We might not agree with Chinese politics, or the way they deal with human rights issues.
But right now, we must cast aside any prejudices and help the people who are suffering, after the recent devastating earthquake.
read this short post by The Wild Pomegranate
and thanks to SanityFound, I saw this on the tag surfer.
The Integral
It has come to our attention, while browsing the tag surfer option of wordpress, that many cats have been abused and are in desperate need of medical assistance.
A Furry Friend has written this post explaining the situation.
If you are unable to make a donation, at least consider linking to AFF’s post on your own blog. The more attention this gets, the better the chances are for those unfortunate cats, who did nothing to deserve what came to them. No animal ever deserves abuse of any kind.
Thanks.
Athena
EDITED TO ADD:
May 15th, 2008 the following new information regarding the above:
That supply list is old unfortunately. The media let out an old one by accident. The main things needs right now are quality food (wet) and litter (regular and yesterday’s news). Things like cat carriers are no longer needed. Please update your list. For those in the Pittsburgh area, a local organization has created a donation site there for those who wish to donate:
PITTSBURGH DROP OFF POINT NOW AVAILABLE
FOR SUPPLIES FOR THE TIGER RANCH CATS!
Many of you have asked how you can donate supplies for the Tiger Ranch cats. Well, now you don’t have to go any further than the East End of Pittsburgh… Our favorite construction materials supplier, Construction Junction, has graciously agreed to act as a drop-off / pick-up point for supplies for the Tiger Ranch cats currently being treated and cared for at the Clarion Shelter. The boxes will be checked daily and VFA volunteers will drive supplies up once or twice a week, according to needs.
If you would like to donate supplies for the cats in Clarion, you can take them to Construction Junction (address and opening hours below). The drop boxes are located to your right after you enter, behind and to the right of the large blackboard. Look out for a sign with a VFA logo by the boxes. If you are not familiar with Construction Junction, once you enter the parking lot, the main public entrance is about 2/3 down the lot to your left.
WISH LIST:
Quality dry cat food (Iams, Science Diet, Purina…), any size
Canned cat food, any size (no generics please!)
Cat litter (”Yesterday’s News” brand preferred - available at most Petsmart stores - but all brands welcome), any size
Dry food should be placed in the storage containers. Litter and canned food can be left by the boxes if the containers are fairly full. If anyone wants to donate and absolutely cannot get to Construction Junction, let us know by email or phone and we will try and arrange a home pick-up, where possible.
CONSTRUCTION JUNCTION
214 North Lexington Street
Pittsburgh 15208
(One block down from Penn Avenue, right up the street from East End Food Co-Op)
Monday through Friday: 8 am - 5 pm
Saturday 9 am - 5 pm
Sunday: 11 am - 4 pm
While you’re there, take advantage of this opportunity to drop off recyclable items that aren’t picked up on the curb side (office paper, junk mail, magazines, phone books, paperboard…), visit the FreeRide bicycle recycling workshop, or explore the fascinating aisles of Construction Junction itself…
Contact us if you have any questions. And feel free to let us know you’ve dropped off a donation. That will help us keep track of pick-up needs.
On behalf of the cats, thank you…
————————-
Voices for Animals of Western Pennsylvania
Post Office Box 7181
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
1-877-321-4VFA
http://www.pefinder.com/shelters/PA360.html
this was posted in a comment, I posted it in the actual post in case people don’t always read the comments section.
Thanks to Animalia for the new information.
The Integral
Once again we have a very fascinating topic to work with and write about for this next installation of the awesome Disability Blog Carnival. I (Ivan) will try to elaborate on all of our thoughts on the subject.
We are all Eastern Orthodox Christian. Athena’s significant other/friend and mentor to myself and The Integral is Eastern Orthodox, and Athena and the rest of us had been investigating that religion for some time. The fact that D was born into it, and it requires that all of its adherents marry other Christians, prompted us to accelerate our learning and understanding, for eventual conversion and baptism. Athena met D at a very dark time in our lives; we were under a misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder and had to take several heavy medications, including lithium and depakote. (there’s my topic for whenever I host a dbc edition.) We were exhausted, physically and psychologically, on a near-daily basis. At some point Athena was convinced that we were all dying of cancer, because our body was just so damned run down and worn out all the time. We weren’t DOING much physical activity to speak of, and so we were all flummoxed (utterly confused) as to why we were so tired. We later discovered that our tiredness was a side effect of our medication. We slept lightly and fitfully at best, and our sleep was rarely the restful kind. We could lie in bed with our eyes closed for hours but never really get our quota of needed “rest and relaxation” that would keep us from being so tired all the time. Medication can mess with many different body systems.
