Kiltie Goes to SPCA

[Originally posted to economicus ridiculous]

I've thought about not writing this.

Our intention when starting this blog was to share our day-to-day lives in the poverty well, to put two human faces on it. It means sharing the decisions we make, the barriers we confront, the silly things we do, our talents, our faults, even certain toilet habits.

The point was to bring home the reality of two lives in poverty and their struggles to maintain dignity and a sense of self-worth. If readers have been following this blog since it launched January 1st, they'll have already detected the inner conflicts, the desire and determination to maintain X and not do Y while ultimately having to do Y anyway, and then the struggle to adjust to the new reality. For life in the poverty well, it's forever a struggle to adjust.

The following I began yesterday, at 2:30 in the afternoon, as I waited for Daphne to arrive with a car to transport Kiltie and I to the SPCA.

--

I'm crying as I write this.

Kiltie got sick again, was vomiting the past two days. An hour ago, she vomited blood. This condition is new and unlike the two urinary tract infections she had previously. Those appear to have cleared up entirely, thanks to a special diet paid for by a kind benefactor and several hit-and-miss series of antibiotics.

Kiltie and I have been together for ten years, ever since I rescued her when she was about eight weeks old.

Today, I can't keep doing it anymore. There's no money to have Kiltie go back to the vet, again, be examined, again, get x-rays and likely go to surgery. So I must do what I've dreaded having to do these past three years, since she first developed FLUTD. I've phoned Daphne and she's coming over. Together, we're going to the SPCA. They will take care of Kiltie in a way I can't. It's a no-kill, clean, caring shelter with lots of volunteers. I'm bringing the blanket Brodie uses so Kiltie will feel a sense of home; and a full prescription of Cipro that I've had standing by, just in case.

--

Last night was the first night without Kiltie. Emotionally exhausted, I slept 11 hours. Brodie and I cuddled more than usual, last night and again this morning.

Tonight or tomorrow night we may have Kiltie back. The lady at the SPCA - manager Sandi Trent, it turns out - said they'd prefer to keep Kiltie with me ... if it's possible. That they'd likely not be able to find Kiltie a new home, given her age and maybe needing special care.

Sandi said to leave Kiltie with them for a day or two and for me to call her later today. They'll get Kiltie vet-checked, monitor her condition and see what they can do to support her staying with me... And I'm crying all over again, dammit.

People who make the blanket declaration that poor people shouldn't have pets have no clue.

Did you pick up above that I rescued Kiltie? She's had ten years of life, a good life in a home where she has been much loved. Those ten years she likely wouldn't have had.

Kiltie and Brodie (I rescued him too*) have also been my lifeline. Too many times to count, their presence prevented my suicide. As a mother would feel about her children, I couldn't, wouldn't, leave my two furry companions without someone to care for them. They needed me, someone, to make sure they were alright.

What would happen if I died? I feared no one would take the two cats in or if they did, it wouldn't be a good home, and then they'd be abused or die.

Kiltie and Brodie are the only reasons I kept going through some terrible years, including the years I was doing the WISE project.

I will always need an animal companion. They help me maintain my humanity....

Which brings up the point of BC's anti-pets tenancy act. Rarely in this province can one find a rental unit - private, subsidized or public - that permits animal companions.

*Foolishly, in late 2000 I expected to become employed. Didn't want Kiltie to be alone all day, hence I got a second cat. Never did get anything but brief, contract or part-time employment.

ETA: It's 1:40pm and I've just spoken with Sandi at the SPCA using SkypeOut. Kiltie's vet hasn't returned Sandi's call yet. Kiltie hasn't eaten since she arrived but there's also been no vomiting. Sandi will keep her there another day. We're both thinking Kiltie may not be eating due to stress (as with her human). If she still hasn't eaten by tomorrow afternoon, Sandi may take her home to her place and put her in a room of her own so she might settle down. Either way, there's two of us now concerned with Kiltie's health and I'm reassured that Kiltie is in good, caring hands.

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Sad News

This little fellow was killed by a hit and run driver.



I do wonder if they got the gender right. Casper looks to have been a calico. Isn't that a female trait?

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Kitties!

