Sanctuary in the Desert II

Five months since I last posted -- getting really bad! and only posting now because some kind soul out there in cyberspace posted a comment.  It's been a hard road to here, but then, our blessings are many compared to most, it seems, in today's troubled world!

Among the good things, our beautiful desert land and home are just about to close escrow after being on the market for five long months.  It's a very good sale to a wonderful buyer and even though we thought we couldn't be choosy in today's abysmal market. we are extremely fortunate.  The buyers are also CAT RESCUERS.  The features they love the most about our place include the "catio" and the cat-fenced compound!  It's not without mixed feelings that I am letting go of what has been the realization of a dream, to live in the desert on enough land to have my small cat sanctuary, and to be able to live like I never thought we could live, in a beautiful home and with acreage.  If I could have stayed for the rest of my life with all of my beloved ones, I would have.  Fate did not comply; in a world of refugees and nomads, we do the best we can and realize that we still have it much, much better than most these days.

I read a story on AOL about people having to sell their prized heirlooms, designer clothing and bags, etc. to pay the bills.  Truly, we are in a depression, never mind that we will, if we're lucky, get a few hundred of the hard-earned dollars we've already paid in taxes back to spend.  Stimulate the economy?  Try paying a bill or two!  Are the PTB's so absolutely clueless in their ivory towers that they really think we'll, what, go out and buy a new big-ticket item with that paltry check?  Oh, don't even get me started.

One of the most tragic aspects of this "recession" is the huge numbers of cats and other animals being abandoned to "shelters", empty habitations, the streets, and worse fates as people's desperation results in irresponsible, desperate, awful choices.  Groups are working to try to provide safety nets, legally and privately.  But we will never know the extent of the suffering these wars without end and the irresponsible self-gratification of some are causing the most blameless of all, namely, the animals once sheltered by people who are walking off and leaving them to a cruel fate.  And the worse it gets, the more morally bankrupt, soulless, and miserable these people become.  I hope those at the top are happy when they look and see what they are doing to the world!  How they can sleep at night, I do not know.

But in one little corner of the desert, another family has fallen under the unique spell and is getting ready to enter upon its own adventure.  I wish them all the very best, and pray they will be able to stay, and thrive, and be good guardians of what they are borrowing.

The Honorable Robert Nesta Marley, O.M. once sang, "When one door is closed, don't you know another is opened" and so it is, for me and my loved ones.  I pray for us, and for everyone, that somehow there can be a return to compassion, caring, and the realization that what affects one, affects all, before it is too late.  Signs are encouraging.  Let us see what the future may bring.

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this