What does this all have to do with disability and spirituality? Well, during that very dark time in our lives, we prayed a lot. I mean, every day, several times a day, hoping that we would be heard at some point. We needed SOMEONE to hear our despair and desperation, and we found solace in Jesus Christ. Our lot didn’t improve drastically, but our prayer and private time with Christ made life possible. Eventually I (Ivan) gave the others an ultimatum: we could either quit our meds and stop the bullshitting around with our life and leave our parents’ home to figure ourselves out, or we could all die and take the rest of the family with us. I tend to be somewhat of a militant, hence the two drastic options. Needless to say, since we’re all still living, we chose the first option. I believe that prayer led to our finding that particular solution to our problem. It was not a perfect solution, but it was the only viable, ecclesiastically legal solution we had. It was the one solution we came up with that would allow us to be free of the pharmacological thieves that were robbing us of our minds, our body’s physical strength, and the very essences of who we were. The Integral had been living in suspended animation, not dead yet not alive. In fact, we didn’t realise how separate our identities were (me-Ivan, Athena, and The Integral). We were only focused on living by the minute, passing the time, and most nights going to sleep and praying that we wouldn’t wake up the next morning.
So spirituality and religion has a very, very important function in our lives. We although think that our disability -(now correctly diagnosed, might we add. well, as correctly as possible. autism and asperger’s, what’s the bloody difference?)- has a major role in how we interact with our Lord.
Most of our prayers are silent, in that we do not outwardly vocalise, but allow God to listen to our thoughts. We aren’t gifted orators when it comes to prayer, so what’s in our minds has to suffice at the moment.
We dealt with the dark era of our existence in a very autistic fashion, even though we were not diagnosed as such at the time, we were interested in analysing every little detail of our feelings throughout the days and months spanning those three years, to the fullest extent that we were able. Spirituality, as I said before, helped us, nay, allowed us, to survive that time of chaos and destruction to our minds and body.
I hope this is along the lines of what the topic is supposed to be about.
Ivan
with input from The Integral and Athena
Today was our first full day at home. Ivan is still on his monthly vacation, due back any day now, hopefully as early as tomorrow, since our Dad wants to take us out for driving practice, and Ivan is the one who is best suited for that activity. I or Athena, can’t remember now, woke up this afternoon at almost one o’clock, which is very late for us. The body slept for nearly 11 hours continuously, save for our father waking us briefly at 10am to ask us if we wanted to have coffee with him. Apparently there was a power outage at his office, so he didn’t go to work until later. He is usually out of the house by 7am, at the latest. Whomever he had awakened, very groggily declined his offer after wavering and mumbling “maybe” and some other, since forgotten words. He said something like “if it’s easier, say no” to which one of us promptly replied “no.” Our body was asleep again perhaps two or three minutes later.
After we woke up, one of us went outside and proclaimed “ahhhh, this feels so goooooood!”
55 degrees (if that….perhaps the outside temperature was slightly lower) felt like HEAVEN after days on end of sticky heat. The weather was otherwise rather yucky; it was raining for pretty much the entire day. Perhaps that caused our body to need extra sleep too, but I’m sure the main reason was simply recovery from moving and packing for the move.
There’s more I’d love to say, but we have all agreed that we need to go to bed at a reasonable time (effective as soon as we got home) and our deadline for finishing up everything and heading upstairs to bed is MIDNIGHT AT THE LATEST! I have less than a minute to finish this before that time.
The Integral
we’re home now…….I’m tired as hell……..going to hit the sack now. I need to do that desperately. I haven’t had enough sleep in the last couple of days…..and I’ve been very active with packing and cleaning out my apartment/throwing out garbage…
I’m bushed!