Cats in their cradles. Here are some new photos of the two furry companions, Kiltie and Brodie. (Click thumbnails for larger view.)

We have a new/old blue house too; acquired, like the red one, free through the local freecycle place. Alas, the human hasn't been fast enough with the camera to catch a critter in it.

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What is going on?!

Over the past ten weeks - actually, beginning in early Spring -, virtual strangers have been helping me. Even government bureaucrats, who are notorious for thwarting one's ambitions, have speedily done their job.

I've no idea how to handle it.

First, in the spring someone whose blog I read diligently contacted me about a subsidized seniors development that might accept my application. No guarantees, of course, and there'd be a waiting list even if my application was accepted. I'd not applied to this particular project because it wasn't listed as accepting pets. Well, it takes someone who knows someone who knows someone else...

Next, there were those terrible two days in September, when Brodie was going to have to go to the SPCA. For the third time in two and a half years, Kiltie had acquired a urinary tract infection. I couldn't do it anymore, couldn't care properly for both cats, let alone care for myself; not on $67/month total for 'discretionary' budget needs - groceries, toiletries, laundry money - which was all that was left after paying for shelter costs.

Two wonderful women came forward, one who sent me enough money to pay for Brodie's food for a year. The other, to provide Kiltie with the special food she needs to get her back to health and to keep her there.

A fourth woman contacted me a few days later about another matter, after reading a comment I'd left at another blog. I'd mentioned Challenging the Commonplace proudly sporting the logo of that "Left-wing fringe group: Women" but said I wouldn't be able to order a t-shirt and wear my support in that upfront and personal way.

A few days ago, I received a t-shirt.

Then there was this personal request I posted many moons ago. The woman who sent me enough money to cover Kiltie's food for a year added a bonus: enough money also to buy an exercise bike. (She'd wanted to help in additional ways, but we ran into problems.)

I've had a Healthrider N40 upright exercise bike, bought for half price, for two months now and been using it regularly. Am already feeling stronger. My back gives me less trouble, causes less pain when I take the long walks I can't (and don't want to) avoid. The more mobile one can be, the more freedom one has and the better the quality of life. This woman's gift has improved my quality of life, for which I am deeply grateful.

About those bureaucrats...

Had been fretting for over a year that when it came time to applying for my CPP pension, I'd come up against a stone wall of administrative indifference and intransigence. As experienced with bureaucracy in the past, I imagined being required to go above and beyond what most citizens must in order to prove identity. The process has always caused me distress - delving into my the past ain't fun. Childhood upheavals of myriad number have resulted in a paper trail, of who I belonged to and what my name was, not following a straight line. BUT and this is what my hopes were pinned on, the one thing that was constant, once I began working at age 15, was my social insurance number. I was taxpayer number xxx xxx xxx and through that number all my CPP contributions were made.

So... filled with apprehension, I completed my CPP application and mailed it August 25th. Within three weeks - not the months I'd been envisioning -, I received a reply. In large bolded letters, in consideration of aging eyes, the letter began:

Your Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Retirement Pension has been Approved.

In slightly smaller font, but still larger than average, further information was provided. It included the statement, in all caps: THE CHILD REARING PROVISION HAS BEEN TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION - not that that will result in much; still, anything extra is welcome.

The CPP payments will begin August 2010.

My cynicism has undergone an adjustment.

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One Homelessness Factor Avoided Like Plague

This story illustrates one major contributing factor to the swelling numbers of homeless in BC. It's constantly avoided by the powers-that-be in this province.

Sherry was polite and resolute.

I was puzzled. I asked why she was willing to sleep in a parking lot in order to be with her cats.

"They've always been with us," Sherry told me. "Even just moving out of the house, one of our cats - because she'd been abandoned before and she'd been abused - she thought that we were going to leave her. She just got really freaked out and stuff."

Sherry looked me in the eye. Tears welled in hers. I forgot whether she was talking about her cats, or herself.

"We're not going to leave her," she declared.

Lori gave Sherry an armload of food, and promised to check back in a few days. We wished her well and left her at the edge of the crumbling blacktop.

The minivan was quiet as we drove away. Lori finally broke the silence.

