Wendy's Place Cat Rescue

Wendy's Place Cat Rescue Wendy's Place is a cat rescue in Staunton, Virginia.

This post is overdue. There’s a specific picture of Dawn that I wanted to use, that encapsulates her personality perfect...
09/03/2026

This post is overdue. There’s a specific picture of Dawn that I wanted to use, that encapsulates her personality perfectly, but I haven’t been able to find it. For now, this one also does a good job of capturing who Dawn was.

This one hurts more than I expected it to. Dawn arrived here as a 1 week old bottle baby in Sept 2018. She’d been found with her 3 siblings, covered in maggots & fleas. One of her siblings had already died. We weren’t sure if the 3 remaining kittens were going to live. Miraculously, all 3 survived! They became the .

Joy was adopted several years ago, but Dawn & Ajax remained here with us, always overlooked by adopters. Dawn had no fears, but she was fiercely independent and standoffish to visitors. We joked that she was hand raised by humans, therefore she believed that she was a human. She was the smartest cat we had in our care. You could see her investigating everything around her & thinking through problems & solutions. I wish I had thought to teach her how to use buttons to communicate with us. I think she would have taken to that.

She went downhill so quickly that it’s still shocking to us. It started in April with an eye infection, which seemingly overnight became rapid weight loss & loss of appetite, followed by a few weeks of diagnostic tests, eventually leading to a diagnosis of large cell lymphoma. The worst kind to have. We did attempt chemo with her, which she tolerated well, but she only made it through 2 rounds. The cancer was much too aggressive & the chemo simply wasn’t able to keep up with it. We said goodbye to her on Saturday morning, July 11, 2026. Her 8th birthday was only 6 weeks away.

Her death hit us hard, especially after losing Geoff just 2 weeks earlier & saying goodbye to one of our personal cats in January. This hasn’t been a good year for us. It’s the reason why we were so nervous about Severus on Tuesday. We weren’t at all mentally prepared to lose another one. Dawn was far too young to die.

Financially, we’re not doing well either. There are too many vet bills & not enough money. If anyone would like to make a donation in honor of Dawn, please find our donation links in our pinned post.

The third time’s the charm!! Severus had a cardiology recheck yesterday, followed by a successful enucleation! He’s now ...
09/02/2026

The third time’s the charm!! Severus had a cardiology recheck yesterday, followed by a successful enucleation! He’s now officially a one-eyed pirate cat 🏴‍☠️. He’s an old man, looking pretty rough around the edges, but he’s doing well ❤️. This has been a stressful adventure for more than a year and a half. Yesterday itself was beyond stressful as we waited to find out if he made it through the surgery or not. He was the last surgery of the day, so there was a lot of anxious waiting. We’re beyond grateful for everyone at Friendship Hospital who got him to this point: the cardiology department that got his heart healthy enough for surgery, the anesthesiologist who was there to keep an eye on him throughout the surgery, and of course the ophthalmologist who did the actual surgery. We’re also grateful for Dr Kelly at Augusta Valley Animal Hospital whose quick actions kept him alive during his initial enucleation attempt. We could have lost him that day, and yet here we are 18 months later!

Unfortunately, this has been an extremely expensive ordeal, and if anyone is able to donate towards the cost of Severus’ vet bills, we would appreciate it more than you can possibly know. I know quite a few of you have already donated, and for that we’re grateful! We absolutely couldn’t have done this without your support.

All donation links can be found in our bio on Instagram and in our pinned post on Facebook.

Now we move on to Step 2: Attempting to get Severus to take 4 different medicines, twice a day, for the next 10 days. That’s already proving to be its own adventure in itself. Wish us luck!

07/18/2026

Well…this might be the cutest video we’ve ever captured on our outside cameras. We have a new feral kitten that’s been showing up every day. We think it’s around 12 weeks old, but it’s hard to tell. This will be a new TNR project. In the meantime, enjoy the “ekekeks”, the yawns, and the adorable camera posing that this little one graced us with.

