Weekly Activism Blog

1.This week was the week that me and my community partner were waiting for. Last week Arielle Schwartz (the Animal Safehouse coordinator) and I, put together a plan to transport an animal to her owner who has recently gotten out of a shelter for women fleeing domestic violence. The cat was cupcake, and she belonged to a woman named Cynthia who went into the shelter with her son. The cat was given to Melissa, a woman who agreed to be a volunteer foster for Cynthia until she got out. Unfortunately, Cupcake had originally went to the foster Melissa with another cat, but the cat sadly passed away from liver failure. Last week, when I attempted to pick up Cupcake and transport her from Melissa, the foster, to Cynthia the owner, it didn’t work. Cynthia was not responding to the phone calls, therefore we had to postpone it until Cynthia felt ready. This week, we decided to go ahead with the plans to transport Cupcake again, and it really went down to the wire. I drove to Melissa’s house, and was finally introduced to Cupcake. She was the cutest cat, but she had an open-flesh wound on her neck from biting and scratching it so hard. Melissa showed much distress about the situation, and expressed that she didn’t know what else she could do. As she helped me bring Cupcake, her food and collar to my car, I could see her getting quite emotional having to part with her after being her foster for so long. I then drove Cupcake 45 minutes away to meet up with her owner, who still wasn’t responding to the phone calls. When she finally did, she told me she was picking up her son another 45 minutes away, so I agreed to go ahead and drive Cupcake to her halfway, where we met at a gas station, and they were finally united. It was challenging, because the owner was not exactly cooperating with us, but in the end, it was a success because Arielle and I got her cat to her safe and sound. 

2. People don’t realize the correlation between domestic abuse and domestic violence.  My community partner Arielle is opening my eyes to all of the work that needs to be done out there. Seeing Cynthia’s face and the tears that came to her eyes when I gave her Cupcake made all of the time and energy worth it. It felt like I was putting a piece of the puzzle back into her life, and hopefully she will be able to move forward with her life in a more positive direction than the one she came from.

3. I have never done anything like this before, so this was great for me. I saw the work that some women are doing for other women, and that it’s these little things going on behind the scenes that make a huge difference and like Arielle told me, “It takes an army to do what we do.” I felt really good about what we accomplished and I’m excited about continuing with Animal Safehouse. Next week I am planning on setting up a table in front of Publix to inform people and raise some much needed money for Animal Safehouse!