"Actually, that happens quite a lot," she said. "People who've lost everything else, they get quite attached to their pets. Their pets are like family."

Not quite. For people who have lost everything else, their pets aren't LIKE family, they ARE family.

Consider this question, seriously: Would you give up your family for a roof over your head?

Before you answer that, don't make the same mistake Lori did. Accept the fact that for some people, their pets ARE their family. You may not consider animal companions in the same light. If you have pets, you may view them as being LIKE members of your family, but you are not so attached to them that you couldn't imagine giving them up for a roof over your head. Such is not the case for the people I'm talking about. For the purposes of my question, your view of pets isn't the issue; it's their view that matters, which is why I've framed the question as I have.

So again, I ask: Would you give up your family (your children, or dependent sibling or parent) for a roof over your head?

The problem in BC isn't just about the scant few pet-friendly shelters for the homeless. Contributing to the problem is the BC Residential Tenancy Act which allows landlords to deny accommodation to people with pets. And because property owners can do this, almost every last one of them does do it.

No serious discussion about housing for low-income BC residents can endlessly avoid this issue. The more destitute or alone a person is, the more likely s/he is to have a pet. For housing legislation to allow that a pet be given up for the sake of housing, temporary or permanent, only contributes to the problem of homelessness.

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Bossy, The Cow

We all seem to have an image of Bossy, the milk cow, placidly chewing her cud in a field of vibrant green grass. This is the cow we all get our milk from, carefully raised on the local farmer's field. Isn't it?

The reality of cows bred for milking is far different. This video may be an extreme example of cruelty, but it is more common than we want to believe.

The dairy industry's standard forms of cruelty also led to suffering for these cows. In order to make milking easier, cows' tails were amputated by tightly binding them with elastic bands, causing the skin and tissue to slowly die and slough off and leaving the animals unable to swat away flies, which, in addition to tormenting the cows, also led to the spread of disease. Tail-docking is unnecessary and cruel, which is why it has been condemned by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Milk produced for human consumption comes at a high price: to the cow. First they must breed and produce a calf at least once a year to maintain their milk flow. They are dosed with numerous drugs. They often do not see the light of day, as they are continuously kept in filthy barns. The calves they bear become the tender veal we find in our grocery stores. Torn from their dames almost as soon as they're born, they are put in small corrals in the dark for a short time before they are slaughtered then rendered into human food.

As I haven't had milk since I was a teenager, I am always appalled when I encounter just what takes place in agri-business today.

I choose, instead, to drink an almond beverage, rich in protein, calcium and a small amount of easily digestible fat.

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Our Family Stays Together

Thanks to two kind women and Timmy, Mango, Pip, Frankie and Boomer, Brodie's and my trip to the SPCA, which had been scheduled for this morning at 10 A.M., has been cancelled. Brodie's blankie and towel, together with his favourite 'condo' have been returned to their rightful places. The cat carrier has been put away.

One household's generous donation will ensure that Brodie has enough to eat for the next year. The second household's donation will give Kiltie what I never thought would be possible: the special food she needs not only to recover, but to stay healthy and free of future urinary tract infections.

From our household

Kiltie and Brodie

to your households

Boomer (left), and Pip, Frankie and Mango

Timmy

THANK YOU!

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Heartbreaking Decision

Brodie must go to the local SPCA. My lovable sweet boy. Nine years old, affectionate but shy; he asks to be cuddled, rather than pushes for your attention. We've been together almost eight years.

Kiltie looks to be starting another urinary infection. So another round of antibiotics. If I could afford to feed her good, canned food, she likely wouldn't be experiencing chronic UTIs in the first place. What I've been doing instead is feeding them both half canned, half dry - since neither will lay off the other's food. And Brodie eats four times as much as Kiltie.

I can't keep doing it anymore. Out of my $67/month food budget, comes the food I buy for the cats. Something has got to give. Brodie is the logical, heart-rending choice.

Now am off to the pharmacy for Kiltie's latest round of antibiotics. Am hoping to get a ride to the SPCA later today. The quicker I do this, the better. Both cats sense something is wrong.

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Living Alone vs. Living in Companionship

This photo says it all.


