A few months ago, a small black cat started coming to our yard looking for food (we were already feeding another feral mama cat, so there was sometimes food left outside). We had seen her before, but only a few times, as she would slink over at night and hide in the bushes so we couldn't see her - so we decided to call her Shadow. We assumed she was feral, but as she started coming for food more often this past spring, we realized that she wasn't scared of us anymore, and we started petting her. We also discovered that she was a mama, with 4 teets bulging to feed her kittens, but we didn't know where the kittens were. Since then she has proven herself to be an incredibly sweet and friendly cat who loves us and our kids, and we've been planning to adopt her as soon as we're able to rescue her with her kittens. About a month ago, she showed up with 2 small kittens who were very scared of us. One of them, a playful gray tabby, climbed a tree in our yard and we were able to climb up to save it. We named him Smokey. The next day Smokey was back with his mom and this time there were 3 other kittens! So we knew that Shadow had 4 kittens and it would be challenging to catch them all, but that was our plan. We tried to build their trust by continuing to feed them these past few weeks, but unfortunately Shadow often came alone, and it was only a few times that they followed her over. Rarely would it be all four of them at once. In the past two weeks, one of the kittens disappeared - Smokey's sibling who came over that first night when Smokey got stuck in the tree. We can only hope that someone took it inside and saved it, but it's hard not to imagine the worst. Then a few nights ago we saw the remaining 3 healthy kittens, and were even starting to get Smokey and one of his sisters to play a little with a laser light and feather toy. Then late Wednesday night, we had a shock. All 3 kittens came to eat with their mom, but Smokey was limping, badly, with his back leg hanging at an awkward angle. We knew we had to get him to a vet ASAP so we took him into our basement for the night. We took him to the emergency vet (VEG) and they did an x-ray and confirmed that his femur is badly broken, snapped completely. We suspect that he got scared by fireworks on the 4th and ran up into a tree, and fell hard onto that leg. He needs surgery with metal plates and screws to put his leg back together, and VEG doesn't do that, so they referred us to another vet for special surgeries. The surgery estimate is 8.5K - 11K, and we absolutely cannot afford it. We also can't put him back outside because he would surely die. As a result of this we're looking into petcare credit card/payment plan options, and Smokey was dropped off at the surgeon this morning. They are trying to squeeze him in today but if not it will be tomorrow - and we put a deposit of almost $9K on another credit card. We also spoke to Miss Pat's Cats (a 501(c)(3) rescue, see here: https://www.misspatscats.org/) and they can help with getting Smokey and his siblings adopted, but they don't have the money to pay for this either. And this doesn't change the fact that Smokey's leg needs to be fixed ASAP. We're asking for donations to help cover as much of the cost as possible to save this beautiful kitten. Please help if you're able to, and thanks. Smokey in our basement: Smokey outside with Shadow and siblings before the broken leg: Back when there were 4 kittens 
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