A woman in Cardiff is facing an eye-watering £9,000 vet bill after her cat was hit by a car just yards from her front door. The nasty accident on Thursday, January 19, saw Toni Winter's pet cat Misty suffer a broken pelvis and hip as well as an open wound fracture to her ankle.
Vets in Cardiff told Toni, 33, that the surgery required to save her was too complex for them to carry out and that all they could do was euthanise her. The beloved five-and-a-half-year-old feline was transferred to a specialist vet in Bristol where she has undergone an initial surgery lasting more than six hours, which has cost Toni around £4,000.
Toni told WalesOnline that Misty, who is a domestic shorthair, still has a "long way to go" with further surgeries required to fix her injuries. Toni, who doesn't have pet insurance, has been forced to empty her own bank account and "scrimped and tweaked and borrowed and sold" to pay for the costs totalling £5,500 so far.
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Unsure how she will make the final estimated payment, Toni has launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for the total £9,000 bill and so she can pay back those she has been forced to borrow from. Speaking to WalesOnline, Toni said she was in Newport when she received the devastating call from her vet that Misty had been involved in a road traffic accident just outside her home.
She had been hit by a driver in the cul-de-sac and a neighbour had rescued her from the scene. "Her bone was sticking out of her leg. Her pelvis was detached from her spine and one of her hips was completely crushed," Toni said.
Misty was treated at her normal vet and another out-of-hours vet in Cardiff, but they said euthanasia was the only option they could give due to the extent of her injuries. "That wasn't an option for me, I just couldn't do it," Toni said. "By then it had already cost me over £1,000 just with my normal vet and the out-of-hours [vet]."
After being transferred to the specialist vet in Bristol, Toni said surgeons "wouldn't even touch Misty until I'd given half of the initial payment". She continued: "I scrimped and tweaked and borrowed and sold and whatnot and I managed to get the £4,000 that they wanted to be put down initially for the surgery.
"I got that from family, friends, here, there and everywhere - anybody who would lend me anything. I've emptied my bank, my stepchildren's - everyone has just put in everything they can. And the generosity I've had so far off complete strangers, it's just overwhelming. I can't thank everybody enough for what they've already done - I just still need more."
Following the surgery on Tuesday, Misty's hips have been put back in place and the fracture to one of her hips has been fixed with plates and screws. "But she's still got a long way to go yet, they're saying," Toni said.
"I'd do anything to make sure she's okay. I don't know how I'm going to be making the final payment," said Toni, who has had Misty since she was just eight weeks old and also has two other cats which she said were like her children. "I can't have children myself. [The cats] are like my little babies. I'd do anything for them. Misty not being here with us all breaks my heart."
She admitted raising funds for the hefty bills had been the "most stressful" time of her life. "I've never felt hurt and pain and stress like it. I'm 33 and this is the most amount of money I've ever spent in my life. My car was my biggest purchase up until now."
She added: "[The vets] are not 100% sure Misty is going to have complete feeling or mobility back at all - but whether she's got one leg, no legs or wheels, I'll still love her all the same. I can't wait to get her home, I just really can't." You can donate to the fundraiser for Misty here.
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