An Edinburgh woman has shared a desperate appeal to save her rescue cat after adopting him from Romania just a few months ago.
Irene Guerrero, had fallen in love with her cat, Willy after he appeared in an advert from a Romanian rescue charity, who bring a number of stray animals back to the UK to find forever homes.
Only a few months after her last cat passed away, the 43-year-old and her partner decided to adopt the one-eyed ball of fur, who had recently undergone surgery for an eye infection.
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However, just a few months into caring for Willy, Irene told Edinburgh Live she had noticed strange movements and twitches, before his health quickly deteriorated.
She said: "He is about a year and four months old. He's a very small cat, only 3kg. We adopted Willy in April this year after losing a cat in January from a rescue that brings dogs and cats from Romania to be adopted in the UK.
"I wasn't actively looking for a cat at the time but something about him caught my eye, he was previously named Max, but we changed his name to Willy after "One-eyed Willy", the pirate from The Goonies."
After a brief period of improvement, Willy's health declined again, with the couple then told due to the timing they took out their pet insurance, it would not be valid to cover his medical costs.
Forking out over £2,000 on testing, Irene explained that they have been told Willy's condition is neurological, which has now seen his balance and steadiness affected.
With an official cause of his symptoms still unclear, Irene shared she has been left with no further funding to help treat her beloved cat, as his condition worsens. Launching a fundraising page to help cover some of the medical costs, Irene said:
"It was July and he starting shaking his head and scratching his ears. It all pointed to an ear infection and a day later or so he lost his balance, he started walking like he was drunk, so we took him to the vets at the first opportunity. Sadly this happened only a few days after taking his insurance policy, so it's considered a pre-existing condition and therefore not covered.
At the beginning it all looked like an ear infection so he had some ear drops but soon he needed oral antibiotics and steroids and it looked like he was getting much better, but he declined again after finishing the course of antibiotics. At this point he was also having weird twitches in his head and back.
"He was checked again and his ears where clear so it all now looked as neurological. An MRI and further testing where recommended but we were looking at over £2000 for testing only.
"He is an absolute sweetheart, he's really cuddly and he follows me around the house, as he couldn't believe he has a family now. Willy has only been with for six months and he's been sick for three, but he's part of our family and we adore him. We can just hope he can recover and live a long and happy life, he's been through so much already.
"We never thought it would be this hard but we're extremely grateful to everyone who has helped so far. The whole thing is a massive financial burden for us but even if we don't manage to raise enough we'll keep trying as long as he's happy."
You can donate to the fundraiser for Willy here.
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