Most of you will have seen my tweets about my kitten Charlie and the big operation she needs to have to fix her leg. Most of you will also have seen her blog I have set up to help raise some money towards her operation.
I posted the link on Facebook, and Marcus' sister commented saying "you could sell the big screen tv, sound system, wii, i-pad or even the aquarium." Nothing more than that.
I took it as a super bitchy comment. It really upset me, and made me cry. She has no idea what my financial situation looks like, so I wrote her an email to explain. I didn't send it to her because Marcus went off his nut at her and made her apologise for the comment, but I thought I'd post it here, because I had already taken the time to write it.
I wanted to email you and explain our situation. I feel like the comment you made on facebook this morning was because you really have no idea about our financial situation. It's not usually something I discuss, not because I'm uncomfortable about it, but because other people are. I'm not telling you this because I think you deserve to know, or because I want you to feel sorry for us. I'm telling you this so you know I'm doing the absolute best thing I can for my cat, which is all that matters.
When Marcus lost his job in last December, we went from 2 almost full time incomes (I was working about 35 hours a week also) to 1 part time income as my hours were reduced after Christmas. For about 3 months, Marcus couldn't find a job at all, so we lived on about $250 a week. Our rent alone was $350. We even went to WINZ for help, but because we were students, there was nothing they could do to help. In order to survive, we had to borrow money. We sold pretty much all of the tangible things we owned, everything we could that would have a good enough return on investment. If we were to sell the TV, we would lose about $4500 on it, which makes it not worth selling at all.
When Marcus did get a job, he was working less hours and was on MUCH less pay. We were earning enough to cover rent and power, and that's about all. The settlement we got from XX was enough to buy Marcus his iPad, which he deserved after going through hell for 6 months, and pay back some of our debt.
When he finally got a full time job at xx, things started getting better and we were in a position where we could afford to live without borrowing money. We got Charlie as a gift to each other for dealing with all the crap we had been through. We knew she was going to cost us money, and we could afford that (although we never dreamed it would be over $2500, which is how much it will have costed for her vet bills and operation and recovery). We also knew that she was abandoned and deserved a good home, and the most love anyone can give her.
Our budget is finely tuned so we can afford to pay rent, power, insurance, petrol and food for us and the cat, as well as paying back the debt we got when Marcus lost his job. We have two student loans to pay, and also had to recently pay for Marcus' graduation. You don't know what this is like, your parents paid for your entire education, and you never had to work through uni or pay rent until you got a full time job.
We don't go out, and the only things we have purchased for ourselves since Marcus lost his job are our speaker system (we paid $100 for a $1500 system), a skimmer for my fish tank because my old one broke, and Charlie. I bought our christmas presents because I sold some things and worked extra hours.
To make everything worse, I've been underpaid by Bunnings and am now owed over $1000 in wages. We were also screwed over by underwater hockey new zealand, which cost us about $500.
I'm doing everything I can to ensure that Charlie gets her operation quick enough so she doesn't have ongoing issues. We followed what our vet told us to do, and the surgeon even said that in a young cat like Charlie with a trauma, he would have recommended cage rest also.
I'm very lucky that I have some great friends who have been following Charlie's life, injury and recovery who want to do something to help her. They suggested making a blog for her where people can follow her progress and recovery, and make donations so that she can get her surgery more quickly. Without help, it will realistically be 3-4 months before we will be able to afford it. The people who have donated have known Charlie since she was a kitten, and have been following her injury. I'm not too proud to say no to people who offer to help off their own back, especially when the other option is putting her down.
What upset me the most about your comment is that over 500 people have viewed her site, and the only negative comment I got was from you. I understand that you don't know our financial situation and because it's something we obviously can't discuss with either of our parents you couldn't have known. Can you imagine what your mum would say if she knew we had to borrow money to eat? Still, I would expect that as an animal lover, you would support doing anything that is going to help Charlie.
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