Rescue Kittens

To be published in the Nov. 25, 2015 issue of the Foothills Sun-Gazette


     Weeks ago, when I first wrote about the well-drilling fundraising project to help save a priceless small farmer in Fresno County, Will Scott, Jr., I mentioned that I was bottle-feeding a kitten when I got the call. (Be sure to see 3 entries, below, about this important project!)  At the time, it seemed like a perfect coincidence:  there I was, doing something that makes my heart soft and tender when the heart-opportunity of a lifetime arrived, just in time to keep my mind from jumping off a bridge. 

     Over the weeks since then, it has seemed less of a coincidence.  There seems to be a high correlation between tending little Pipsqueak and his siblings from the late-harvest litter born in my backyard, and getting another call for the next step in rescuing Will.  I don’t pretend to understand it, but I think my observations are reliable. 

     One of the deep joys of shepherding kittens is to watch them play.  At this moment, on a sunny November morning, this little family of five is hard at work playing, learning everything from the art of sneak attacks to escape via the grapevine, guided by Yoda and Chipmunk, the two surviving kittens from the spring litter.  It’s like watching a soccer match or basketball game, they move that fast.  But there’s no winning or losing team.  My heart cheers as I see each one grow in competence. 

     I didn’t expect Yoda or Chipmunk to survive: their six siblings were taken early by a bad respiratory virus following a cold spring rain.  So I simply tried to make them comfortable, washing the pus from their eyes and mucus their noses twice a day and feeding them the best food I could afford, hoping my snuggling would comfort them, if not help boost their immune systems.  When I finally realized they weren’t dying, I took them to our beautiful vet Jamie Wilson, got them the shots they needed, got them neutered to slow down their straying, and now they’re healthy teenagers taking babysitting duty regularly. 

     What I truly learned this summer, however, was that they were helping me survive.  Every time a wave of despair threatened to sink my ship, I’d be drawn away from that mental state by their needs.  Did they have enough water?  Better go check.  Is there shade where they’re sleeping, or are they cooking in the sun?  I kept a syringe in a jar of electrolyte solution on the porch, and more than once pulled them back from the brink of dehydration and death.  But monitoring their condition kept me from sweltering in mine. 

     Then I began to notice other ways I was being rescued.  Re-united with an old friend whose late-life divorce is pending and who I thought needed my company daily via the telephone, I saw that we were helping each other anchor in reality and grow in acceptance of self as well as the world.  What appeared as deathly darkness at the beginning of this year has turned to health-restoring light.  Ending each day talking with Pam has made the beginning of the next one seem more plausible, even hopeful. 

     In our culture, our Thanksgiving traditions mostly focus on celebrating all the good things we’ve been given through the year, and truly, no one in this world is without blessing of some kind.  But not everyone can see that.  Sometimes the gifts come in badly-wrapped packages, looking like time bombs or terrorist attacks.  Sometimes they seem like a case of bad karma.  To most people, having litters of kittens born in your back yard seems like trouble or even outright irresponsibility, and having tried unsuccessfully to prevent it, I confess I wasn’t exactly overjoyed when these litters arrived. 

     But this thanksgiving I’m thanking God for this life-giving intimacy with kittens and old friends, for the revelation that in rescuing others we rescue ourselves.  May your blessings be easy to count and your turkey done to perfection. Thanks for listening to me all this year!

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Trudy Wischemann is a feline shepherdess and rural advocate who also writes to fend off despair.  You can send her your rescue recipes c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.

 

 

 

 

           

 

Good News

     There is good news to report from Lindsay, my adopted home town – more, in fact, than has been making the pages of the newspapers.

 

      I have been thinking a lot about what makes for good news. The sun came up this morning. That’s good news in two ways.  It’s “good” because it’s beneficial: this thing we need even more than food and shelter, this thing we count on so desperately that we take it for granted, has happened yet one more day.  It’s also good because it’s true.  It doesn’t matter which day you read this, it is still true.  If it were false – if it hadn’t happened – you wouldn’t be reading this.

 

      So truth, as well as benefit, are criteria for good news.  I think “wholeness” is a third: a sense of being complete (as much as someone can know the whole story at any given time;) a sense of being thorough, examined from all sides.  Not just the sunny side; not just the dark side.  Both sides.  News from only one side of a story is a half-truth, which leaves much too much room for truth’s opposite.

