Transport help

Hi Pals,

Can I ask for help with transporting mom's friends' cats to Oregon? They (mom and friends' bestie) have tried for nearly 4 months without success to find a loving home for these kitties.

Nermie

Phannie

 
You might remember mom posting a little while back ("Saying Goodbye is Never Easy") about losing a very dear friend on Christmas Eve. Her friend Leigh struggled with ptsd and depression. Her death was ruled accidental overdose. Her fur babies meant the world to her and mom knows her friend wouldn't want her fur babies to be left alone. Leigh had 2 doggies and 2 kitties. The doggies were taken in by a life-long friend immediately. While there has been interest in fostering the 2 kitties, no one has expressed interest in keeping them as their forever kitties. Mom can't take them because Mia and Mosby are declawed (mom adopted them that way, she didn't declaw them). Leigh's kitties are not declawed. Plus mom lives in an apt and with 2 cats already, she is at her limit for pets allowed in the apt. Mom would take them if she could!!!

Leigh's bestie and life long friend from grade school lives in Oregon and would like to bring the kitties in to her home. This would be their forever home. We need help getting them there! That's where I need your help pals! Mom and Leigh's bestie have discussed different options and think that having mom drive the kitties to Oregon would be best. But that's expensive. Bestie set up a GoFundMe to try to help with cost. Can my pals donate some green papers to help get these kitties to Oregon? Even a few green papers will be a big help! The link is here:  https://www.gofundme.com/5i8p4ew.

Thank you for your consideration!

Take care pals!

Love,
Angel CJ

 

Cats and Trauma

A while back mom borrowed a post from my friends Ryker'z Boyz about Cats and Trauma.  The post asks if cats can experience trauma the way humans do.  In fact, they do!  In the very excellent book, "Animals Make Us Human," Temple Grandin states that cats can exhibit high levels of OCD-like behavior triggered by anxiety and fear. This stems in part from the fact that cats tend to be very set in their ways, much more so than dogs, and don't always adapt well to new circumstances. They can go from calm to terrified in seconds -- she says it's because cats have very small frontal lobes, the part of the brain which functions as the "brakes" for emotions.

Thanks to Ryker'z Boyz for sharing this information! To read the entire post with comments please click here to visit Ryker'z Boyz.

Last night was a reminder that cats do experience trauma and need time to heal too.  About 1:30am mom and I woke to sirens in our apartment complex.  It was a fire truck, ems and police.  They all stopped at a building a few buildings down from us.  We had a perfect view because of our old building no longer standing.  It was quite an eery sight seeing the fire truck, ambulance and police cars all in front of what used to be our building.  I didn't like hearing the sirens.  I kept meowing and running back and forth between the living room window and bedroom window.  It would be an hour or so before I calmed down and finally joined mom back in bed.  Mom didn't mind the meowing.  I think she was worried about me more than annoyed by the meowing.  :(

I am resting comfortably tonight.  Today marks 8 months since the fire.   I am doing well but would really prefer to not hear any more sirens, k?

 

 

March 8... Two Weeks Post Fire

March 8, 2012 is 2 weeks post fire.  I'm going to borrow a post from Ryker'z Boyz because it had some really good information:

The Shawnee Fire: Two Weeks and Counting

Even though the Shawnee fire “two week mark” technically was last night, daybreak that following morning saw firefighters still fighting the fire. (Did you know they kept pouring water on that building for three days before they were convinced it was safe to withdraw?)

Thanks in part to the “fast food” mentality of a society addicted to 24/7 news and the Next Breaking Thing, most have forgotten this tragedy and moved on with life.

But when a crisis of this magnitude strikes you, two weeks is barely enough time to begin the healing process.

Three separate incidents that both Kathi and Amy told me about recently caused me to seek out a friend and ask her for an article on trauma. Here’s what happened:

Amy:

Friday after the fire, Amy and Lee stepped away from the apartment complex for a quick bite to eat when a fire truck raced past their location. The minute she heard the sirens, Amy’s heart started to pound and she started to shake. Trauma.

Kathi:
This past Sunday night, around 11 PM, a fire truck comes racing into the apartment complex, lights flashing and siren screaming. It stops at the building Amy now lives in. It was responding to a medical emergency, not a fire. Still.
In Kathi's words, "my heart's about to jump out of my chest." All thoughts of sleep - banished. Trauma.

Amy & Kathi:
2 AM, Wednesday morning. Fire trucks yet again race into the complex. This time they stop at Kathi's new apartment building. And this time, it is a fire. Kathi grabs CJ and races to Amy's. Kathi tells reporters, "the memory of seeing the building go up in flames - it's still too raw." Neither one can sleep that night, nerves on edge. Trauma.

Who wouldn’t respond that way, given the circumstances?

 

The friend I reached out to is Marla Swoboda, then VP of Development for Wayside Waifs. Marla recently invited her sister Jana, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, to fly in to KC to speak with us about Compassion Fatigue. During her very informative talk, she briefly touched on how trauma can impact our lives.

I asked Marla if Jana had any articles on the topic and Jana graciously forwarded this link to two great articles on her blog: one on anxiety, one on PTSD. I'm not suggesting Amy or Kathi have PTSD -- but the general concepts could apply to this situation.

Here’s a brief excerpt from the first article:

"The brain is great at learning what scares it. Danger memories can get hard-wired to provide a quick spill of chemicals that ideally would serve us well-- to get us the hell out of dodge, or help us fight off our attacker.

Brain is not particularly selective in what gets filed, which can result in some strange associations we may not even know exist. For example, if you're in a car wreck, Brain may file away not only screeching tires and breaking glass. You might find yourself also getting panicky feelings (the emotional interpretation of all those chemicals coming to fore) when you pass white Hondas, or that particular intersection. That one's easy to connect, but while you might not have noticed what was on the radio, Brain could have, and you may not understand why your heart races every time that Lady Gaga song plays."

The articles are excellently written and informative. Perhaps they will provide insight, or just a bit of sensitivity, towards two friends who are continuing to work through an especially difficult situation.

If you’re interested, I’d encourage you to click over and read the articles. Who knows? You may have reason to put this information to good use some day in the future.

Can Sebastian and CJ suffer from PTSD? We’ll take a look at that on Sunday!

To read the full blog from March 9, 2012 click here:  Ryker'z Boyz.  Thanks Ryker'z Boyz for letting me steal... er borrow!  (Guess I should have asked huh?)