the prospects were not bright. They had said he would be able to eat if he was hand-fed soft food. They had said he was on painkillers and okay for the moment. They did not promise the surgery would be successful, having said the odds were 50/50, so they did nothing wrong, but their assessment was a far more optimistic one than the one provided by the second veterinarian.

This vet's decision was informed not only by his prediction of the probability of a successful surgery but also on the extreme pain Hope was in despite painkillers. For whatever reason - miscommunication or a misunderstanding - we had thought Hope was at least out of pain due to the painkillers, which the second vet informed us were nowhere near strong enough for such acute injuries.

I will be refunding every individual donation received via PayPal over the next few hours, as funds were raised specifically for the surgery that I believed the rescuers had committed to. And they had, in fact, planned to go through with the surgery until they were convinced otherwise. I was not in attendance as clinics here prefer to consult with only one contact person per rescue.

If anyone donated directly to the clinic, please inform me (for my part I will also be asking them about anything received for Hope from overseas) so that I can personally refund your donation, because the clinic does not do overseas refunds.

I am very sorry and really thankful for all the support you showed in the form of both encouragement and donations, which amounted to $325 in the end. If you would like a confirmation screenshot of the refund, please DM me. Thank you.