Although I've tried to express the issue in several posts on animal companions, pets and homelessness, that image says it best.

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Of Rights, Shelter & Government-Imposed Classes

This post is in response to MetisRebel's Survey THIS Homeless Medication.

The issue of pets touches me personally. Many people who live isolated lives, by choice or otherwise, have animal companions. A number of them, in turn, are extremely poor.

For those with animal companions, their lives may well depend on that association. Pets can help the lonely or the isolated maintain their humanity. The animals are someone to come home to, someone to care for, someone who appreciates their human's affection and ministration. The presence of an animal can be the only thing left that mediates between life and death.

Trapped in a province that allows property owners to deny others' rights they themselves have, in a province where less than 1 in 20 rental units are pet-friendly, I am paying over 70 percent of my income to stay in this bachelor apartment. With the cost of rental units soaring and the vacancy rates plummeting below two percent, nothing else is available.

BC's Residential Tenancy Act essentially supports at least 12 different classes of people. Listed in order of those having the most to the least rights in terms of housing or shelter, they represent people who:

1. own their own home and have property they rent out.
2. own a freehold home.
3. own a strata home.
4. singles or couples who rent and have no children or pets. This group has choice among 100% of rental units available.
5. couples who rent and have children.
6. single people who rent and have children - unless they are known to be on welfare, in which case they join group 7.
7. renters who are non-white, openly LGBT, or are members of other groups that are targets of discrimination.
8. people who rent and have animal companions.
9. street people with children - more likely to be sheltered than 10, 11 or 12.
10. street people living on their own who are not known addicts.
11. street couples - shelters often separate the pair.
12. street people with pets - shelter almost always denied the animals.

As to the welfare of homeless animals, I've not seen any animal with a street person who is other than cherished and cared for - see, e.g., these photos of a 'homeless' community.

I'd choose living on the street with my companions than give up either of my cats in order to be housed. Their companionship is essential to my health and the continuance of my life.

ETA: Firefighters recognize the importance of animals, as evidenced in this story just reported in the Victoria Times-Colonist.

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Meat-Free Monday

Okay, Okay, I know I go on a LOT about a meat-free diet, but the proof shows up in our bodies. Eating without ingesting animal flesh is definitely beneficial to our health.

[T]he fact that eating meat leads to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and lethargy, I'll skip extended analysis of these facts, other than to say: When Johns Hopkins, Columbia, the American Dietetic Association, and dozens of other health organizations argue that the less meat you eat, the better off you'll be, it's worth listening to them.

To get you started, two well-known Public Health schools in the USA are promoting a Meatless Monday campaign. It is a positive step in the direction of overall health for each individual and the entire planet.

[S]cientists tell us that if all Americans switched from eating chickens and pigs to eating beans and grains for just one day per week, that would stop as much global warming as if everyone in the U.S. shifted to ultra-efficient Toyota hybrids (which is the weekly equivalent of using 12 billion fewer gallons of gasoline). Of course I have to point out the obvious: If we all stopped eating animals completely and shifted to vegetarian foods, that would save 84 billion gallons of gas per week (and all the troubles that go with that kind of consumption).

Today is Monday. Today is the day to eat a meat-free diet. If you have already committed to one-day-a-week of meat-free eating, now is the day to add another. Your body will thank you, Mother Earth will thank you and all the animals that were not slaughtered to supply you with their flesh will thank you.

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Tent Cities Help so Stop Destroying Them

From Democracy Now! comes an interview with homelessness activists who discuss Seattle's most recent tent city, Nickelsville. The relevant portion begins at 15:12.

The interview brings home a message I've been trying to raise without success, locally and elsewhere. Those most resistant to my suggestion to leave tent cities alone are politicians and, of course, the neighbours who would rather see people dying on the streets alone rather than grouped together in a community of relative safety and companionship.

The point is, "affordable" housing will continue to be an issue for decades to come. So rather than bulldozing over the communities that homeless people have created for themselves and pushing some of the affected people into overcrowded, unwelcoming "shelters" which impose unkind and often illogical rules, leave the people where they are. At least in tent cities, homeless couples can stay together, pets are allowed, belongings are relatively safe and people who use substances aren't shunned.

