Me and Liz
Liz my beautiful partner and my amazing Mom, Cynthia.
Arielle the one eyed Siamese Lynx Point Rescue Kitty
This is my first dairy post on the Daily Kos and it is with immense gratitude and with a humbled heart that I am writing it in response to a post put up on Friday December 20, 2013 at 4pm by the Kossack great Rena =) It was in her listing: RenaRF's Random Ramblings and titled:Help for a Kossack in Need.
As newbie Kossacks myself (Feral20) and my partner Liz (lizmugavero) are overwhelmed by the support of the Kossack community, not once but twice now we have felt your love, compassion and support.You see RenaRF, nannyboz and Persiflage introduced us to this amazing community when we were helping a rescue kitty we took in named Arielle who needed a life saving dental surgery. I had reached out to RenaRF with some help with my fundraiser because it was a dire emergency and I had only 10 days to raise the rest of the funding. Rena as always stepped up and helped and because she did the rest of the funding for Arielle was raised and her surgery was a huge success. Ms Arielle is doing wonderful and celebrating a pain free Christmas. See (A Plea for Help - Shelter Stories byRenaRF)
Now Rena has gone a step further and without me knowing it her and my partner got together to help promote a fundraising page (https://www.giveforward.com/...) that my amazing Mother started online to help with keeping my spirits high and to help deal with a lot of medical costs and daily living needs. My family and friends have been amazing, but even more overwhelming to me was the kindness and support of others whom I have never met. Strangers in the sense of not knowing one another in person but not strangers to the idea of giving, and empathy, compassion, loving animals, educating and supporting one another. We are all kindred spirits in that way I believe. Between the Kossacks and the animal rescue community I feel like I have many families now.
I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all and let you know how much this has meant to me. This has been a LONG and difficult medical journey for me, however it has also brought with it a lot of lessons and ones that I am grateful for. I believe everything happens for a reason and that even though my physical appearance has changed dramatically, that I have organs now missing from my body and new items attached, even though after 15 years of teaching students with emotional and behavioral concerns I am no longer teaching...I am still always a teacher...I am still me =) I am still full of life, still pressing forward, still a truth seeker and a truth speaker, full of gratitude, love, compassion and joy. I embrace each day with a feeling of possibility. I really thought I was going to die during that 2 month stay in the hospital, from the ambulance ride from CT to MGH in Boston to blood transfusions, surgeries, palliative care and on and on. I thought it was over. I remember telling my Mom to please make sure Liz was ok and that our animal companions (all rescues) were always cared for, I had even told her names and numbers of people who would help. I have experienced many life changing events in my time here on this planet but I have to say hearing the words "well she can die ....." and knowing that I already felt like that was happening, well that took the cake.
I am a survivor always have been and always will be. I am strong not sick. I am positive that this journey is spiraling towards something even more amazing..how do I know this? Well look at how this happened, this journey has brought me to some pretty amazing individuals the Kossacks. Like I said everything happens for a reason, and good things come from even the most painful circumstances, good and bad..balance. I am a Libra who believes in balance. =) Thank you Kossacks, thank you Liz, Rena, Nan, Stan..all of you. I send you much love and joy during this holiday season but more importantly I send it to you always.