Feline financial lifeline

Lisa Ross lost everything when a fire destroyed her second-floor apartment in Lindenhurst, N.Y., on Feb. 21. The blaze claimed her possessions and three of her four house cats. The fourth, Squeekers, survived, but just barely, having sustained heavy carbon monoxide poisoning and complications from smoke inhalation.

The 6-year-old cat was fighting for its life and Ross was left with virtually nothing — but she had to keep Squeekers alive. It was her teenage son's cat.

"I wanted to save this cat and knew it was going to be expensive," said Ross.

Her sister took to the Internet to find help. She came across the Feline Veterinary Emergency Assistance Program, which gives out financial aid to owners of cats when the cat's life is in danger. The owners must show financial need.

The FVEAP is run by Timothy Meeker out of his Yuba City home. The nonprofit organization has distributed about $130,000 in 681 cases since it was founded in 2002. It has helped people and their cats around the country — New York, Florida, Michigan, Illinois, especially in California — and even Canada, Spain and Australia.

Meeker, 61, started up the organization in his retirement. He retired as the executive director of the Sonoma Developmental Center, a state-run residential facility for the developmentally disabled, in late 2000 and subsequently moved to Yuba City and started volunteering at the Pet LifeLine no-kill shelter.

His experience at the Pet Lifeline shelter made him realize there was a need for the type of organization that he would soon establish. Meeker recalled his frustration when dogs would get hit by a car and need surgery, but, "We were a shelter. It was no place for people who had no money to save the life of their pets."

Meeker, who said he loves dogs and cats equally, explained that the FVEAP focuses on cats as a matter of practicality. Dog treatments are usually more expensive; more cats can be treated with the same amount of money.

The FVEAP is a labor of love for Meeker.

"I love it," Meeker said. "I work much harder than I did at an official job."

He puts in nine- to 12-hour days processing applications for aid, conferring with veterinarians, maintaining the FVEAP Web site, fielding aid inquiries by phone, fax or e-mail, running the organization's eBay fundraising business, writing the newsletter, acknowledging donations, and doing anything else that needs to be done.

"It's a one-person shop as far as daily operations," he said.

He and his wife, Deborah, put in $2,500 of their own money to start the organization, and they pick up all administrative costs such as the running of the computer, phone bills and ferrying eBay packages to the post office. "Every dime somebody donates goes into direct service for the cats," he said.

How do people find the FVEAP?

"Information gets out," said Meeker. Besides its Internet presence, there's word of mouth, and some veterinarians refer appropriate cases to the organization.

Erica Greba's cat was almost paralyzed in critical condition from diabetes. With the vet bill to save the cat estimated at $3,700 to $4,500, Greba needed help for her 11-year-old domestic shorthair. The Englewood, Colo., woman searched online and e-mailed the FVEAP in mid-February.

Meeker contacted Greba and got her story. She's not on government assistance and she has a regular job, but her boyfriend just got laid off and she works with her local animal shelter, PETA and the Humane Society. Meeker waived the requirement that FVEAP recipients be on government assistance, contacted her vet and put $100 toward the expenses. Houdini is now back at home doing fine, receiving insulin twice a day.

"I think it's awesome," said Greba of the FVEAP, "especially for people like me. We were fine and then somebody gets laid off. It's a blessing."

FVEAP guidelines state that the cats in question must be in immediate danger of dying or catastrophic injury: house cats hit by cars or having urinary tract blockages, etc. Funds aren't given for routine care such as vaccinations.

In assessing the situation, Meeker performs a kind of triage, taking into consideration the total cost of the cat's treatment and the likelihood of success. "Is it do-able?" is the question he asks. Aid from the FVEAP rarely covers 100 percent of the pet owner's bill.

With "free" funds at stake, Meeker gets a lot of requests for assistance. He corresponds with the prospective aid recipient to feel them out.

He said deciding whether the person is eligible for aid is "one thing that's difficult to assess," since he doesn't always require that a recipient be on government assistance. He weighs whether a person has a job, children.

"A lot of it is gut," he said. "It's a little bit of science and a lot of art. Experience has led me to tune into certain things" about prospective aid recipients.

"To my knowledge, we've never been scammed," Meeker said, pointing out that corroborating with and making payments straight to the attending veterinarian serve as safeguards.

In 2007, the FVEAP distributed $21,000 in aid for 112 cases. This year already, $10,000 has been given out in 54 cases.

The FVEAP doesn't have an annual budget per se, said Meeker. Rather, the organization distributes aid according to whatever it takes in via fundraising. The FVEAP receives direct donations, but its primary source of funding is the eBay site that sells mainly Swiss Army knives, but also other items. The FVEAP eBay store — http://stores.ebay.com/ Help-People-Help-Their-Cats-Store/ — is listed as a legal charity.

Why Swiss Army knives? Meeker said he is a connoisseur of knives of all kinds. He said Swiss Army knives are good for fundraising because they're relatively inexpensive and are quality products.

The eBay store's robust December sales have made possible FVEAP's record-pace aid disbursal so far this year.

When asked why he does all this, he said: "I'll take a leap and be real honest. I'm a Christian and believe this is the ministry I was led to do. When I worked at Pet Lifeline, it turned my life around."

For Lisa Ross, the New York woman whose only surviving cat was clinging to life, the veterinary bill was estimated at $3,000. Once in contact with the FVEAP, Meeker pledged $200 toward the cat's medical bill.

Today, Squeekers is doing well. It was discharged from the animal hospital and brought to the home of Ross' parents last Sunday. Ross said the white-and-gray cat is eating heartily and running around and "more of its normal personality returns every day."

"I'm truly appreciative," said Ross in a telephone interview last week. I admire people like Mr. Meeker and his organization. "I'm thankful that there are people that care about animals. Usually animals are the ones that suffer in disasters. I'm thankful these people are out there."

For further information or to apply for aid or make a donation, contact the Feline Veterinary Emergency Assistance Program (FVEAP) at:

Contact

• Web site: www.fveap.org

• E-mail: fveap@earthlink.net

• Fax: (888) 301-4264

Contact Appeal reporter Mike Hatamiya at 741-2400 or mhata miya@appeal-democrat.com