Abelard Update

This is her day off. Can the pharmacy tell you if this drug is one that can
be flavored or made for the ears?

I'll call and ask. If so, I'll give you a call.

Dan

"Daniel Mahoney"
Would folks be interested in creating such a fund again? I have tried
to contact Victor, but he's not responding. Maybe he's out of town.

I'm in. I'd offer the use of my PayPal account, but my bank can be very
flaky about transferring funds out of PayPal and I hesitate to trust them
for something as important as this.

I'd be glad to set aside a percentage of every paycheck to go to the vet
fund. Just tell me where to send it.

Dan

I wish I could help out with money, but being so broke myself, I can't
help
And I feel so bad about that.
Hug and sadness
Kyla

Pat, check your email.

Dan

wrote in message
...
Pat wrote:

It's still touch-and-go with the Aby cat.

He's getting around much better, but he seems to have a "head cold" and
it's
become all but impossible to get anything into his stomach. I've never
seen
anything like the behavior he's exhibiting. There's no way to get a pill
into him now. Just absolutely no way. You can't even get close to his
mouth
with one, he thrashes so violently and snaps, bites anything in the
vicinity, and foams profusely at the mouth when nothing at all has been
given. My hands are a total mess.

[snip]

It sounds to me like he might need to be in the vet hospital right now.
Seems like it's more than you, an individual and not a professional, can
manage.

I know money is a major issue. We really need to have an RPCA vet fund
again. Any suggestions on how we could do that? I would be willing to set
up an account to hold funds. We did this once before, and unfortunately
it ended up disasterously, but in this case, nobody else has access to
my bank account.

Also, I have a Paypal account, which I have used to pay others with.
It's not set up to *receive* money, but I could find out how to do that.
I imagine that's not hard.

Would folks be interested in creating such a fund again? I have tried
to contact Victor, but he's not responding. Maybe he's out of town.

We shouldn't allow a wonderful cat like Abelard to die because his human
can't afford the level of care he apparently needs. There are others in
the same position. I'd like to help, and so would several others, but at
the moment there doesn't seem to be any organization. Could those of you
who are interested in this please respond, either here or by private
email? (Remove the XXX's if you email me.)

I can't fault your good intentions, Joyce, and nor do I in any way distrust
you, but "once bitten, twice shy" regarding an actual *fund*. The only way
I'd suppport pooling our money into one account was if it was set up
formally with rules and laws and share holders and all that other legal
stuff to ensure that it was always going to be managed properly and that in
the case of something happening to you (or whoever was in charge of it), the
money wouldn't be considered be part of your estate by law.

I am also concerned these days that it could be scammed. We did have a case
here not so long ago when a person posting to RPCA who was allegedly dying
of brain cancer (and having many other unfortunate events in her life)
turned out to be a total fraud who was milking RPCA's kind and supportive
nature for all the attention she could get. Whether it was malicious or a
case of Manchausen's syndrom is irrelevant, if that particualr individual
had known about an RPCA fund, I am quite sure she would have made several
posts about the financial dire straights she was in and how she couldn't
afford life saving treatment. And I know, you being such a kind and
compassionate person would have felt that using part or all of the RPCA fund
to help her would have been a Good Thing (and most people in RPCA would have
agreed). But that would have left nothing for a kitty in need if there had
been one...

Another concern I have is the allocation of funds if we had a pool of cash.
Who makes the decision to donate how much? Is there a flat rate per kitty?
Or does however much is needed get given to the first cat in need? What if
it as radical but risky surgery? Would we donate $20,000 to do risky surgery
and leave nothing for the next cat who really only needs $100 of vetinary
care that is guranteed to work?

Personally, if a fund were to be set up that pooled RPCA money, and it had
all the legal protection of a trust fund or whatever the legal term is, I
think I'd prefer it to be able to offer very low interest, long term *loans*
for vetinary services rather than just *giving* money. That would at least
prevent scams and people disputing about who got how much money. It would
also help prevent people thinking that expensive surgery is 'covered' by the
good will of RPCA - it wouldn't be. Each slave woudl still have to pay for
said surgery, but wouldn't be hit for a huge bill up front.

Effectively my ideal RPCA fund would more of a loan account or even an
insurance fund than just a pool of money we give to people when the ask.

Given the above complications, the standard method of financial support
since the original fund's demise has been for each individual to give money
to the vet in question. Even I've rung up vets inthe USA and after making
sure they udnerstood my accent (sometimes its difficult) and that they could
take an Australian credit card, I've been able to make a small donation to
several different vetinary accounts. This system allows people to donate as
much or as little to each situation as they see fit and their finances
allow, knowing that their money can't possibly be going to anything else
besides vetinary services, and that the 'emergency' was real.

Even if you do set up a fund, Joyce, it going to take a bit of time, time
that Abelard probably cant afford. In the meanwhile, does anyone know the
contact details of Abelard's vet?

Yowie

"Yowie" wrote

| contact details of Abelard's vet?

I will supply that info if/when it is needed.

About the fund, I've been thinking along the same lines you outlined, a
website modeled after Dr. Keith Taylor's ModestNeeds.org. One of these days
when I have enough time I will make it a reality. Meanwhile I seek
suggestions for a domain name.

Yowie wrote:

I can't fault your good intentions, Joyce, and nor do I in any way distrust
you, but "once bitten, twice shy" regarding an actual *fund*. The only way
I'd suppport pooling our money into one account was if it was set up
formally with rules and laws and share holders and all that other legal
stuff to ensure that it was always going to be managed properly and that in
the case of something happening to you (or whoever was in charge of it), the
money wouldn't be considered be part of your estate by law.