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Live Webcam: Eagles' Nest, Eggs about to be Hatched

Now that's prime real estate! 'Tis beautiful to watch and listen to life from an eagle's perspective. Be patient, takes a few seconds to connect to the live sights and sounds. The eagles don't leave their eggs alone for longer than a few seconds, so if you don't see one of the parents brooding, wait; you'll have the pleasure of seeing one flying in for a landing.

Third egg of Sidney family is due to hatch April 13th. Hornby eggs (two) are due to hatch April 26th.

Hornby camera - This one provides the best close-up. However, at this location, someone is in the habit of sawing dead trees all day long. Poor eagles!

NB: Eaglet has "fowled" this close-up camera (again). See below for the wide-angle view instead.



Wide-angle Hornby camera:




Sidney camera:

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Cats Win Eviction Fight

As 2008 neared its end, Hollyburn Properties, proud new owners of a west-end Vancouver apartment building, handed out eviction notices to seven long-time residents.

Why? The tenants who were served the notices (that is, the humans) shared their apartments with cats.

Such households were not news to the new owners who had done several inspections since they'd purchased the property about a year previously. Not only had the tenants always had cats, but they'd been given oral permission when they moved into the building to bring their animal companions with them, such permission having been granted by the resident manager who worked under the previous owners.

Despite this, Hollyburn insisted on written permission which, of course, the tenants could not produce and Hollyburn wasn't about to issue.

The tenants balked. They refused to give up their furry companions and they refused to leave the premises.

Since the BC Residential Tenancy Act is designed more to protect property owners than tenants, it's rare to see the residential tenancy branch coming down in favour of tenants when interceding in disputes.

Yet that's what they did.

Dispute resolution officer S. Okada wrote in a March 4 judgement that the tenants had not breached a material part of their tenancy agreement, even though they had oral rather than written permission to keep pets. Ergo, "the notices to end tenancy are cancelled, with the effect that the tenancies continue."

Wow. A win for the good side. It gives me hope that if one day someone comes along and buys THIS apartment building, they can't arbitrarily go around evicting tenants like me who also got oral permission to bring along their furry companions.

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Aaaawwww... Koala cools off

From a friend of a friend comes this story and accompanying photos:

It has been so hot in South Australia for over a week... [recording-breaking, climate change causing] 40-plus degrees Celsius everyday, very dry also.

A guy at work lives at Maude. His wife sent him these photos of a little Koala which just walked into the back porch looking for a bit of heat relief.

She filled up a bucket and this is what happened!

This little chap obviously knows about hygiene... Drinks the water first then gets in.

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All better!

... and our household returns to normal.

Kiltie had a serious bladder infection up to a week ago and didn't manage well on either of the two antibiotics prescribed to her. Hence, she had diarrhea or loose stools all the way through the three-week period. Poor wee thing!

The first four photos are of Kiltie on her way to recovery. Sleeping, finally, after spending far too many days unable to rest much at all.

The second set shows friend Brodie also to have recovered. He was terribly worried, as was the human, throughout Kiltie's ordeal. Now Kiltie is back to keeping a watchful, and in this case a very sleepy, eye on Brodie.

If you click on the first thumbnail (top left), that will open up my Picassa album which shows the larger view. Then clicking right arrow in the album will bring up the other photos.

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Aaaawwww... Teaching humans how to get along

Heartwarming story of a healing friendship between an elephant and a dog.



If these two can do it, why can't humans?

One must suppose our intelligence or big brains get in the way. Which doesn't say a whole lot about the value of said intelligence, now does it? OR it says we don't use it anywhere near as much as we should.

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BC Government Aims to Force Homeless into Shelters

Legislated paternalism is on the march.

First, we have Rona Ambrose sticking her federalist nose into municipal affairs. Regardless of the fact she has legal authority to order a vote of striking Ottawa Transit workers, the question remains whether the legislation itself - that section of the Canada Labour Code, 108.1, 1 (a) and (b) - is legal and should be challenged in court.

Now, it's the BC Minister of Housing, Rich Coleman, looking to limit the rights of people who are without bricks and mortar housing.