FYI for anyone just now following our blog for the first time: we were in South Florida for two years, attending a community college, we graduated with our Associate in Arts degree in December 2007, and now we’re back home in our native Maryland. We’ll write much more about Florida in the coming days.
Bed time.
Athena
We’re going to be moving back home on Sunday, and I will be discontinuing my internet service here as of today May 9, 2008, so we won’t be able to get to our blog for the next couple of days.
Anyone leaving comments, poetry challenges, etcetera….don’t be alarmed if you don’t see them posted for a couple of days. We’ll be back to blogging and moderating comments in a few days.
In case people are wondering, we’re currently in Florida, and we will be moving back to Maryland. The weather is generally MUCH better up there…….not nearly so hot and humid. Hot in the summer, yes, but not nearly as humid for so many days in a row. Down here, it’s pretty much hot and humid from April to October. That gets old pretty quickly. Where my parents live in Maryland (and where we grew up), it can get pretty steamy (hot and very humid) on occasion in the summer, but the duration of heat plus high humidity is measured in terms of a few days if that, rather than weeks and months at a time. And when it rains like crazy up in Maryland, the air is generally much cooler and drier, for much longer than it is down in South Florida. Here, the air heats right up again and the humidity returns, a mere couple of hours (or up to 3-4 hours) after a hefty downpour.
That’s the difference between a tropical climate (down here) and a more temperate climate (up in Maryland.)
In South Florida, the air can hold much more moisture before draining it in monsoon fashion, than in Maryland. And that moisture is replaced much faster because of the South Floridian tropical climate.
(Gee, if we’re into meteorology we better look this up to see if it’s actually correct when we get back home to an internet connection)
I didn’t begin this post with the exact intention of writing about climates, that just sort of happened. Very occasionally I am fluent in extemporaneous writing.
We’ll see you all later, on our blog
Have a great weekend, and Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms who read our blog, and anyone else who may come upon this little written world for the first time, who is a mom.
Athena, The Integral, and Ivan (in absentia)
written by The Integral
PS: this goes without saying, but moving is a HUGE pain in the behind……I’m sure our cat will think in pretty much the same way.
Eliza, a female cat I rescued over the weekend, had to be put to sleep because of extensive injuries suffered while living outdoors. She’d most likely been abandoned some time ago, and left to fend for herself. I didn’t take her to the vet myself because I don’t have a car, an acquaintance did that for me. I really regret that I didn’t remember to take any pictures of her. All I have to remember her by is her name and an image of her in my mind. She was a tiny cat, only weighing 5 pounds, and most of that weight was fecal matter collected in her colon. She was unable to eliminate solid waste because of injury sustained from (most likely scenario, according to my friend’s report from the vet) being hit by a car. She apparently had extensive nerve damage to her behind area, and therefore she couldn’t push her waste out. She’d been like that for a good while, because her colon was very distended. My friend said her belly felt like a rock. She also had a severe bladder infection. I didn’t realize how much pain she was in when I was handling her, at times I played with her just like I play with my own rescue kitty, Dennis. So all that meowing she was doing, which I thought was just mild irritation with me, was actually her howling in pain. Sorry Eliza….
What an awful thing to happen to any animal. At least Eliza is no longer suffering, and she’s on the Happy Hunt with many other beloved pets and abandoned animals who have crossed the Rainbow Bridge.
On a happier note, I got to see the second cat I rescued (the first one is mine.), a male tuxedo cat I named Victor. He’s gotten really chubby now. My friend says he acts differently (as in more affectionate) with me than he does with anyone else. He just held me around the neck like he never wanted to let go.
Eliza was very affectionate too when she was here………..but for obvious reasons, that I didn’t realize at the time, she preferred to show her affection without being picked up. She liked to be cradled though. The first time I ever picked her up to bring her into my apartment, I felt some hard things in her tummy and I thought to myself “omigosh I hope she’s not pregnant!”
She was, in the most gosh-awful way possible. She was pregnant with months worth of her own excrement, because of human insensitivity. Someone abandoned her, most probably. And then she got hit by a car. I can’t say outright that the driver was irresponsible or reckless without knowing the details, because she was such a small cat, that it’s possible that the person simply didn’t see her near his or her car, hit her, and may have felt terrible afterwards. I have no idea, that’s just pure speculation.