I agree with there being rules, and I also understand that we would need to
decide when, how much, and to whom funds would be donated. Loans would be
good, too, for those who knew they could pay it back. I would prefer to
use an honor system for that, though.

Anyway, all that would be a reasonable discussion to have. As for a trust
fund, with all the legal bells and whistles, while I don't oppose the idea,
I'm not volunteering to engineer it. If someone else wanted to do that,
I would support it, but if I were setting something up, I would go with
simplicity.

Given the above complications, the standard method of financial support
since the original fund's demise has been for each individual to give money
to the vet in question. Even I've rung up vets inthe USA and after making
sure they udnerstood my accent (sometimes its difficult) and that they could
take an Australian credit card, I've been able to make a small donation to
several different vetinary accounts.

One problem I have with this is that I would be calling a phone number
which (in some cases) I have no proof is an actual vet's office, and giving
them my credit card number. Someone could easily pretend to have a sick
cat, post their own phone number or that of an accomplice, and then answer
the phone as "XYZ Vet Hospital". How would any of us know this wasn't the
case? Especially if it's in a different country.

This is why I like the paypal idea best, ie, what Victor has done. People
could donate to the paypal account, and the owner of that account could
then send a check (or a series of checks) to that vet's office. If Victor
isn't available, someone else (such as myself) could be a backup person.
This could work whether or not there is a fund.

--
Joyce

To email me, remove the triple-X from my user name. ^..^

wrote
| calling a phone number which (in some cases) I have no proof is
| an actual vet's office, and giving them my credit card number.
| Someone could easily pretend to have a sick cat, post their own
| phone number or that of an accomplice, and then answer as
| "XYZ Vet Hospital". How would any of us know this wasn't the
| case? Especially if it's in a different country.

For the USA, Canada and England, and perhaps (probably) other countries,
there are online yellow page directories, and most vets will be listed in
them. Some will have their own websites, or at least a listing with their
city's chamber of commerce or business directory, and the phone numbers will
match up.

wrote:
Yowie wrote:

I can't fault your good intentions, Joyce, and nor do I in any way
distrust you, but "once bitten, twice shy" regarding an actual
*fund*. The only way I'd suppport pooling our money into one account
was if it was set up formally with rules and laws and share holders
and all that other legal stuff to ensure that it was always going to
be managed properly and that in the case of something happening to
you (or whoever was in charge of it), the money wouldn't be
considered be part of your estate by law.

I agree with there being rules, and I also understand that we would
need to decide when, how much, and to whom funds would be donated.
Loans would be good, too, for those who knew they could pay it back.
I would prefer to use an honor system for that, though.

I could go with an honour system - I don't think any of us could afford the
legal fees to chase up "bad debt". Can you imagine RPCA being the cause of
The Repo Man? LOL

Anyway, all that would be a reasonable discussion to have. As for a
trust fund, with all the legal bells and whistles, while I don't
oppose the idea, I'm not volunteering to engineer it. If someone
else wanted to do that, I would support it, but if I were setting
something up, I would go with simplicity.

Given the above complications, the standard method of financial
support since the original fund's demise has been for each
individual to give money to the vet in question. Even I've rung up
vets inthe USA and after making sure they udnerstood my accent
(sometimes its difficult) and that they could take an Australian
credit card, I've been able to make a small donation to several
different vetinary accounts.

One problem I have with this is that I would be calling a phone number
which (in some cases) I have no proof is an actual vet's office, and
giving them my credit card number. Someone could easily pretend to
have a sick cat, post their own phone number or that of an
accomplice, and then answer the phone as "XYZ Vet Hospital". How
would any of us know this wasn't the case? Especially if it's in a
different country.

I have good Google-fu. I have checked each address and phone number with the
ones listed in the phone directory that is publically available on the
internet. So far, the details have matched :-)

This is why I like the paypal idea best, ie, what Victor has done.
People could donate to the paypal account, and the owner of that
account could then send a check (or a series of checks) to that vet's
office. If Victor isn't available, someone else (such as myself)
could be a backup person. This could work whether or not there is a
fund.

Fair enough. The system we currently have is working pretty well, then :-)

Yowie

For some reason, a lot of folks seem to get enraged about Pat.
I don't get it. I know some people have had personal conflicts
with her, but please, don't drag them up here.

What Dan said. I can't see that Pat has put a foot wrong in dealing
with Abelard's illness.

BTW, labyrinthitis in people has an unpredictable course, ranging
from brief and unpleasant to permanently crippling and untreatable.
I don't see why it should be any different in cats. If Abelard
doesn't make it, I hope nobody even *thinks* of adding to Pat's
pain by harassing her over it.

(I had a couple of very mild attacks in my teens - wake up one
morning, get up, fall over, vomit, go back to bed and recover in
a few hours; it was like an awful hangover. Let's hope Abelard's
case is as near as possible to mine).

==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === http://www.campin.me.uk ====
Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557
CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts

Pat wrote:
"Yowie" wrote

| contact details of Abelard's vet?

I will supply that info if/when it is needed.

About the fund, I've been thinking along the same lines you outlined, a
website modeled after Dr. Keith Taylor's ModestNeeds.org. One of these days
when I have enough time I will make it a reality. Meanwhile I seek
suggestions for a domain name.






Somehow or another, I found this - I think through either the HSUS or
ASPCA web site, or there was a story on an online news.... or maybe it
was here? It's the Feline Veterinary Emergency Assistance Program.

http://www.fveap.org/sys-tmpl/door/

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