Lily was a stray cat rescued during June 2024 initially came to my house injured with a ruptured tumour, with a long duration of treatment some duration of her being separated and long duration in clinic and shelter, she passed away yesterday on 28th June 2025.

I will document her story with timeline and some of my own journey as well along with pictures in chronological order.

I sincerely thank everyone of you who came forward to help us

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

June 2024- On the rains in 20th June I found a cat at my balcony which seemed kind of weak and had some injury at her belly, my mom gave her milk however she only drank a little and left and couldn’t find her for few days.

On 24th June I found her she was very much hurt in belly and was not able to walk freely, I tried to keep her at one place and called for parakeets who came and mom took her to clinic. The Dr told that it is a ruptured tumour and we need to operate it and keep her in animal ICU and would be very risky, I also gave her the name of Lily that time. In my mutual contacts we had a very experienced doctor we went to his cliic almost 60km away from our house and he assured he will save her, he operated her after the tests and was kept at veterinary ICU for half a month.

The total treatment costed us about 40k. She was operated on 26th June.

July 2024- She was discharged from the clinic and brought home after vaccination and deworming, we got a recovery tuna food and also some ongoing medicines, since the surgery was major we had to wait for sometime before we could neuter her. I did decide to keep her open sometimes since she had been in cage for a long time and she used to cry a lot. During one such instances I was not able to catch her and put back in cage and she escaped from my house. I tried to find her a lot however I couldn’t find her despite searching the whole colony.

August 2024- Found Her a couple of times she used to run away from me at first, I used to keep her food bowl and water bowl at my balcony and slowly she started coming in to eat food and even allowed me to pet her however she used to go away after sometime.

During this time I also found a kitten stuck at a tree and rescued it and named it Bagha (due to his stripes resembling that of a tiger).

Bagha unlike Lily always wanted to stay by my side and never left from the day we rescued him, sometimes he used to sit at our balcony and sleep and also made friends with Lily,

However,

Our Rental agreement had ended and our landlord demanded exorbitant rental hike which caused us to shift from that location the next month. New House was almost 10km away from our previous House.

November 2024- 11th of this month I went near my old House and decided to see my Old House and Try to Find Lily, I found her at another neighbour house where she also had a Baby, got introduced to a neighbour who treated her before when she was baby also came to know her age is about 6-7 years, she gave birth to 3 babies however one died to drowning in rainfall and 2 were alive but I only found 1, also came to low she had another bump developed near her belly (mammary gland) which later I come to know was a cyst (didn’t knew the difference between cyst and tumour back then).

Bagha had became terribly ill and hemaprotozoa and was having seizures and at a very critical condition and the next few days I had my endsem in two weeks.

December 2024-

I found someone who wanted to adopt Lily’s babies however the neighbour insisted me to find someone who would take both the Lily an her baby however I wasn’t able to find anyone like that eventually Lily’s baby passed away tragically half eaten (I have no idea she messaged me).

Bagha’s condition was terrible and we had to give him saline(IV) with antibiotics for almost 2 weeks, 2 times a day during which I couldn’t even manage to think of Lily or her baby. Thankfully by God’s grace (touchwood) Bagha recovered fully by the next month.

Lily’s cyst had grown and with financial constraints in hand,

We decided to admit her at an NGO clinic at Behala where she was operated for the cyst. However the post OT was not very good there causing stitch infection the next month.

January 2025- Lily was released to her location with the neighbour who had kept her, however wanted me to take her as it was during heat cycle and she could escape so I found out an animal shelter at Baruipur (about 24kms away) and I sent her there

Found out an animal shelter and decided to keep her there for sometime and will neuter her and release her or keep her there.

However after few days the Owner of the NGO/Shelter called me up and told that my cat seems ill and was not eating, I arranged to get her to clinic where she was found out to have stitch infection and hemaprotozoa.

February 2025- She was at clinic and the tests diagnosed her with Mycoplasma for which I got her Meropenum via saline and Doxycycline(oral) along with liver guard,

During this time only I had actively started the fundraiser, many people from reddit community contributed and the NGO owner also contributed for Lily.

Till the End of February she had recovered and I relocated her to the shelter and continued the medicine dosage.

March 2025- She was ongoing the medicine dosage as prescribed by the vet at the shelter.

Dr had advised to get her visited and then do diagnostic test again and then do the neutering.

April 2025- Got her to doctor at Govt Hospital (same Dr who cured Bagha), he advised not to go for chemotherapy as her age is lot and also her kidney condition is not so good. We gave her ARV and Dr gave some medicines and asked to do diagnostic tests and bring a video and get date for neutering.

May 2025- Did the tests (got a bit late due to funds issue), however the test reports were not positive and she had n inflated belly which we suspected was pyometra first, I brought her to Doctor(clinic and shelter is about 50kms far) and he suggested X-ray, got it done the a home test cost was 2800 and at clinic was cost 700 for test so I decided to get her admitted at a private clinic for few days get the X-ray done, I managed to make a deal with them that I will get the neutering OT done at government hospital and post OT they will take care.

June 2025-

Her Blood Test reports were anyways not good (Low Haemoglobin, Kidney Issues) and the Xray report showed Ascites (fluid in liver), Dr told in this condition she can’t be operated and if we force operation we will have more risk, she also caught cold during this time. Dr gave medicines and antibiotics for Cold and Ascites and asked me to do some more Blood tests and an Ultrasonography after her health improves.

I had got the medicines and sent them(20th June), the medicines were ongoing and she was recovering.

28th June, I got call from the clinic that after feeding her the medicine she had a seizure and a major cardiac arrest, they tried to give CPR however she did not survive.

We buried her bidding her final goodbyes and made a prayer for her afterlife or a new happy rebirth.

I had been setting aside some money for her surgeries however it was less, was in some debt from the clinics as well so thought of making another fundraiser once and for all after the surgery I shall give her to the shelter where she shall live the rest of her life peacefully.

In order to support her treatment I started freelancing and also took up some part time jobs as well, am a student and my mom’s a single mother so it was very difficult for us to manage the finances.

I was very worried of finances and how will I manage her OT in next week when I got another exam in 2 weeks, she took all my worries together with her.

My regret is that she had been in cage for such a long time, she used to be in cage for most times and just got released for few hours a day, the shelter people did play with her and she had met some other animals too however due to her running nature (probably due to heat cycle and her being unsterilised had made us took the decision).

I have always been a dog person, I did like cats but before this I have never had even petted a cat properly before 2024.

I think some major mistakes I did was not getting her baby adopted, Not catching her back and putting in cage for another time during the heat cycle, maybe I should have got multiple opinions or I could have tried a better place for treatment (the main and only constraint being finances) or should have done some aggressive treatment like chemo.

Am unsure of what exactly caused her death she had too many illnesses, I feel guilty that I might have been worrying to much about finances me and my mom could have managed somehow and anyways we have some dues but she is no more.

Some Context- Initially we though Lily was about 1 or 2 year even doctor said, however the neighbour lady told that she is about 6-7 years old and in 2020 she had a car accident and she had operated one of her fingers.

The reason for relocation was the cost cz Clinics and creche charges 250 to 400 a day however the Shelter charged 3000 a month initially later increased to 4000 which was cheaper however it was very far but the cost saved would do for her travel.

All Amounts are in INR (Indian Rupee, 1 USD = 85 INR Approx)

I had thought of fully treating her and keeping her at the paid shelter only as she had been accustomed to the comfort of the house instead of releasing her.

LILY - A RESILIENT FIGHTER AND CHAPTER OF MY LIFE COMES TO AN END