Kennedy: Lessons from a Foster Kitty

Someone once told me, "It's funny, I bet no one thinks about the fact that in about 10 years, the internet will be full of dead cats." I just thought I'd jump right in with that to have a mildly humorous but still morbid start to something very near and dear to my heart.
If you have followed me on social media at all you would know that back in November my friend Savanna found a cat on the street in Pacific Beach. He was standing in the street refusing to move. He was basically skin and bones and he collapsed against her as soon as she picked him up. And of course, she brought him to me. We named him Kennedy.

A little back ground, I have had 2 foster cats before. They were brothers (Whiskey and Jasper), a year and a half old. And other than some superficial wounds on Whiskey, they had no health problems. It was insanely difficult for me to say goodbye to them when I dropped them off at an adoption fair, but my joy when they got adopted a month later made it well worth it. This is when I decided that, for right now, I should just be a foster parent. Specifically because then I wouldn't have to make the difficult decisions related to quality of life in an older or sicker animal.

Smash cut to last weekend.
We found out that Kennedy has a tumor the size of a golf ball on his liver. It has metastasized and is inoperable.  Chemo doesn't work well on liver cancer, and even if it did, I'm not a fan of using it in animals. They can't understand why they are currently in pain and it may only buy them another few months. So here I am, in the the very situation I was hoping to avoid. So I'm going to do what humans have been doing since they have been on this planet: derive meaning.

I have spent the last 9 months shutting myself off: in friendships, in romantic relationships, in the way I connect to the world. Kennedy came into my life the day after the election. A day when I think a lot of us withdrew. My goal was to get his hyperthyroidism under control and find him a home for the rest of his life, however short that may be. I had no illusions about him having a long life, he's 11 and not a fresh 11. A "I've lived on the street and seen some shit" 11. Even when I took him into the vet for his last checkup I had a weird feeling. You can call that hind sight bias if you want, or just smart or whatever, but the point is, I knew about his general state and that still didn't make these revelations any easier.

So here is what Kennedy has made me realize: You can stay closed off all you want, but it won't work, and frankly it's not worth it. Holding yourself back from anything artificially isn't enjoyable, it isn't real, and it isn't a good long term solution. If you tell yourself "no" for long enough, in any area of your life, it's going to be real difficult to say "yes". Sure that opens you up to getting hurt. But as the Man in Black once said, "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something".
I will love and care for my sweet angel boy until he's ready for his wings.  And although his last day will be in the back of my mind, I will love the crap out him every day until then.

Mini-Rant:
Kennedy was clearly someone's pet. He was either forgotten or dumped because he was old, or had medical problems or just wasn't fun anymore. When you own an animal, you are signing on to care for them until the end of their life. Not until you can't afford them, or find somewhere else to live, or even til you die. This is not something to be taken lightly, or on a whim. Step your game up humans.

Amazing photos taken by John Cirone: @cironephoto on Instagram

Pro-Thanksgiving

      It's that time of year again, Xmas prep fest, aka Thanksgiving. Every year it seems like the red and green encroach on the beautiful fall colors earlier and earlier. And every year people succumb to "feeling festive". I manage to stave it off in two ways: 1. because I live in Southern California so it's hard to feel festive when it's 80 outside. 2. by refusing to give into capitalism.
     It is rare that people will feel "like Xmas season" because they want to give to the poor, and cook for those less fortunate. The holiday spirit usually causes people to buy stuff they don't need or start making their list of demands for relatives. So why not fight it off for just a few more days!!

      Thanksgiving is a great holiday because there are no presents, no status symbols (other than having food on your table), no obnoxious social media posts about what everybody did or didn't get. This holiday was created to celebrate two cultures coming together, sharing a meal (before we stole their land and killed most of them) and finding a warm moment right before it gets super chilly.
     I feel that this holiday is even more important this year.  Over the past month I'm sure we've all seen our social media pages fill with bigoted fearful posts. I'd love for one day, if people could just fill space with the love of their family and friends. And take the time to think about how many of us in this country are here because the people we came from wanted to be in America.

So hug your family, crunch some fall leaves, and eat a big meal before we hunker down for winter!!

