Poor Naomi needs to be pain free so she can smile again!

Naomi, who was formerly called P. L. G. (which stands for Poor Little Girl), came to us after she was abandoned in a trailer when her family moved. The Madison County dog warden (our buddy Gary) found Naomi without food or water living alone in the trailer. He had the trailer park manager contact our volunteers, the Swider family, who live in the area and have trapped most of the cats in the park for our TNR projects. They kindly offered to foster Naomi until we could find her a home.

But this was not a simple case of getting the cat fixed and putting her up for adoption. Poor Naomi had some issues with her mouth that we soon realized were very, very serious. In fact, she had so many lesions and sore spots on her gums that sometimes she had trouble eating and would scream (yes, literally scream) in pain. 

Dr. West at Noah’s Ark offered to help Naomi, but after weeks of antibiotics and pain medicine, we discovered that Naomi actually had a hole in the roof of her mouth. Dr. West suspected that the poor cat may have chewed on an electrical cord, shocking herself and causing the damage with an electrical burn. 

Just this week, Naomi went to see a feline dental specialist because Dr. West felt her problems were extremely complicated. Naomi has two main issues that are making her mouth hurt and causing her to stop eating. First of all, she has the lesions and hole in the roof of her mouth. Secondly, the poor cat has stomatitis, which causes her throat and gums to be inflamed due to an immune related condition.

The stomatitis required that Naomi have a full mouth extraction of all her teeth, which she had done yesterday. With steroid injections and her teeth pulled, the inflammation should be relieved. Once her mouth has healed from the removal of her teeth, Naomi will then need a second operation to close the hole in the roof of her mouth.

And this is why we need your help. The first surgery to remove Naomi’s teeth is estimated to cost $1500-1600 (we haven’t received the bill yet–we are holding our breath waiting for that). But the $1500-1600 is not even taking into consideration what the second surgery will cost.

Even the dental surgeon has told us over and over, “She is such a nice cat.” And she is. She truly deserves to have her mouth fixed and be able to get a home where she will never, ever be left behind again. 

We can only wonder what would have happened to Naomi if we had not agreed to help her. Unable to eat, with no family, and in horrible pain, she probably would have curled up somewhere and died. And it would not have been a slow and easy death, but a prolonged death by starvation made excruciating due to her mouth pain.

Happily, this girl is getting a second chance. And we just need your help to make our toothless girl smile a gummy smile again. If you can make a donation toward Naomi’s surgeries, we can soon bring a kitty smile back to her furry face. 

You can make a donation online through our Paypal account on our home page: www.bandocats.org

You can also mail a donation to Black and Orange Cat Foundation, P. O. Box 126, Plain City, Ohio 43064 or you can drop any donations off at Plain City Druggist, 480 South Jefferson Avenue in Plain City (across from Der Dutchman Restaurant). The Spay Neuter Clinic located at 2752 Sawbury Blvd off of Sawmill Road also has a donation box for us.

We cannot help Naomi and all the other kitties like her, cats that other organizations might not deem worth saving, without YOU!

We promised Naomi that soon she'll be eating all she wants without any pain! Bring on the kibble and tuna!