Carol A. Wolfson

An article in the NY Times by Susan Cain that I happily relate to…

“The rise of the New Groupthink”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-the-new-groupthink.html?_r=1

I received the most beautiful and thoughtful new year’s gift from dear friends Aoiffe Downey and James Connaughton: a star named for my beloved Princess. You can view her eternal star with me at: www.starmoniker.com (click on “search our database” and then registration Number: 36562 ).

Wishing you all a joyous, meaningful and healthy 2012.

Congratulations to the Snow Leopard Enterprise for winning the 2011 BBC World Challenge! Below is the announcement made by Snow Leopard Trust’s (based in Seattle), Conservation Commerce Manager, Marissa Niranjan:
 

Dear Friends and Colleagues,
 
We are thrilled to announce that Snow Leopard Enterprises won the 2011 BBC World Challenge! This was only possible because supporters came together from all around the world to cast their votes for the preservation of this rare and beautiful big cat!
 
Your vote ensures the expansion of our flagship program, Snow Leopard Enterprises, within Kyrgyzstan. This will bring more families into this successful conservation program model that benefits people and wildlife alike. Thanks to your vote, millions of people across the globe will be exposed to the beauty of these amazing cats and the conservation needs they face. Because of you, snow leopards will have a safer, brighter future for generations to come.
 
We would not have come so far in the competition without your help. You took action on behalf of the endangered snow leopard, and made this unprecedented accomplishment a reality. Please share this success – the result of your efforts – with your friends and family!  Thank you.
 
From all of us at the Snow Leopard Trust
 
Please share this information on your website, social media sites and with friends, colleagues and supports.  The BBC World Challenge organizers were so excited, they decided to announce early.  Please take a look at Brad, SLT Executive Director and Bayara, SLT Country Program Director – Mongolia and co-founder of Snow Leopard Enterprises as they accept the award!  http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk We cannot thank you enough!!!
 
With Gratitude,
 
Marissa
 
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Marissa B. Niranjan
Conservation Commerce Manager
Snow Leopard Trust
4649 Sunnyside Ave. N. #325
Seattle, WA 98103
Phone: (206)632-2421
Fax: (206)632-3967
www.snowleopard.org

 
And, here is another letter from Marissa about my long involvement with the SLT (Click here to download). She is overly generous in her comments, but  I am proud of this amazing organization and have been thrilled to be a supporter for about 20 years now….if you’d like to learn more about how you can support the SLT, write to me at cawolfson@gmail.com or click on to their website at www.snowleopard.org

All of SCAA’s latest news, plus photos/news/donor thanks for Carol’s 50th bday bash!
 
Click Here to Read!

This is one of the most spot-on, clever restaurant reviews I’ve read in a long time (and as obvious as it is, think of all the starving children in this world…). I went to Charlie Trotter’s once (and only once) in the early 90s and thought that was an extremely obnoxious experience (and left the restuarant quite hungry), but this takes the cake (or in this case, perhaps the “essence” of a cake). I understand the concept of performance art, but not when I’m hungry in a restaurant (and I’d expect front row seats at this price!). By Frank Bruni, in the NYT.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/opinion/bruni-dinner-and-derangement.html

Years ago, I read a poem by Frannie Lindsay in The Atlantic Monthly that made me think someday this would be how I think about my beloved feline soul mate Princess. Princess walked into my life in Beijing in 2000. We were living on the outskirts of the city in a lovely little villa next to large fields. One day I opened the front door and in she limped. She was emaciated and had pus dripping down out of her eyes. I immediately took out some human salmon from the pantry and she ate the entire can. She let me set her on our sofa and I cleaned her eyes. She then jumped into my lap and went to sleep. About an hour later, she woke up and wanted to be let outside, so I opened the door and she walked away.

I hadn’t planned on having any pets at the time as both my husband and I traveled so much; it’s not fair to any animal to leave them for extended amounts of time, even if you have a care giver available. But after Princess walked in our home that summer day, I left the front door open a few inches just in case she wanted to return. She did later that afternoon, with another cat in tow. I was surprised but put out food for two; over the next few months they started coming daily, staying with us for days before heading out to the fields (it was quite safe for them to be outside where we were living as our complex was surrounded by huge open fields with no cars or  pet thieves in the vicinity).

