Long post, huge ask, opportunity to be kind included.
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TLDR: help three souls find safe space.
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The story, in brief (yes, this is the BRIEF version):
Last year, I stumbled across and started following an account on Twitter. It was a person and their kitty, homeless after fleeing a DV situation, living in a van, in Arkansas.
Before you lecture, I am aware of the dangers and perfidy of online accounts, and have done my due diligence.
I started following for the kitty pictures - he’s a floofy void wrapped around a bundle of mischief and love.
The human was/is in the midst of appealing denial of disability. They are, btw, disabled but functioning beyond their limits because survival, but they pay a hearty physical and psychological toll for that.
They have struggled to keep their kitty and themself cared for.
At one point, they were rousted from what had been a property-owner approved parking/sleeping spot and had nowhere to go. They risked arrest and loss of their worldly goods to go back and wait for kitty to come “home”, as he often went out to toilet and be a cat during the day, returning faithfully to the van after a few hours. The person would not abandon him.
He returned, they collected him, and then they went seeking a new spot.
At the time, what must have seemed like a miracle happened - someone they knew offered a place, a tiny abandoned house on her property. No power, no water, asshole neighbors who had vandalized it, but it was a roof and walls and if they wanted to clean it up they could live there.
So they went.
They cleaned.
And cleaned.
And cleaned.
There were struggles and misadventures.
Kitty discovers poison oak and Things In The Woods and had several vet visits, but he was happy to not be vanbound all the time. Human felt much the same.
The neighbors have non-stop harassed them, even to the point of catnapping the kitty and damn near starving him to death. He was gone so long, his human had lost hope that he was alive. They nearly gave up, then. Luckily, Bastet and Freya listened and responded, and he escaped and came “home”.
They use crowdfunding to get by, and they often go without to make sure kitty has what he needs to thrive. They are exhausted and hurting and excepting a few online connections, they are alone. I have donated and made Amazon orders, and Mom donated to their GoFundMe. We both donated to help cover kitty vet costs because kitty! Lots of other folks have helped, too.
They put on some much needed weight and strove the regain some strength and health while still jumping…er…stumbling…through the disability appeal hoops.
A few weeks ago, the property owner revealed that they had made some…unfortunate…choices, and now the land, main house (from which this person runs an extension cord, with permission, to power a refrigerator), and little abandoned house are being sold in advance of foreclosure. The property could have been saved, but the owner didn’t want to make the effort.
So human and kitties (a second cat joined the mix, being looked after for a friend) have to pack up and get out, between unannounced showings and incursions from the harassing neighbors.
They’re struggling to make the van ready to live in again, and they’ve no notion where to go, now.
Meanwhile, one realtor has several times shown up unannounced, forcing the person to quickly crate the cats and leave because apparently a property can’t be shown with a person there? And they’ve come back to find the cats terrified, spilled soda pop (not theirs, from one of the “guests”), papers and belongings riffled through and in disarray, and a urine…HUMAN urine!…puddle.
They’re dealing with all of this while also struggling with aforementioned disabilities and a new injury cause by property owner negligence and asshole neighbor fuckery.
So, yeah, cascading shitstorm.
The ask(s):
This person and their kitties need a safe, stable place to roost. A parking spot would do, but I’m hoping someone has or knows of a room, a tiny house, hell, even a camper that they can live in, preferably no or low rent. I’ll help pay whatever utilities they can’t cover. It would be better for their continuing disability case if they could stay in Arkansas, but at this point things are such a clusterfuck that they are willing to move to another state and start over if needs must. MMJ legal would be nice. Comment if you can help.
Donating to their survival fund would be amazing: https://gofund.me/4103ceb3
Or, if you’re looking for a property for investment with resident guard kitties and their human keeping it lived in for you…I know about a fixer-upper that just came on the market…
Seriously, I’d buy the place myself if I had the funds…