Shara is a 5-year-old Egyptian Mau in Albrightsville, PA, who needs $2,000 for surgery to remove tissue infected by Nocardiosis.

We took Shara home when she was only 8 weeks old….she truly is a gift from God; She is so loving and smart and interactive and has such a personality! Shara likes to play with teaser toys, tear up balls of paper, and watch squirrels and chipmunks outside with her sisters. She loved to be walked in the yard by her mom & dad, before she got infected.

We don’t have any kids, and these cats are our kids. Shara really loves her (cat) sisters and her mom & dad, and this family and home are all she’s ever known! We are lucky to have 2 healthy other cats, and had 2 others years ago that lived long, healthy lives, so this is really hard for us to go through….

At this point she's had check-ups, medications, lab tests, surgery, and a CAT scan. We want nothing more than for Shara to be normal, active, and sore free for good and for this evil bacteria to be gone.

Shara has been diagnosed with Nocardiosis, a flesh eating bacteria. There are only 3 known antibiotics that kill it. We have given Shara all 3; after each series of dosages the infections would subside, only to return a few months later. We brought her to Valley Central Vet in Whitehall, PA who is prescribing an advanced surgery (her second) to remove canals that the bacteria dug under her skin.

About 2 years ago we noticed a large lump in her right armpit that after about 2 weeks broke open and discharged….we brought her to a vet who just thought it was a cyst at first. Later she started getting other holes in her armpit and the bottom of her right paw that were discharging pretty bad. All Shara wanted to do was curl up on our bed and rest, it was pretty hard to see, young as she was.