When life pushes you out of the nest to fly

How many times has life done that to you? Basically pulled the rug out from under you so you're forced to think "Ok, fine. I guess I HAVE to do this, now, instead of thinking about it, obsessing over it, but not doing much of anything on my own."

It could be due to work changes, relationship changes, health changes ... anything. Sometimes it's a traumatic 'rock your emotional world' push (and I'd like to point out -- my current 'nest push' isn't that, so if you were thinking of firing off an 'R U OK' text...I'm OK).

Sometimes it's just an "Oh shit, gotta flap these wings or I'm gonna hit the ground HARD!"

I be a flappin'

I work for a lovely digital marketing business that was recently sold and has had to do some restructuring to streamline their bottom line, which mean this month I became a contractor, rather than an employee.

That means both LESS freedom (gotta come up with funds for my own health insurance instead of using a stipend through work, and gotta pay my own taxes, while making a bit less than I was before when taxes and fees were covered). And MORE freedom (no longer have to sit behind a computer from 8am to 5pm and can conceiveably work for other organizations if I'm not overtly competing with any of the contracts I should hold).

At the same time, at a point in my life where I was planning to transfer my cat-love energy from hands-on rescue to helping other rescues...I stopped for a little yellow kitten in the road, pulled into a nearby driveway, and encountered a literal swarm of skinny, unfixed cats and kittens, and people nice enough that you really can't just say "Sorry!" and drive away, no matter how limited your resources are.

(Plus, catch my undertone of simmering anger against the national push toward 'community sheltering' which means folks like this get no help unless some unwitting cat lover pulls into their driveway and non-sheltering organizations step forward with reduced-cost or free spay/neuter)

And because these approximately 30 cats and kittens are underweight, have fleas, and some have an upper respiratory infection, I've had to open up the barn area to house them - an area that hasn't been used in at least 5 years.

So:

• At 61 yoa, I'm launching a new digital marketing business - something that was never on my radar
• I've suddenly got to get along on $21K a year instead of $42K after paying 15% self-employment taxes and $400/mo health insurance, at least until I find more work.
• After retiring the barn, I'm opening it again, at least so it can host cats for this project, and so it's ready for future unexpected emergencies (and looks good for a future sale of the property)
• After dragging my feet on launching a digital marketing strategy for my own work (because I had been spending so much time on others') I don't have a choice.

Honestly, this could be a good thing, although I'm glad it's summer so I can eat out of my garden while I get my feet under me before winter.

Gotta FLY!

A Rescue Reset: Benji's Boost

As you probably can tell from the crickets chirping on the blog, I've been keeping my head down, rescue-wise. Despite the hush, there's no shortage of feline residents, with 16 cats and kittens on the prowl here looking for new homes. But with the Kitty Kia clunking (literally) along unreliably, commiting to regular spay/neuter hauls hasn't really been an option. I've been doing a "kitty here, kitty there" sort of thing, chipping away at cat drama for friends and neighbors, mostly.

The Kitty Kia's steering dissolved spectacularly on the notoriously steep and winding Swartwood Hill (luckily I was going UP) and I managed to limp to a mechanic/car dealership, where I abandoned her for $500 and went home with a 2017 Promaster City van that was conveniently sitting for sale in their lot. This meant when a person I'd helped in the past called to say a cat who had been limping around the village with a dangling leg was eating on her back porch the night before snow and sub-freezing temps were forecast, I said "yes -- but call the shelter first." No surprise -- the shelter did not call back, so by the next morning, Benji the big-headed tomcat was in one of my traps in the back of the new-to-me van. (Here's his capture video on YouTube)

Any cat owner probably knows your bank account is crap-out-of-luck if you have a cat with a traumatic injury. Private veterinarians now often defer to emergency clinics, and emergency clinics often (not always) require 50% down on the estimate for the full medical care plan. That's just not an option for my bank account (currently at $98) or my credit cards at the moment. Luckily a wonderful clinic called Spay Neuter Save Network recently mentioned to me they will also do amputations, and when I shot them an email they replied "come on down!"

I threw up a fundraiser with a silent prayer that we'd raise the money before surgery was over. This clinic not only expertly lopped off Benji's leg, they extracted some bad teeth, drained and repaired a hematoma in an ear, neutered him, tested him for FeLV/FIV (negative!) and vaccinated him -- all for about 1/4 of what an emergency clinic would ask. The fundraiser is coming along great, but I could really use a little more help if any readers would like to pitch in:

I'll follow up with more details, and some great video of Benji hopping around my bathroom like he could care less about what body bits he no longer has, now that he's warm, fed, and getting lots of love. I'm guessing he'll be an easy boy to adopt out. Stand by for updates. I'm shaking the dust off this blog! (Yeah, yeah, you've heard that before).