Dawn update: We finally have test results & unfortunately she has lymphoma. This ordeal began in May with her injured/in...
07/01/2026

Dawn update: We finally have test results & unfortunately she has lymphoma. This ordeal began in May with her injured/infected eye, followed by investigating the possibility of dry FIP, extreme weight loss, finding a mass in her abdomen, emergency hospitalization, & finally conclusive test results. Her prognosis isn’t good. She has a 50/50 chance.

That being said, we take a cat led approach to treating illnesses here. If she’s still fighting, then we’ll keep fighting, as long as we can financially manage it.

So far Dawn received a dose of Elspar 2 weeks ago, which immediately went to work shrinking her tumor. Elspar isn’t long acting though, & has already worn off. This was followed by some bad days, while we waited for her oncology appointment, where she refused to eat. She got an injection of a long acting steroid at the ER vet this past weekend that really helped. Yesterday, she started her first round of chemo. (It’s worth nothing that cats are known to tolerate chemo very well.) So far, she’s doing well. Between the steroid & the chemo, she’s gained her appetite back, she has energy, & her personality hasn’t changed.

We’re lucky that Dawn was a bottle baby, who grew up with almost zero fear of anything. She’s always looked at carriers as her safe spaces and spends her days sleeping in them. She’s easy to pack up for the vet. She’s not overly anxious or afraid while at the vet. She’s too smart for her own good though, & getting pills or liquid medicine into her is a challenge beyond what we’ve experienced with other cats.

We do need help to continue her treatment & if anyone can donate we’d be beyond grateful! Money is always helpful, but we also have Amazon & Chewy wishlists that you can purchase from if you aren’t comfortable sending money. All donation links can be found in our bio on Instagram or the pinned post on Facebook.

We want to be clear that we won’t ever keep a cat alive for our own benefit. If Dawn starts to decline & lets us know that she’s ready to die, then we’ll follow her lead. Right now things are looking okay, and we can only hope that they continue on that path.

We said goodbye to Geoff this past Tuesday. This one is taking a while to process as it was so unexpected & sudden. We’r...
06/28/2026

We said goodbye to Geoff this past Tuesday. This one is taking a while to process as it was so unexpected & sudden. We’re never going to have clear answers but if anyone has experienced something like this, I’d love for you to reach out just because I’m curious about what all the possibilities are. We saw 3 different vets during this ordeal simply because we had to take whatever appointment was available at the time we needed it. All 3 had different theories about what happened.

On June 5, Geoff seemed lethargic, but otherwise okay. We took him to the 1st vet. He had bloodwork done & everything looked perfect. The vet noticed that he had severe dental disease, likely due to being FIV+ & suggested scheduling a full mouth extraction to relieve him of the pain. He thought the lethargy may be because of his discomfort & pain. Geoff was given an antibiotic & anti-inflammatory & got better almost immediately.

On the evening of June 20, exactly 2 weeks later, Geoff seemed lethargic again but nothing jumped out as an emergency. We decided to observe him. The next evening, Sunday, we noticed that he seemed off balance when walking. We called the ER vet who wouldn’t be able to see us until around 6am. So we opted to wait until regular vets opened at 7am. On Monday morning, he was struggling to walk. He also wasn’t reacting to anything in his environment. Ultimately, he seemed like he wasn’t mentally there. We rushed him off to the 2nd vet. She thought this might be neuro FIP or an infection. Bloodwork was run again but this time it looked horrible. Lots of things wrong. He got another antibiotic & anti-inflammatory & we were told to observe. On Tuesday he couldn’t move at all. We rushed off to the 3rd vet who suspected a systemic infection. She was about to re-do bloodwork when Geoff when into respiratory distress & essentially died right then. He still had a heartbeat though, so this wasn’t heart failure. We obviously euthanized him at this point.

We’re heartbroken for Penny (pics 2&3), who loved him so much. She seemed to understand that something was wrong with him on his last 2 days, but she doesn’t seem to understand that he’s never coming back.