 

      There was good news to report from the Oct. 27^th Lindsay City Council meeting, but all the papers missed it.  The forces behind the current city administration had taken advantage of the power of the so-called social media (which, with its lack of accountability, might better be called “anti-social,”) to spread the rumor that the city council wanted to shut down the McDermont Field House.  The rumor, of course, pinpointed the three councilmembers who have been charged with everything from dysfunctionality to conspiracy (not to mention the false charge and arrest for felony embezzlement of Councilman Mecum a year and a half ago,) which was not good news under any of my three criteria, above.  That’s what I mean by lack of accountability.  It was bad.

 

      How this bad news got converted into good news had a touch of gospel in it.  Our mayor, Ramona Padilla, with all her education, compassion and humanity, took that bull by the horns and said, essentially, “We are not going to be gored by this.”  She called it by its true name – a falsehood, a rumor intentionally spread to make real conversation impossible about the problem of making McDermont a financially responsible part of this city – and then asked each councilmember to say whether or not they had ever mentioned the possibility of closure.  Not one had.

 

       By taking control of that ill wind at the very beginning of the meeting, she turned what could have been just another public brawl into a real community conversation about the problems and opportunities of that facility.  It went on for almost an hour, which was not bad since it was at least five years overdue, if not ten.  She took full advantage of the collection of interested people who had gathered to protest, and turned them into willing participants in shaping our future, looking for ways to make that albatross fly. (Albatrosses can fly, you know – they don’t have to just hang around your neck.)

 

      Did you read that story anywhere?  I didn’t.

 

      And what a lost opportunity that was.  Here the real media could have carried some good news, something readers are always clamoring for.  Instead, they have chosen to characterize the current struggle to make better budgets, better rules, better public relations, better balances of power – they are characterizing this as dysfunctional, as “not able to agree on anything.”  It’s the same blindness that characterized past councils’ rubber stamp work as progressive.  It’s bad news.

 

      Bad enough to make me not want to read the newspaper.

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Trudy Wischemann is a born reader who writes for a life, not a living.  You can send her your observations of good news c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.

 

We Drill for Will

Farmers Saving Farmers, Redeeming Us All


     Will Scott, Jr., Fresno organic grower of soul food, community farm activist and president of the African-American Farmers of California, is about to go out of business for lack of water.  (For an overview of his efforts, visit www.scottfamilyfarms.net.)  Featured in the Fresno Bee's "Faces of the Drought," Will was quoted as saying  "We're on the verge of losing a lot."  (See also this blog's entries "Drill for Will" and "Approaching Rain" in October.)


     Paul Buxman, Dinuba organic tree fruit grower, small farm organizer and Valley farmscape painter extraordinaire, heard the news and said "The community can't afford to lose this man."  So he's launched a fund drive to deepen Will's well to keep Will where the community needs him:  on his farm. (For two beautiful television reports on this project, visit http://abc30.com/news/drought-hasnt-dried-up-dinuba-farmers-generous-spirit/1010605 and http://abc30.com/news/generous-response-to-valley-farmers-well-fund/1020474/.)  See and hear also Alice Daniel's fantastic piece of radio journalism for KQED's "California Report" at http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/11/07/drill-for-will-get-this-farmer-some-water/. 

    
     For a $50 contribution (roughly equal to one foot of well deepened,) Paul is offering a 16x20 lithograph of either "Approaching Rain" or "After the Rain."  For a $75 contribution, a person can choose one of three 18x24 lithographs:  "Swedish Homestead," "Autumn Afternoon," and "Approach to Reedley."  The lithographs are signed and numbered, wrapped in acetate and backed with museum-quality board, ready for framing.  (For a large view of Paul's paintings, visit www.shinnphoto.com/Paul-Buxman; unfortunately, this blogsite isn't allowing me to insert photos today!)


               We  Can  Help ! ! !  Even us non-farmers ! ! !
    
     Any contribution will be gratefully accepted.  Make your check payable to Will Scott, Jr.  with "Drill for Will" or well fund written in the memo.  Send it to Paul Buxman, Sweet Home Ranch, 4399 Avenue 400, Dinuba CA 93618, and include your name, address and phone number to arrange for pick-up of the lithographs. 


     If you'd like to taste the Buxmans' fruit of their labors, literally, plan on attending their annual Art Show and Holiday Gift Sale, November 27 and 28, featuring Paul's original oil paintings (many new ones this year!), lithographs and art cards, plus farm-crafted foods and gifts from Sweet Home Ranch and neighboring farms.  Enjoy the beauty of the farm, the tastes of home, and visits with neighbors and friends.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Trudy Wischemann is a rural advocate who writes from her adopted home town of Lindsay.  You can send her your ideas to raise money and lower Will's well c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment below.