Kitty Cuddles

Hi Elm

Last week Uber did "Uber Kittens" for National Cat Day (in select cities). For 30$ you can spend 15 minutes cuddling kittens and at the end of the day they are availabe through the local SPCA (at least in San Diego). This made me realize that people may not realize that it is very possible to cuddle kittens FO FREE! Here are a bunch of pics of kitties that I've helped with this year.

So I figured I would take this time to tell you how I got the super cool opportunity to cuddle with kitties while helping them find their furever homes.

Meredith

There are kitties at rescues everywhere that want your help. So here are ways that you can help and how to get in there!

How to Help:

1. Adopt a kitty- You've got a stable income and stable pet-friendly housing, long-term. ADOPT DON'T SHOP!

2. Foster- You've got stable pet housing, but don't need to look 5 years down the road. Some organizations are willing to compensate for buying food, litter, pet bills, etc.

3. Volunteer- You can commit a couple hours per week/ every 2 weeks/ per month. You get to snuggle with babies while they find a permanent home.

4. Donate- food, toys, treats, but what most rescues really need is money for vet bills to spay/neuter, vaccinate, and give their kitties a clean bill of health.

How to Find a Place:

Literally all I did was google "San Diego Cat Rescue", fill out an application with my info and wait for a call. There are heaps of places, so find one that's a good fit for you!

Follow them on Social Media (the SD Humane Society is currently looking for short term fosters for kittens) and you can get more updates on the awesome work they're doing.

Larry

PS- I'm pretty sure all these hints apply for dogs, rabbits, lizards, etc.

Peace Out Girl Scout

Cat Cafe. Cosplay. Comicon.

     I got the opportunity to work downtown during ComiCon at San Diego's Cat Cafe (cosplaying as Catwoman)! So here's a run down on my first experience with both cosplay and cafes with kitties!

     The Cat Cafe in San Diego was one of the first in the United States and since January (when they opened) there have been 54 adoptions! All cat cafes work differently, but this one works with the local humane society and functions as basically a foster. The only prerequisite for a cat going to the cafe is that they get along with lots of other cats.

Campbell loves any lap!

    There are currently 12 kitties at the cafe and they are all up for adoption.  After 90 days at the cafe they go back to the Humane Society. This has only happened twice and both of those kitties immediately adopted as soon as they went back.  It's a great place to interact with cats in a semi normal environment, but they do go through the same cycles of activity and cat naps as kitties in a house do. So there is a chance that you could get there when all the little babes are sleeping. I recommend going between 8 and 10 when they're most active.

Pocahontas loves a good nap after sprinting around the room.

     Over the 4 days of ComiCon we probably had about 400 people come through to see the kitties along with all the people that just bought coffee or grabbed a flyer. I hope that this idea continues to grow because it seems to be a great way to give these kitties more exposure to different people and to spread the message that adoption is the best option!

On to Comicon!

     Basically Comicon is a mix of Halloween and Disneyland,  except there's more free stuff and less crying children.  The streets of Downtown are full of people dressed from every fandom imaginable.  From Marvel and DC comics to Disney to obscure anime shows, you will see someone in a costume you recognize and you will get extremely excited. For me it was a girl dresses as "Fantasy Tina" from "Bob's Burgers".

I also got super excited about this guy, I bet you can guess why.

     These 4 days of events bring 135 millions dollars of revenue into San Diego County.  This year, 130,000 tickets were sold each day, but with so many fun things to do outside the convention center, you don't need a ticket to get in on the fun.  From what I saw, a large amount of "being at the Con" consists of waiting in lines, usually 4 to 8 hours, to go into a panel or exhibit.  I don't think I'm a big enough fan to put up with all that, but I certainly enjoyed people watching.

My advice for next year:

     You can try to get tickets, but they sell out super fast.  They're relatively inexpensive compared to other large multi day extravaganzas. If you don't get tickets, don't worry!! Take the bus or the trolly to explore around the outside.  There is stuff going on in the streets from Petco park to the Embarcadero.  You can play games in the adult swim complex, take a walk through the America Horror Story Haunted Hotel, or just grab a free ice cream from one of the carts doing a promo for and MTV show.  

    Overall Comicon was a crazy, overwhelming, awesome experience and I'm so happy that I got to be part of it.

Kepp your claws out,

 <3 Catwoman