Some updates: We’ve been consumed with cat problems for weeks now. With limited space, I’ll try to sum this up quickly. ...
06/20/2026

Some updates: We’ve been consumed with cat problems for weeks now. With limited space, I’ll try to sum this up quickly. We’re drowning in vet bills. We have some really sick cats on our hands & could use any donations that anyone is willing to give. All donation links can be found in our bio on Instagram or the pinned post on Facebook.

While waiting for Severus’ recheck for his heart & enucleation, Dawn has gotten sicker. I posted at the beginning of May that she had an eye issue, possibly an injury caused by another cat, though the cause was unknown. That’s mostly healed now. Unfortunately, a little over a week ago, her other eye started having issues. You can see her third eyelid covering half of her eye in this picture.

She’s also lost 2lbs since May. In May she’d lost 2lbs since October.

The short version of this: she likely has an aggressive form of lymphoma. She has a large mass in her abdomen, but tests are currently inconclusive. Or she might have the dry form of FIP. Never in my life could I have imagined wishing for a cat to have FIP, but that’s what we’re hoping for as we await more test results to determine if it’s cancer or not. She’s already been treated with some first line of defense cancer drugs. The meds given to her shrink tumors quickly, but wears off in about a week. We do have confirmation that the mass that was found in her abdomen appears to be smaller now. It’s good that it worked, but bad in what it indicates - likely cancer, and not FIP.

I’ll do my best to keep updating on a more regular basis, but right now we have to plead for some donations to help us cover our vet bills. Aside from Dawn, we still need to take care of Severus’ eye. Geoff is also sick & likely needs a full mouth extraction. Joyce has something respiratory going on. Sawyer needs a refill of his medicine. Charlie needs his annual workup with his specialist. Felicia has an ongoing ear infection likely caused by a small mass in her ear.

All of this combined is making it hard to maintain financial stability with the rescue. Any help, even $1, adds up and is immensely helpful to us!

*Severus Update* First things first: YES he is under the care of a veterinarian for this issue, and has been for the las...
05/14/2026

*Severus Update* First things first: YES he is under the care of a veterinarian for this issue, and has been for the last year. I initially wasn’t going to post pictures of his eye, but I want people to see what their donations are going to. (And yes, he has food crumbs on his face.)

Background: A little over a year ago Severus was diagnosed with severe glaucoma and we were told he needed to have his eye removed. While under anesthesia for that surgery, his heart became erratic and the surgery was immediately stopped. After a visit to a cardiologist and an ophthalmologist we were able to put off the surgery for a year. His eye remained stable, and we worked on controlling his hyperthyroidism which was the likely cause of his heart issues.

A few weeks ago his eye started looking significantly worse. We knew that the surgery couldn’t be put off any longer.

Today we attempted to have the surgery done again. First, he went for a cardiologist recheck where unfortunately, they did NOT clear him for surgery. The Dr found a new arrhythmia, and is concerned that his heart will again have issues with anesthesia. He then saw the ophthalmologist next, who agrees with putting off the surgery again.

He’s now on a new medicine to control the arrhythmia and in a couple weeks he’ll go back for yet another cardiology recheck and HOPEFULLY enucleation surgery.

Severus is fine aside from his eye. He seems surprisingly unbothered by the eye and the ophthalmologist isn’t too concerned about any uncontrolled pain. It seems to be more discomfort than pain. But ultimately, this eye needs to come out and we’re hopeful that this new medicine will work well enough for that to happen.

We’ll update again as soon as there’s any update to report. In the meantime thank you to everyone who has donated towards Severus’ vet bills! We’re truly only able to give him this care because of your support. If anyone is interested in donating you can find links in our bio on Instagram & our pinned post on Facebook.

(Also, a shoutout to Ross who woke up and drove Severus up to DC today at 4am, and who will do the same thing again in a few weeks❤️.)

