Ripley is a 4-year-old Domestic Short Hair Cat in Houston, TX, who needs $2,000 for Blood Transfusion.

4 years ago, I picked up Ripley at the animal shelter in my hometown. Whoever was working there was trying to draw my attention to a russian blue, but I really fell in love with the orange one. Ripley is the sweetest cat I've ever met. Shortly after having her, we noticed her acting strangely. After a series of different symptoms and a string of different vets, we finally got a diagnosis of FIV.

I named her after the main character in the Alien movies. She is loud and demands attention all the time - I like to call her Yellin' Ripley. She can be what we call aggressively affectionate. Especially with her sister.

She demands attention in a couple different ways. One of my favorites was when she notices I'm on my way to the bathroom so she can race me in there. She also loves to do stretches with me and likes to plop on my yoga mat whenever I roll it out. I love talking to her so much.

During preliminary blood work for a dental cleaning, they found that her hematocrit was at 8%. This has thrown us for a loop because she just had a yearly check up a few months ago. The vet suspects Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia. We need to go to Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists really soon because Ripley needs a blood transfusion, some imaging, and hospitalization.

We just got this news yesterday (10/3) and we keep hearing that we need to euthanize her. We are trying our best to act quickly and care credit and other credit cards can only take us so far. The estimate we were given was $8,000 to $10,000.