A Dublin woman has launched a fundraiser to help pay for her beloved cat's life-saving surgery.
When Clara Jones and her boyfriend, Jim, noticed that their newly adopted cat, Cracker, would get a little sick sometimes, they didn't think much of it.
The Malahide woman told Dublin Live: "We adopted Cracker and Kai just three weeks ago. Sometimes it’s normal for cats to get a little sick when they’re anxious or getting acclimatised to a new environment, so we didn't really think much of it."
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But one day Jim realised something was wrong when he heard Cracker sounding sicker than usual while using the litter box.
Clara, who now lives in Wexford, said: "It didn’t sound healthy. So he ran to him and saw something that looked like a foreign object coming out. That’s what he thought he saw. It wasn’t a healthy bowel movement."
The pair immediately rushed Cracker to a vet who performed a number of scans on him.
Clara added: "There’s a specialist from Meath. He’s one of the best animal surgeons in the country. So he had a look at Cracker and they all said there definitely must be something stuck in the intestines. They said he had to undergo surgery.
"It was really scary. They originally told us to prepare for the worst because they didn’t know if he was going to make it."
And Clara and Jim got another shock when they were told that the surgery would end up costing nearly €1,000.
She said: "We just bought a house so we’re quite stuck for cash. Jim decided to set up a GoFundMe and thankfully, my friends and family have been really supportive. The North Wexford SPCA have very kindly offer to pay for some of the treatment."
Thankfully, the surgery went well and while they didn't find any foreign objects inside him, they did discover that Cracker's intestines had been badly swollen.
Clara said: "There was a lot of blockage. He was carrying a lot of extra fat. He had previously been on tablets for a skin condition which apparently were known to mess with their appetite.
"So that’s why he had all that extra weight because he didn’t know when to stop eating. We didn’t know about that."
Clara said they hope to have him back home in a day or two.
She added: "I fell in love with him when we got him. He’s very sweet and affectionate. Him and Kai - they had to be taken together because they were from the same home.
"She was really missing him when he left. She was going around the house crying and looking for him."
You can donate here to help support Clara and Jim raise money to pay for Cracker's operation.
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