Sponsor a Cat in Need

One of DCIN's two primary projects is the Financial Assistance Project. Under this project, the conditions of which are described here, DCIN helps to pay diabetes treatment costs to keep a diabetic cat in its own home or to help a rescue/shelter/foster.

Financial Assistance is the DCIN project on which I prefer to spend my time. I would much rather keep a diabetic cat with an original, responsible owner than put the cat through a rehoming, which is traumatic on the cat and frankly not all that easy because of the shortage of available homes and the distances that we usually have to move the cats.

Many of the costs of financial assistance do not show on an individual cat's account. Someday, there might be enough man- or woman-power for DCIN to account for the distribution of donated and advance-purchased insulin and supplies to individual cats. Presently, a cat's account is only charged for those items if they are purchased specifically for and shipped to those cats.

Someone implied to me the other day that DCIN should be providing a hand up, not a hand out. While I empathize with that sentiment, these are tough times. There are many people who have been unemployed or underemployed long-term and whose foreseeable, financial futures do not so not look too bright. Sometimes the unemployment comes after a cat is diagnosed diabetic and the caregiver has to make difficult choices about trimming his or her budget. Other times, the caregiver is unemployed when the cat is diagnosed, and the costs of treating the cat push the caregiver's budget into an unmanageable situation. Many of us know of situations in which a vet has not been all that careful with a caregiver's tenuous budget when a cat is first diagnosed diabetic. God forbid the cat become ketoacidotic (DKA) and require thousands of dollars of critical care.

At the present time, DCIN is providing financial assistance to several diabetic cats with caregivers with serious financial problems. In many of those cases, the help provided appears small, or even nonexistent, on DCIN's financial accounting because it involves insulin or diabetic supplies that DCIN's accounting does not assign to individual cats. However, there are four such cats that have required and will likely continue to require significant cash resources from DCIN for vetting, food, or purchased insulin.

For those four cats, DCIN is seeking monthly sponsors. DCIN is seeking people who will commit to having a set amount...as small as $5...withdrawn from their PayPal account each month. The presence of sponsors will give the caregivers some peace of mind about their ability to continue to care for their diabetic cats.

The four cats for which I am presently seeking sponsors are Cheryl Lynn's Bella, Karin's Charlie, Deb's Nikki, and Marty's Ruthie. Each of those pages has a custom button link to take you to PayPal to sign up for a monthly sponsorship.

Thank you for helping, either with your sponsorship or with your best wishes. Both mean so much.

~Venita

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If you don't want to subscribe but want to send a one-time donation, DCIN accepts PayPal donations at ennis93 @att.net (remove space). Use the "Personal" tab and the radio button for "gift" to avoid fees on cash and checking donations. If you use a credit card, you can choose to pay the fee to maximize your donation to DCIN. In the note section of the PayPal page, let me know the cat to which you are donating.

If you wish to sponsor a different cat, please let me know and I will build a sponsorship button.