PORT ANGELES — Peninsula Friends of Animals will try to save Gato’s remaining eight lives on Tuesday.

They and the residents of the Single Adult Shelter at Serenity House could use your help.

Gato — the name means cat in Spanish — has been the shelter’s resident feline for at least six years. Because he had no single owner, no one noticed how thin he was becoming until it was nearly too late.

Gato has hyperthyroidism, a condition that has over-accelerated his metabolism to the degree that he has burned all his body fat and much of his muscle tissue.

“He was in pretty dire straits,” said Nancy Campbell of Peninsula Friends of Animals.

Gato has lost nine of his 15 pounds.

When it became obvious the cat was ailing, shelter case manager David Kolinsky contacted the animal-advocacy group.

It in turn took the cat to Dr. Ginny Johnson at the Hadlock Veterinary Clinic. She diagnosed Gato’s condition.

“It’s really quite common,” Campbell said.

“As cats live longer [Gato is at least 10 years old], we’re beginning to see more cases of hyperthyroidism.”

Going to Tacoma

Fortunately for Gato, veterinarian Dennis Wackerbarth runs the Feline Hyperthyroid Treatment Center with clinics in Seattle and Tacoma. The latter location is where Peninsula Friends of Animals volunteer Angus Trent will take Gato on Tuesday.

Wackerbarth will inject the cat with radioiodine.

“This will stop it immediately,” Campbell said.

“Within a month he will have gained back a couple of pounds. The turnaround is amazing.”

In the three weeks since Gato’s diagnosis, shelter resident Alex Bogacz has been the cat’s keeper, treating him with an interim thyroid medicine and with antibiotics to try to cure a respiratory infection.

“He was just looking for a place to lay down and die,” Bogacz said Sunday.

“That’s how bad off he was.”

The stopgap thyroid-blocking drugs, donated by Peninsula Friends of Animals, made a difference.

“He at least was purring again,” said Bogacz, a shelter resident for six months.

But to receive the radioiodine injection, Gato had to go off both medications for a week.

“He’s hanging on,” Bogacz said, “but he’s gone steadily downhill. He’s just completely lethargic.”

PEOPLE WHO WOULD like to contribute to Gato’s treatment may mail checks to:

Peninsula Friends of Animals, P.O. Box 404, Sequim, WA 98382.

Donors should write “Gato” on the memo line of their checks.

For more information on the animal-advocacy group, call 360-452-0414