One day about a year and half later, we received a hand-delivered notice in our mailbox explaining that an expat couple knew their two cats were being cared for by someone in the neighborhood and they were grateful but now they were moving and wanted “their” cats returned.  I started shaking with anger, went to visit the people and told them the cats were now mine as they had given up their rights as responsible pet owners.  They finally agreed and this is how I found out that my cats had been market kittens they purchased for their four children; the family traveled a great deal and left the cats with the maids to feed them—which they did not do. They were from the same litter; brother and sister. I named them in Chinese. The boy was “Nangua” or “Pumpkin” to match his Garfield color appearance, and “Nuwang” (which actually means “Empress” in Chinese but she seemed more like a regal Princess to me and indeed for the next 11 years she was one).

As market cats, they likely were bred in a horrific kitten mill, and both were sickly.  Pumpkin had (and still has) digestion problems, and Princess had asthma her entire life. Had they not come and demanded rescue from me that summer day in Beijing, they likely would have died soon after. I found out that they were 1 ½  when we formally became their humans.

And thus started their own expat kitty life of being pampered and moving with us from Beijing to Hong Kong to Shanghai and to their final destination now in Kuala Lumpur.  Many friends have said that in their next life they would like to be cats in our home.

Pumpkin is a great cat but Princess has always been the heart of my heart. She has followed me around like a dog and whatever room I am in, she has been at my side. In bad times she has been my solace. Every day of her life she has been my greatest joy. I’ve wanted to kill her when she woke me up  daily with that little kitty slap to my face at 5am, demanding her favorite kitty treat of dried Alaskan King salmon (tough life). I planned my daily schedule around our rituals together. As she grew older, I curtailed my travel so that I could spend more time with her.

I tended to ignore them both a great deal when I started Second Chance Animal Aid in Shanghai in 2005 as other kitties in great need of constant medical attention were temporarily triaged in our spare bedrooms. When we moved to KL at the end of 2007, one of my main goals was to devote my time to be with them both, but most of all to have quality time with my Princess. We chose the apartment we are living in specifically because it’s safe for them and because there are huge garden balconies that are both safe and where they can still pretend they are stealthy hunter lions in the bushes/grass we’ve planted.

In May 2011,  husband and I went to the Maldives as part of my pre-50^th celebration. It was magical and utterly special (see review in earlier article below).  However, when we returned, I noticed my Princess was very thin, out of the blue. Other than her asthma (for which she’s been treated with a kitty inhaler), she has always been healthy (with good yearly blood test results). I had heard of an excellent vet hospital here in KL, so I took my precious thin baby to see them and they immediately knew something was very wrong with her. On that day, 2 June, with an x-ray and ultrasound, they found a huge mass enveloping her intestines. Surgery was scheduled for 6 June. I cried that entire weekend but was hopeful that surgery would do the trick and we’d have many more years to together.

The mass turned out to be a malignant tumor and there was no way to know if the cancer had spread or not. She mended fast from the surgery but then fell ill with a viral infection; she had a hard time breathing/smelling so we had force feed her. She had to stay at the hospital for several days which filled her with terror (all those other sick doggies and kitties making so much noise…). I visited her daily for 10 hours/day, cuddling her while she lay in her cage.  I was able to bring her home after 5 days as the vets could see that after taking care of so many SCAA sick kitties, I’d have no problem giving Princess her meds, do the force feeding and provide proper care.

At first I was taking life one day at a time with her…but more than once she rebounded and was able to eat on her own, play in the grass, scratch her cardboard post, be brushed and purr loudly, sleep at my side and in her favorite bed, etc. I felt like I could breathe again and thought I could start thinking about life perhaps one week at a time. However, after 2 ½ months, her condition started to deteriorate and it was back to taking one day at a time. She started slowing down, getting weaker each day and yet I could see that she still wanted to live and she loved it when I would take her outside and put her in her bushes for an hour or two to rest with a breeze waving over her. We had to start force feeding her again and I hated doing it, but she needed the nutrition to survive (she had gone from 4.5 kilo before the operation to less than 2.5 kilo).  Between feedings, she would rest at my feet or on the floor in her favorite spots near me. I was carrying her from room to room with me so we could always be together, just like always.