Come to our Mother’s Day Tea tomorrow to support our cats! We are currently drowning in vet bills and are really in need...
05/09/2026

Come to our Mother’s Day Tea tomorrow to support our cats! We are currently drowning in vet bills and are really in need of donations right now.

The theme of this week is Naps and Eyes. I’m sharing the napping pictures so that I don’t show you their eyes.

Poor Dawn has always had chronic eye & upper respiratory issues. So when we noticed that her left eye was squinty & watery we didn’t think it was anything beyond a usual flare up. We gave her some eye medicine, but it didn’t help this time. After about a week of seeing no improvement, we took her to the vet where we learned that this is far more serious than a typical flare up. Her eye was severely infected. So infected that the vet couldn’t really see what exactly was wrong. Unfortunately, she thinks that her eye may have been injured and perforated. We need to get the swelling down and some of the infection gone to know for sure though. Dawn has been on 2 different eye medicines and a pain medicine for a few days now. We’re seeing improvement, but I would have expected to see more improvement at this point if this was just a standard infection. Its very possible that Dawn may be our second cat in need of an enucleation next week. She has a recheck on Tuesday where we’ll get more answers.

Meanwhile, Dawn was a bottle baby. But in the nearly 8 years that she’s been with us, she’s never been a cuddly cat. She’s extremely independent. While she lacks any fear of humans, she’s still not a lap cat and has never cuddled with us. I took this picture yesterday after giving her medicine. This is the closest she’s ever come to snuggling. It’s sweet, but it’s also very obvious that she doesn’t feel good. She’s currently isolated from the other cats and wants nothing more than to be around us when we’re in the room with her.

You can help us help Dawn by donating through our Venmo or PayPal Links, or by donating items from our Amazon or Chewy wishlists. All links can be found in our bio on Instagram or our pinned post on Facebook. You can also come to our Mother’s Day Tea tomorrow (5/10) where all proceeds will go directly to Wendy’s Place.

We are really in need of donations right now.We are drowning in vet bills, mostly due to this guy. It’s been a little ov...
05/08/2026

We are really in need of donations right now.

We are drowning in vet bills, mostly due to this guy. It’s been a little over a year since we found out that Severus needs an enucleation of his left eye. When he initially went in for the surgery, his heart became erratic under anesthesia and he was immediately woken up, the surgery stopped. After a visit to a cardiologist & an ophthalmologist, we’ve managed to prolong the inevitable surgery by a year. His eye remained mostly unchanged for that year. We managed to get his thyroid better regulated, which should help his heart. This is fortunate because his eye has gotten significantly worse over the last few weeks. And so, this upcoming Wednesday, May 13, we’ll be making the drive up to DC to finally have it removed. He’s high risk and we don’t know if the surgery will be successful or not, but we absolutely can’t wait any longer to try. He’ll be monitored by an anesthesiologist this time, but that comes with a high cost. We’re looking at a total of around $4000 when everything is done (this includes the cost of pre-surgery bloodwork and a cardiology recheck).

You can donate to us via Venmo or PayPal, or by purchasing items off of our Amazon and Chewy wishlists. All links can be found in our bio on Instagram or the pinned post on Facebook. You can also support us by coming to our Mother’s Day tea this Sunday. All proceeds from the tea go directly to Wendy’s Place.

Stay tuned to our socials because I’ll be updating about the other large expenses we have right now.

Join us for Mother’s Day Tea! Sunday, May 10, 2026 at the . $22 per person includes:~You’re choice of tea, coffee, or h...
05/04/2026

Join us for Mother’s Day Tea! Sunday, May 10, 2026 at the . $22 per person includes:
~You’re choice of tea, coffee, or hot chocolate
~3 courses of light eats
~Meet and interact with the adoptable cats at Wendy’s Place Cat Rescue.

All proceeds benefit Wendy’s Place Cat Rescue.

Reservations are recommended and can be made via Ticket Tailor (link in bio) or by calling 540-885-4220.


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Staunton, VA
24401-24402

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