More people need to understand that pet abandonment is a serious problem, grossly immoral, and plain out cruel. They need to understand what really happens to animals left to fend for themselves. Especially pets, who don’t have the same survival instincts (well, they’re less suited for it anyway) than animals in the wild. Feral cats are more likely to stay away from perceived danger.
At any rate…..Eliza, I’m so sorry you had to suffer so much, it was an honor knowing you for the short time I did, I truly loved you, I miss you….enjoy yourself on the Wild Hunt where you will suffer no more.
Athena, The Integral, and Ivan
All of us are quite proud of the fact that we’re made unique, by our individual personalities, and even by the common thread of being on the autism spectrum. If one imagines the spectrum to be the number line, then we take up three points on the graph (obviously it’s not that simple, but the persona writing this needs something concrete to think about. Please forgive the gross oversimplification, it’s just to get the thought out, we don’t think of it like this most of the time. But then most of the time we aren’t writing about how we feel vis a vis disability identity. Thinking about that is one thing, putting words to the thoughts is another thing entirely). This is what makes us unique despite the common thread of autism. One of us, Athena, wants to tell “the whole wide world” (her words) that she’s autistic and very proud of it. That’s a fact, but it’s not always a good idea to tell everyone you meet that you have such and such disability if it’s not readily apparent. The unfortunate reason for that, as countless bloggers have pointed out, is that not everyone is mature enough to appreciate the depth that people with disabilities have, mentally and spiritually; even thoughts who are not religious at all. Spirituality can be what makes people relaxed, being one with nature, or things like that. Athena also wishes she could stim in public and say things that would obviously be looked down upon (but they feel good so why can’t I say them?- again her words). She wishes that her significant other/our best friend could bounce her on his knee in public if that’s what she asked for (whether she would or not, different story, that’s just an example. he can’t bounce her on his knee anywhere, because she’s loads heavier than small kids parents bounce on their knees.) Another personality, Ivan, often has to tell her not to do this or that in public “because people will think you’re the r word” or something like that. He uses different words, but that’s the gist of his message. He tells her things like that not to be mean, but because he realizes that people have awful, wrong prejudices about disabled individuals/multiples. He does not want her to hear pity remarks, or feel vibes of mockery from anyone she encounters. In this way his idea of disability identity is somewhat different: he is in no way ashamed of being autistic, but he tries to be more guarded about whom he informs of his autism. Sometimes, he forgets his own advice, or one of us (myself-The Integral, or Athena) take over at a moment’s notice and forget what he’s told us about self-identifying.) Sometimes we feel pressured to say something in awkward silence, or we feel a pressing need to explain our behaviour because of perceived vibes from people, and our mouth opens…….”and it’s off to the races.” Words come out faster than our mental filters can process them as they exit our mouth as soundwaves into the open air. While this type of “foot in mouth” or “oops I said too much” experience is not unique to disabled persons, it’s often more embarrassing to us (as in the three of us, and possibly many other disabled persons/systems, though I cannot speak for anyone else except the three people in this body) because we’re more likely to get called out on it, or have others notice and make remarks, or even be more aware ourselves that we’ve said something we shouldn’t have.
That aspect of disability identity…the fact that we know we say and do things that we’re embarrassed by, as a direct or indirect result of our being autistic and ADHD, is something that we’d like to forget about at certain times but we realise that if we’re going to say that we’re truly proud to be who we are, we have to accept the unpleasant aspects of disability, and not try to hide them under the rug or gloss over them. I’m not saying people should obsess over spilled milk so to speak, but just remember that balance is the key: for every stupid thing you remember saying or doing, think of x number of good things. Or whatever else it takes to feel proud of yourself again, to embrace every aspect of your being, if you need to do anything at all.
For us, as I’ve said before, embracing ourselves to the fullest means accepting completely our autism/adhd/disability identity.
PS: I’m aware that the quality of the writing went downhill as the post went on, but once again I procrastinated and ran out of time, plus this time I had other things to do (getting ready to move back to Maryland from Florida….that takes time and energy….and we rescued another cat…she’s now in the care of someone more experienced with that stuff than we are)
Collaborative, Athena, Ivan, and The Integral.
