Jackie AKA One Eyed Jack is a 17-year-old Domestic Long Hair in Antioch, CA, who needs $1,488 for tumor removal and dental extractions.

Jackie AKA One Eyed Jack used to live with his community cat colony in the verdant garden of a closed-off alleyway in the middle of one of a major city's industrial zones. There were huge potted plants everywhere, lots of feral cat condos, and even a vintage car in the alley. Cat-sized couches made by the colony's first caretaker were spread around. There was even a vacant field, overgrown with giant datura flowers, on the other side of one fence---which the cats used for resting in the sun.

The colony of around eightlived in this kitty paradise for years until the city decided to open up the alley to accommodate gentrification. Suddenly, the plants and car were removed, and people started driving through. They smashed into the condos and feeding stations. One cat's hind legs and lungs were crushed as he tried to eat in a location where for years he had been safe. He was left to suffer. The surviving cats were driven to hang out in the vacant lot next door, which was also was taken away from them when the community turned it into a dog park. Then people started complaining about the cats sitting on their cars in the adjacent gentrified parkings lots. Some posted signs threatening feeders with arrest. Others posted signs threatening to call animal control.

We took over as the colony's caretakers when the person who TNRed them went abroad for Christmas and never returned.

Jackie was one of the more tame of his colony. He would always come padding up with his unusual walk when we came with food. One night, we noticed he had an abcess on his neck, and we immediately pulled him. That was over 10 years ago.

The colony's caretaker originally named Jackie ``Jack,'' short for ``One Eyed Jack,'' because she believed he was born with one eye. So did most of the vets who saw him throughout the years. Last year, however, a more perceptive vet told us he probably had an eye at birth that had been deflated by trauma. No wonder he shies away when you move your hand towards his face! The vet said to watch the eye, as phletic (deflated) eyes can go cancerous. Sure enough, it did. A month or so ago, the eye socket went all bloody. The vet thinks it was the tumor breaking through the cornea. Then the tumor started to grow.

Being from a substantial outdoor colony, Jackie knows how to get along with other cats. He's happiest when he's up high with the other cats, who like being near the ceiling fixture that emits full spectrum light. We knew he was having problems when we saw him hiding on the floor beneath a table.

Jackie is very young at heart for his some 17+ years. We've heard this is what keeps humans alive a long time, and we think it's Jackie's secret to being our oldest (in years) cat. He loves to play with ping-pong balls---or just loose stuff---just like a kitten, and jumps up to high places seemingly in a single bound.

He loves being scratched behind his ears and will follow us almost anywhere to get more and more of this: leaping up on top of things, so he is at human head height, and butting you with his head until he gets your attention. On the floor, he constantly rubs against your legs. Maybe he's making up for all the years he was on the streets with little human contact.