“There are provisions under the Mental Health Act for a committal and that sort of thing. I think we need to have some stronger provisions for this sort of situation... [W]hen someone puts their life at risk, at that level, there are probably issues with mental health and addictions... We should have the power to be able to say, ‘We have a bed for you and you're going to that bed.'”

By that logic, race car drivers, Olympic skiers, snowmobilers and snowboarders, etc. "probably have issues with mental health and addictions."

[Coleman] conceded that the challenge is to figure out what would compel people to remain in shelters after they were removed to them.

“I think, in most cases, if we had the ability to say, ‘You're going,' a lot of them would [stay],” he suggested.

Well, that demonstrates how well he knows people who are homeless, doesn't it? They/we have quite the independent streak.

Mr. Coleman said there is no timetable to advancing with the idea...

“The work is ongoing,” he suggested. “It is a pretty big process. We do have to take into account the Charter and whether these things would have a Charter challenge attached to them but, you know, I just honestly believe some people are so ill on our streets that they can't make decisions for themselves and they become a danger to themselves and the public,” he said.

“We should have the opportunity to intervene because, if we can, we can save them.”

The BC Government and Housing Minister Coleman have had the power to intervene for the past eight years, to intervene, that is, by creating conditions which would enable people who are homeless to form their own communities or to enter existing communities and be housed as others are housed. And with all their rights intact, rights such as those accorded to property owners: to keep all their possessions and their animal companions.

Kerry Jang, a councillor with the majority Vision Vancouver party on Vancouver city council, said Mr. Coleman's “heart is in the right place,” but there may be a better way to work towards the same goal.

“Not all homeless people are mentally ill and so simply using the Mental Health Act won't cover all the homeless people,” he said Wednesday.

Well someone gets it at least. Or maybe not...

Instead, ... when the temperature was sufficiently cold, it should be the basis for apprehending people and putting them in shelters, [Jang] suggested.

More faulty reasoning. By that logic, EVERYONE who remains on the streets "when the temperature was sufficiently cold" would be rounded up and herded into shelters.

“We're also cognizant of civil liberties, so forcing someone against their will [into shelter] is problematic from a legal and mental-health treatment perspective,” said Dr. Jang, also a psychiatry professor at the University of British Columbia.

He said he looks forward to further discussing the idea with the minister this year.

I'm sure he does. Psychiatrists do a thriving business. After all, they get to charge for treating - and labelling -people with mental health disorders. There's no business quite like it. Well, Big Pharma might be one: create the disease, then the treatment to alleviate it.

Oh, and Surprise!, those in the lowest income quintile, the ones whose voices are the least heard or accorded respect by the powers-that-be, are disproportionately represented as being 'mentally ill'. The homeless, of course, more so. This association of homelessness and mental illness is unfounded and must stop.

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To Catch a Thief

Confronted by store manager, thief escapes, still at large.

A thief remains at large after pulling off a daring heist - in the pet food aisle.

Surveillance video at a supermarket in this Salt Lake City suburb caught a dog shoplifting...

The video showed the dog walking in the front door of Smith's Food & Drug in Murray, and heading straight to Aisle 16, the pet food aisle, where it grabbed a bone worth $2.79.

The thief wasn't even perturbed by a face-to-face confrontation with store manager Roger Adamson.

"I looked at him. I said 'Drop it!' " Adamson said.

"He looked at me, and I looked at him, and he ran for the door and away he went, right out the front door."

Now that's chutzpah!

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New Homeless Shelter Gets It Right

This is more like it.

Less than a week after the pews and floors at First United Church became a night time-shelter, the church's Rev. Ric Matthews believes the experiment is already offering Vancouver's newly minted homeless task force some "important lessons."

"We need shelters to feel more homely," said Matthews... "A shelter may not be a home, but it needs to feel like one."

Unlike most shelters, First United doesn’t have any restrictions on its guests - people can come and go as they please, men and women can stay together and people can bring their pets and shopping carts... Matthews said some homeless people like the First United shelter because it's like a "sleepover with their friends."

"I don't think shelters give people a sense of belonging," said Matthews.

Now all we need is affordable housing which permits the same freedoms. After all, such freedoms are what property owners and more affluent members of society are allowed.

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