The glow of my face after a hard-earned achievement
The sky on a clear crisp day
The rays of hope after years of bereavement
Of a tragic loss, that light your way
The sparkling eyes of a person who knows
Which part of the word “dis-ability” is greater
A soft night light, in a child’s room glows
My thrill ride in an elevator
Oh the things that make our worlds shine
Are quite a variety indeed
Ones that are yours may not always be mine
But of them we always have need.
Collaborative, Athena and The Integral
Okay. I’m no political pundit, and I’m not even majoring in politics. None of us are THAT interested in it, but we ARE interested in a little insignificant (snark) thing called THE TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which in the very recent past (and even present) has been very difficult to come by in political discourse, especially concerning the current FAILEDministration. Mission accomplished my arse. That’s for another post though.
Back to the topic at hand: the gas tax. We’ve heard its…….18 cents per gallon. Okay, we’re good at math but we hate arithmetic, so to make the number-crunching easier on us, we’ll round that to 20 cents. We don’t even know how much of that would trickle down to the guy or gal at the pump, but for the sake of our sanity, we’ll assume that 100% of that savings goes directly to the consumer. So, if someone has a 15 gallon tank, he or she saves 3 bucks per fill up. This holiday would occur during peak driving season, in the summer. Let’s assume that this person with a 15 gallon tan gets 20 miles per gallon. (what cars have that size tank and that kind of mpg? I’m not sure, but I don’t think that information is particularly cogent to the premise of this post.) That means, the person can drive 300 miles before needing to fill up again. Let’s say this person lives 60 miles away from his or her place of work, and works 5 days a week. On the weekends, he or she might do 40-100 miles of recreational driving, to visit friends, run errands, or any number of other things. All of this means the person has to fill up the tank once, sometimes twice a week, it depends. Thus the person is saving maybe 3-6 dollars per week, multiply by 4 weeks, that’s 12-24 dollars per month. That’s really not a whole hell of a lot of money. Sure, a dollar is a dollar, but is it really worth the fight in congress, the divisive words spewed across the political arena, and the fear of funds running out on the highway trust, for less than thirty dollars? I know there are many people across America for which a savings of even five dollars a month would be a huge deal. That’s most unfortunate, because it means they’re hurting economically. Like, really, hurting. But, ladies and gentlemen, please, think about this for a few minutes, or hours, or even days. Seriously mull it over. Remember THIS IS TEMPORARY!!!!!!!!! Do you really want to be teased by an extra thirty a month for a couple of months, and then realize that oh, holiday’s over, now it’s back to the same high as hell gas prices you were paying before? And who’s to say that food prices won’t go up over the summer, even though fuel has come down slightly? If that happens, watch your savings get eaten up at the grocery store right before your eyes. I’m not saying this just because I happen to have parents with means enough so that I don’t worry about twenty or thirty dollars here or there. I’m not saying this to be “elitist”. I’m saying this in total honesty, with the best intentions of working people at heart.
And guess what else. She got the idea from none other than John McCain. If I can find a link to a source proving that, I’ll edit this post later to include it. Come on, Mrs. Clinton. Are you a Democrat or a Republican? Sometimes I can’t be sure. Apologies to all Republicans who read this and feel nauseous reading the preceding sentence; allow me to clarify just a bit. Mrs. Clinton’s tactics are reminding me more and more of all the things we hate about the current FAILEDministration. So I should really be saying, Mrs. Clinton, are you a closet Bushie? I’ll probably take a lot of heat for that statement, but I say, bring it on.
And now, the latest Bush tactic she uses: demanding of Congress whether they are for her or against her. Sound a little familiar?
Yeah, WAY TOO familiar. At least she’s not spying on us, yet. It might sound crazy but at this point I wouldn’t put it past her to want to do that(I don’t think anyone in his or her right mind conceived that Bush would push illegal wiretapping through Congress, but he did. Granted no citizen predicted 9/11, but still. That measure was illegal and unnecessary, the way it was done.) She’s already said she’d obliterate Iran….that too is for another post.
Collaborative, Ivan and The Integral
