"You're awesome!"
I've been told this on numerous occasions and while I would like to take credit for being awesome, the truth is that I am no more awesome than YOU, the person reading this right now.
"I'm only one person."
So am I. One person who is no more awesome than you.
Here's my secret...
Lean in close...
Closer...
Sometimes I do awesome things.
It's true.
I am only one person who is no more awesome than you but sometimes I do awesome things.
See? No different than you. You can do awesome things too. It's very simple. When you see a need, help. That's it.
Example #1: An email went out from a friend who worked at Disney. She had a delivery guy who was doing something awesome - feeding the stray cats in his neighborhood. He gave them shelter and food. The shelter was not inside his house because these were feral cats struggling to survive. He saw a need and he did something awesome.
Then my friend, Laura (who does many awesome things), sent an email out asking if anyone knew how to trap cats. See, just one person doing something awesome. She didn't have experience with Trap-Neuter-Release, but she had a plethora of contacts and figured someone would.
I got the email. I know how to trap cats! So I did something awesome - I emailed her back and said that I would be willing to help. One person, no more awesome than you, doing something awesome.
See, three people managed to improve the lives of 7 cats! Easy, right?
Example #2 - We are teaching in Lake View Terrace right now. I came out of school the other day to find a sick cat. I met the woman who is feeding the local cats. She's just one person and she's doing something awesome.
She broke down and cried because she's overwhelmed. Kittens are dying. She doesn't drive. She wants to get the cats fixed.
I can trap! I'm just one person, but I volunteered to help. She won't be sad anymore because no more kittens will be born to get sick or end up in coyote tummies.
She is one person doing something awesome - feeding the cats that have been abandoned in her area.
I am one person doing something awesome - helping her trap them.
FixNation is doing big awesome helping people like us do this for FREE.
But they are more than one person.
"It takes someone special to do what you do."
No, it doesn't.
I'm no more special than you.
Meredith is no more special than you.
We are simply individuals who saw needs and stepped up.
Anyone can do it!
Can you imagine if every one person did one awesome thing? What a great world we would have!
We'll feature one person doing awesome again next Wednesday! Get ready to hear about the awesome things that Lea is doing!
So tell us - what awesome thing(s) have you done?
At my old townhouse we fed and provided shelter to at one point over 15 cats. My boss is such a sweet man he hand crafted a huge wooden cat house for them all to snuggle down in when it snowed and every night I would heat up water bottles and warm towels and put them inside. In the morning you'd see at least 5 kitties creeping out of the warm house for breakfast.
ReplyDeleteI trapped and fixed as many as I could, we don't have a good trap/release program here so it was 80$ for females and 60 for males so I did what I could when I could, but before we moved I had fixed about a dozen.
A couple kitties had babies...often. And one got so close with me, she brought me her babies when they were in trouble not once but twice with 2 different litters. One had an ear infection so bad he had maggots living in his head. One day I heard her putting up such a FUSS out back. I went to see and she picked up the little guy and put him at my feet. Then kept fussing until I picked him up. We rushed him off to the vet who cleaned out all the maggots and put some med. in. When I brought him home all she wanted was to see him. So I sat with both of them out back, she insisted on climbing into my lap to check on him but wouldn't let me give him back to her.
The second time she brought me her whole litter, 4 little babies. It was raining so hard the whole back area was flooding and she brought them to my steps one by one and wouldn't stop fussing till we were all inside and dry. I made her a soft pallet by the back door that she could sleep on and nurse but still be close enough to outside that she was comfortable in staying inside.
We got all the kittens that came to us homes. We spayed and neutered all the kitties we could before we left. And I was so heartbroken to leave them, my husband had a hard time calming me down one night. I loved them, I still do.
I have bottle fed 4 litters of kittens. Found them homes and kept a few I couldn't bare to part with.
Today I have 5 kitties. All rescued from feral colonies. All spoiled rotten. One I have had since he was 2 days old at most.
My mom has 3 kitties. All rescued.
At my job we trapped and fixed 2 kitties. One a boy who was sooo ragged and injured from fights, we were sure he would die if we didn't fix him soon. That was 3 years ago. And today is is so beautiful and happy just coming to eat and saying hello. We are just one of 3 offices that I know of that feed him in this complex. He's such a charmer.
I know that was long winded. But My mom, my husband, everyone in all the offices, and I are just a few people doing all we can do. And that turned out to be a lot.
I'm so grateful to know that there are people like Jennie out there doing all they can do too. And if everyone would just do something for a stray - give them shelter in the cold, water in the heat, trap/spray-neuter/release when they can - you would be improving the lives of so many with just such a little thing.