I was hoping that she might be healing, even as weak as she was. I had always dreamed we’d have many more years together in this fabulous apartment but now I was just hoping for many more days with her. And she hung on for almost three months after her massive surgery.

My 50^th birthday was yesterday.  My girlfriend Mary (in Chicago) and I started planning my 3-day party about three years ago and now the time was here. I was glad the festivities ended up being in KL as if elsewhere I would have cancelled them because I would never leave the side of my sick girl. And it was hard to look forward to these parties now, knowing she was so weak and I would be spending precious time with human friends when I really only wanted to be with her.  But good friends, who know me and understand my bond with Princess (and who love animals themselves) were flying in so between moments with them, I was running into my bedroom where Princess was spending more and more time resting and sleeping.

My actual birthday party was last night at a fabulous venue.  I said good-bye to my baby about 6:45pm. She was resting quietly in her bed. I thought she would be fine for a few hours alone. I asked my adopted daughter and our maid to return at 10pm to our home to check on her and perhaps give her a late night feeding if she was strong enough.  Soon after, my husband received a phone call saying that Princess was likely dying and they asked him if I should be told….and then I was home, bending over her with my lips kissing her face and entire little bundle-of-bones body.  Apparently, when she saw my daughter, she got up from her bed, walked over to the litter box like the lady that she is and then she went back to her bed, settled in, and her breathing started to go more and more shallow….my daughter and our devoted maid (who has loved and cared for both cats for almost four years now) kept petting her and cooing to her. I came home just in time to feel her last breath and kiss her good-bye.  My girlfriend Caroline, who flew in from Hong Kong, lit candles around the room and everyone left me to be alone with Princess. I stayed up all night just holding and caressing her and saying farewell. Could anyone ask for a more peaceful death?

At one point I called to my husband and he came in with whiskey to fortify me and we talked about the fact that my Princess was a Princess to the end. Indeed, if she was going to die it certainly needed to be memorable, and dying on my birthday, during the actual party (and a very expensive one at that), certainly will now be cemented in my brain and  heart forever. I loved the dress I had worn for this party as I wore it first for my 30^th , then my 40^th and now my 50^th.  And, it  has now became her cremation shroud. I laughed and thought “Indeed…happy birthday to me”.  And then I cried some more.

I am not even sure I’m in shock yet as tonight is a party for 100 people at our home. It’s both a birthday party and a fundraiser for SCAA. Luckily I have wonderful friends and family with me who are organizing the entire event and have given me the space to reflect, write this missive and lie down (although I’m afraid if I lie down, I’ll just think of Princess…better to stay busy and start to mourn when my supportive visitors are gone and I can fall apart in private).

I want to thank you all for your support and your prayers in the last three months.  It has meant the world to me. I don’t know how my life will go on without my Princess, but of course it will. And I have precious memories of a life that filled mine with joy and love.  And now, this poem that although about a dog, has always made me think about my Princess and the someday that is now:

Now
I read to my dog  from a takeout menu
so he can sleep. When he tires
of that, I talk to him
about nothing, and when I run out
of things to say, I make up words
to a song with whatever
array of notes and breath streams in
the way the clean wind did
as we rode once, and
I rolled down the window a hair
and he sat up without effort, glossy nose
in the speeding weather, eyes half closed
in the light that whizzed through his fur
like the hands of a friend
who had missed him.

-Frannie Lindsay

Princess’s final few months

Below are my TripAdvisor reviews of our hotels/trip to Colombo (Hotel: Casa Colombo) and the Maldives (Hotel:  Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa; we had the most amazing time at the Park Hyatt Maldives and I want to once again thank all of our Hyatt friends throughout Asia who have been so generously supportive of SCAA since its establishment in 2005.)

“Fabulous, Eclectic Boutique Hotel”
Casa Colombo

Click Here to Read!

“Magical, Cathartic, Romantic, Heaven…”
Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa

Click Here to Read

I’ve always wanted to go to the Maldives, while they still exist.  Two articles about the plight and actions the Maldivian Government is taking to protect their fragile and pristine eco-sytems:

Maldives Cabinet Makes a Splash

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8311838.stm

Maldives Bans Fishing of Sharks

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/asia/10iht-shark.html