Posted on 12/01/2017
My dear supporters and friends, what a month November has been... a month of incredible generosity and kindness, but also of unprecedented worsening of the country's situation, and unforeseen problems with the old house that serves as both the shelter for the cats and our home. But as always, the good outweighed the bad.
Hyperinflation is topping 4000% this year, and next year's forecasts double that figure and go beyond. Shortages of basic food and medicine are worse than ever. Last year if you had the money, you could buy what you needed or wanted. Now there's almost nothing to buy at any price, grocery shops are closing for good and at least El Tocuyo is starting to look like a ghost town. We need to hunt for supplies in neighboring towns, and even there there's not much to find. Then, as if the challenge of surviving the day to day in Venezuela wasn't enough, we suffered a short circuit at home that burnt all internal wiring and left us without power for electric light, refrigerator, stove and water pump.
All this sounds very disheartening and terrible, and it would have been, but in the end you, our friends, made it all bearable and helped us to face all the hardships. The very generous donations served for us to be able to buy in bulk all the supplies we've been fortunate enough to find (we have rice, kibble and canned sardines to last us a couple months), and also helped us overcome the electric contingency, paying for a temporary repair that gave us back most of the appliances necessary to make the house habitable. You made possible for us to beat the most dire of circumstances we have yet faced... for us once more to regain a sense of normality at home, and to keep looking after our dear feline family with all our heart.
So a very, very special THANK YOU from the bottom of my soul goes this very special month to Susan, Linda, Darryl, Astrid, Kate, Dawn, Jan and John (and Ernie!), to our always present anonymous supporters, to my invaluable spiritual guides Laurie, Romana, Dennis and Magda, and to the many angels of light that no doubt watch over us from heaven and make sure we always get what we need to keep going. To all of you we owe literally everything.
Please have a very happy Holiday season everyone. I pray that God will shower with an abundance of blessings each and every one of the kind souls that gave us gifts of love and strength throughout this turbulent 2017. I hope to see you all again in 2018!
To end this update in an even sweeter note, I leave you with little Cinnamon, our latest rescue who felt right at home since her first day with us. Such are the little things that make life beautiful no matter the many challenges!