Charlie's story:

In April, 2008, a neighbor of Jourdan Conrad's found an emaciated Maine Coon on his porch in Los Angeles, California.  It was thought at first that the cat was dead - he was so skinny, matted, dirty and lifeless.  The poor boy was alive, but obviously in dire need of medical help.  Jourdan and her husband Garry cared for him, got him to the vet and started searching for a foster home where he could have 24/7 care.  Jourdan named him "Orange Roughy."

Jourdan was fortunate shortly thereafter to find a wonderful foster home for him in San Diego with Kim McCullough and her family, who named  him Lucky Charlie.  He was indeed "lucky" to be alive.

The vet determined that Charlie had a number of serious problems, to include being FIV+.  He had mange, which was causing him to lose fur,  he had an upper respiratory infection, stomatitis, and mouth ulcers.  He began treatment with antibiotics, was given a steroid shot for the mouth ulcers, and Kim herself began giving him fluids daily. 

Charlie's vet felt that he would need to be on medication for some time and because of the mouth ulcers and stomatitis, he would probably eventually lose most or all of his teeth,  as extraction is the only method to correct the stomatitis.  He was also going to need to be dipped once a week for six weeks to treat the mange, and drops for ear mites. The vet bills were building up quickly.

I am the website administrator for Hurricane Pets Rescue.  We posted Charlie's story on our site with a request for donations to help Kim with Charlie's medical bills, which were estimated to reach $3,000 in no time.  Thanks to many wonderful people, donations came flooding in and all of us anxiously awaited updates from Kim regarding Lucky Charlie's progress.

Over the next few weeks, Kim was constantly amazed at Charlie's sweet nature even though eating was painful, the dips weren't much fun and getting fluids every single day would be stressful for anyone.  Yet he continued to be loving and seemed to appreciate everything Kim was doing for him.

One June 26th, Kim wrote:  Lucky Charlie had his dental cleaning and oral surgery today.  After 3.75 hours of surgery and 13 extractions he came out of it purrfectly.  He was a little wobbly when I first brought him home but he ate right away and doesn’t appear too swollen. 

He is such a little trooper and now just needs to recover.  He is on Clavamox and a pain med both twice daily and will have a recheck in two weeks.  His vet is sure he will feel soooo much better in the weeks to come so we are looking forward to that.  We all love him soo much and are sooo very lucky to have him.

A few weeks later, Kim updated us again:  Lucky Charlie did so well after having his teeth extractions and at his follow up two weeks after his mouth was completely healed where the teeth had been pulled. Some of his ulcers had reduced in redness and some were gone entirely but Dr. Ann said it would likely take a few months for his mouth to entirely heal. Happily he has normal cat breath now and is not drooling anymore either. He is obviously feeling much better because he has taken to chasing my cat Angel now and then and I had no idea he could move so fast!

Below is Charlie with his most loving mom, Kim. 

Today, Charlie continues to make amazing progress.  We felt we just had to share this strong-willed boy's story.  We will update this page with info and new photos of Charlie often - we hope you'll share his story and keep tabs on his progress.

Note:  We send much paw applause to Kim and her family for helping this wonderful boy...for giving him a chance he might never have had.  We know it has taken an unbelievable amount of work, patience and love to bring Lucky Charlie to the much improved condition he is in today.   God bless you Kim and Lucky Charlie, may you continue to get stronger and healthier each day...we all love you from afar.

And, obviously, we want to thank Jourdan Conrad for rescuing Lucky Charlie, each and every person who donated money to help Charlie and Kim, and all who continue to pray for them...bless you ALL - much paw applause!

                                     ...Bari DuBois

If you would like to contact Kim, her email is sophiecat5@cox.net