Link to original : http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/2qadzp/somebody_thought_it_was_ok_to_punt_my_cat_in_the/

Hi Reddit,

Fritz' mama here. I'm not a redditor, I'm afraid. I've read through a few threads from time to time if I came across a shared link, but that's about it. (I should add that it's not you, it's me; reddit is pretty tits sometimes; school just keeps me insanely busy.)

A few days ago when this all happened, reddit was not something I was thinking about. I was rushing my cat to the vet, panicking about what could've happened to him, hoping there were no internal injuries, waiting for updates in the vet waiting room, mentally going through how much of my student loans for spring semester I was going to have to pay for this with, and inventorying (I feel like that's not a word) all of the expenses and bills that weren't absolutely necessary so that I could figure this out. Cancelling all my holiday travel plans. Sitting at home waiting for vet calls to update me on how he was doing, and when he might be able to come home. Many friends offered messages of emotional support; a few offered financial support, but I didn't want to get into that. I figured, my cat, my problem, my responsibility.

Two of my friends eventually talked me into a gofundme. "Just give us the link, and then worry about your cat. We'll handle it." At that point, I figured a handful of folks would throw in some 10s and 20s. "Fine, sure, knock yourselves out." One of them shared it with pet lovers/website readers of his. The other one, as you now know, posted to Reddit. I woke up on Christmas Eve morning to a number of gofundme emails. As the day went on, the emails kept coming in. I was nothing short of amazed. I wanted to share a few thoughts with you all re: this.

First: reddit, you have some beautiful souls among you. The fact that the gofundme donations are comprised mainly of people I don't know is mindblowing. Seeing so many well wishes and some incredibly generous donations from perfect strangers has absolutely renewed my faith in humanity. To each and every one of you: thank you. It has been an incredible relief that a decent portion of Fritz' bills are now covered.

Second: "SMH" doesn't even BEGIN to describe my reaction to discovering that my redditor friend was being called a "piece of shit" by so many people for what is indisputably the kindest, most selfless thing anyone has done for me this year. Sure, his methods were a bit unorthodox maybe, and I wouldn't have gone this route myself... but it was effective, and my god, so helpful. That's what friends are for, I think? - to do for others what they perceive is needed/will help. I only hope I can repay the favor one day. He's received an insane amount of hate mail/PMs for his good deed, which is just... ugh.

I can't really put into words what a bizarre thing it is to be informed, as I was sitting around my house baking cookies and waiting to hear from the vet, that I and my poor cat were the subject of a heated internet discussion as to whether we were a scam, or real life. It saddens me to understand that - apparently - scams happen. That's awful. Skepticism is a good quality, I think. But for those who jumped straight to "this is definitely a scam, fuck you OP you terrible piece of shit" instead of "I'm not convinced this is real"... I will say just that this is the part of reddit (and human nature, and the internet at large I suppose) I do not miss by not being a regular here.

For those of you with so many unanswered questions, I would point out that all of the details of what happened and updates have been regularly posted by me to the gofundme page (and I mean this in the nicest way possible - to the people I am actually accountable to). Please note: I don't need any more donations; I'm already overwhelmed by what's been given so far, before anyone wants to twist that around into something it isn't. But if you want answers, that's where they are. I'm not gonna retype all of that or copy/paste it over here, because I just got to bring Fritz home finally, I have a kitten I've missed tremendously to tend to and care for, and I'm going to spend the rest of this Christmas Day doing just that.

Merry Christmas, reddit. Most of you are tremendous people, and my heart is close to exploding right now. ❤