What's THIS All About?

Inch by inch, we are having a death watch, in the house. Poor old Sadie, our NOW ancient calico cat rescued by Erik, when he lived in Denver, came to live with us when Erik came back home to California, about 13 years ago. She, Erik and Bill were all rescued by Rod and driven back to our Lafayette home in a big U-Haul truck. She was given some sort of herbal concoction to keep her calm and the rest is history. She came and went with him, but after the second rebound, we kept her and told him...she deserves to have no more changes. She thrived in Lafayette; bounding up and down trees and mousing in the field. She endured the last big move, 5 years ago, when she, Sugarpie and Teddy all howled and cried all of the way up to their new home. It was traumatic but each cat staked out their territory in the new house and our ridiculously large bathroom became Sadie's world. She had a large picture window, food, litter box and was the queen of her castle, which included a wonderful Kitty Tower. Over the years, she has declined and we saw the signs of the whole "kidney thing", by the copious amounts of water and peeing, but she ate and enjoyed life. Now, she has been pretty much Not Eating for the past week and is going to leave skeletal earthly remains. I do not know what in the world is keeping her alive, other than a little water that she takes in. She still loves it when I pet her and brush her head and shoulders and amazingly has gotten herself down off of her counter perch (she sleeps on a towel, covering a special heating pad) to use the Kitty Pan. I keep expecting her to be Gone, every time that I go into the bathroom, but nope, she lifts her head and says hello. I think that it is breaking my heart, slowly.

When you watch your mother go down hill to death, the subsequent deaths in the family are something to expect, but Sadie...let go, girl. (no, I am not going to stress her and take her to the vet. He would never find a vein, anyway.) She is going to be the epitome of the Sliding into Home, with an old body completely worn out, being the sign of a life well lived. We really don't know how old this cast off cat was, when she came to us but if our kittenish 18 year old Sugarpie and wacky 19 year old Teddy are any indication, well, Sadie must be in her 20's. (Meanwhile, our young rescued Tortie Point, Boopie (Geisha) has become the inside/outside/inside/outside (!) hunter.

I guess that it is no wonder that I got so emotional, yesterday, when I read this. I just went right down the rabbit hole, which is not something that I do very much, anymore. I got the full idea of the extent of the trouble that The Grace Foundation is in, thanks to the betrayal of the banks that foreclosed on the Susanvill property. it just hit me, like a ton of bricks. I really don't know why, other than the underlying sadness of The Death Watch.

We have done a LOT of dyeing and drying and shipping of beautiful skeins of yarn to happy Yarn Fondlers, who exchanged their money for our gift. I saw, yesterday, that what we thought was a Big Gift (we have reached over $4K) is just a drop in the bucket and I got SO SAD. We are almost caught up, after doing a big (to us) run of yarn, yesterday afternoon. Now, the key is to get the big pile of money (it is, to me!) down to them ASAP, so that we can get started in the process that allows them to get the matching grant. Any other skeins purchased after this big push will be the icing on the cake and we will send a subsequent check at the end of June.

More than anything, I want these damnable banks to Do Right by Grace. It can't all come crashing down for everyone because The Grace Foundation "did right by" the creatures saved from certain death.

We have done what we could do, in our small way and those of you who purchased our Offering have been wonderful. Now, I simply ask you to share that email newsletter and keep the word going, and if you can, please contact Wells Fargo and Bank of America and tell them to Fix This.

I's time to go see what is waiting for me. It is shower time.

Comments

[jennifer]

I just went through this last week with my 19 year old cat Lucky. He had been slowly going downhill, then sometime around Memorial Day he stopped eating. Then the next day he basically stopped drinking. I agonized last Wednesday and ended up making the decision to call the vet and make the appointment. On Thursday I took my sweet 19 year old boy to the vet and stayed with him and petted him and let him know he was loved until he passed. He will not be forgotten... but he is pain-free and I know he will be waiting for me, along with my other loved ones, when the time comes for me to cross the rainbow bridge.