Help Me to Help You to Help Someone Special

So, here's the sob story.

For Valentines Day, I sent my girlfriend (herein referred to as Ms. Sizzle) what I thought was a lovely bouquet of tulips and lilies. It showed up at her work and she was beside herself with happiness and absolutely adored the arrangement. Mark a nice juicy check in the "Good Boyfriend" column for me! She was happy, I was happy, the nice people at FTD were happy. But it was not to last. Sigh.

A few days later, Ms. Sizzle brought her flowers home, hoping to enjoy them a little more. Unfortunately, she forgot something very important. Ms. Sizzle has two adorable cats, a sister and brother duo named Dot and Dash. A day or so later, returning from work; Ms. Sizzle found that one of the cats had vomited and there was a little bit of lily in it.

Turns out lilies are extremely toxic to those of the feline persuasion.

Extremely toxic.

Crazy toxic.

At this point, because we didn't know which cat had ingested the lilies we had to rush them both to a 24-hour vet in the hopes of getting them treated. Untreated, the results are terminal. Both kitties underwent a battery of test, IV drips, and assorted nastiness. In the end they were both safe. But there was a hitch.

Treatment for lily poisoning is extremely expensive. $1200. Per. Cat.

Read that again.

That's almost 2500 dollars in veterinary bills.

Luckily, Ms. Sizzle was able to cover it. But it has ruined her savings and plans for home ownership. She works two jobs and has scrimped and saved for the day she could put a down payment on her own home. I can't tell you how devastating it was to watch. It broke my heart. I have not felt this guilty, unhelpful and terrible in a long, long time.

Fortunately, a great friend stepped in and began a donation drive to get Ms. Sizz back on track with her savings. The response has been incredible, but I would like to help as well.

To that end, I am now auctioning the two original pieces of pencil art that I did for the No Quarter Issue 27 short story "Not Everyone Dies".

cwalton73.deviantart.com/art/N…

There is a $100 reserve and the pieces will be up for bid on Ebay for 7 days. Here is a link to the auction:

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?…

If you ever wanted a piece of original Privateer art of one of its iconic characters, and you wanted to help a good cause; this is it.

Thanks for listening.

-Chris