The move happened Saturday. We are here.
Two bedrooms on five wooded acres outside Eugene. Boots has the second bedroom to herself, which was the whole reason this particular place mattered. Sable and Cosimo have the rest.
How they are doing, honestly: adjusting. Two nights in is early. There has been a lot of cautious perimeter-checking, some hiding, and the general suspicion cats reserve for a world that rearranged itself without consulting them. That is normal and expected. Cats orient by scent and territory.
Boots is the one I am watching most. She spent years outside, then months in one room recovering from having nineteen teeth removed, and now a new room in a new building. She is eating, which matters more than anything else. I am working on making her space feel like hers rather than like somewhere she was put: her own bedding, her window, the cat tree someone anonymously sent us months ago, which made the trip and is already in use.
Sable and Cosimo have each other, which is doing most of the work for them.
Where things stand financially
Saturday is paid. That happened because of this community and because one person gave $1,900 last week. We are at $4,157 of $10,000.
What is still ahead:
November 1: $1,590 rent
November 15: $795, second half of the deposit
December 1: $1,590 rent
January 15: $400 pet deposit
Plus the setup costs of moving out of a shared household into an empty apartment. Almost nothing came with me. Furniture, kitchen basics, separate litter and feeding stations in two rooms so Boots keeps her own space. That is the part I am working through this week.
On the income side: I have interviews and follow-ups actively in motion, including a remote community role I have already interviewed for and am waiting to hear back on. Nothing signed yet. I am chasing several things at once rather than waiting on any one of them, and I will say so here the moment something lands.
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/5afebfc71
Venmo: https://www.venmo.com/u/Jehoseph
PayPal: https://paypal.me/TheDivines
If you have given already, a share is worth more than another donation. Twenty two people got us here. Your networks are people I cannot reach. Send it to one person who likes cats.
And if you are local to Eugene with furniture you are storing and no longer want, I would be grateful. A bed especially, for the second bedroom where Boots spends her time. A table, chairs, a dresser. If it has been sitting in a garage waiting for a purpose, this is one. Message me and I will arrange pickup.
For anyone new. Boots is 10, found starving outside in our neighborhood in late June at 6.7 pounds, crying out and backing away from her own food because eating hurt that badly. Nineteen teeth extracted on July 21. Her surgeon said it was likely the worst oral pain a cat can experience and her tissue was too damaged to hold sutures. That surgery was about $3,450 and this subreddit helped pay for it. She is 8.26 pounds now, her bloodwork is normal, and she eats dry food again.
Sable is our young tortoiseshell, an emergency foster from May after being abandoned. Cosimo is a four month old kitten, neuter scheduled for November. Those two are bonded and will not be separated.
Her complete veterinary file from Echo Hollow Vet Hospital and Urgent Care in Eugene is available to anyone who asks. I completed full moderator verification here in July.
Thank you. Three months ago one of these cats could not eat. On Saturday she rode to a house in the woods.
