As you know, my human often takes a few photos of me for my therapy cat blog posts. In fact, we try to get to our locations a few minutes early so we can get it out of the way. The other day, when I visited the boys’ homes, she took a bunch of photos, thinking that none of them were going to turn out well. Well… nearly all of them were exceptionally good! In fact, you can see all but two of them below. (And the two that aren’t included aren’t even bad, they just were not that good.)
I hope you enjoy my portraits (no hidden messages this time). And if you make it to the end, I’ll explain a little bit about why my human thinks it’s important I visit teens who are going through a rough spot.
Now, here is why we think our visits to the boys’ homes are important, even when they are a little bit disappointing. I’ll begin by showing you an Instagram post by Beth Stern, Howard Stern’s wife. She is a big cat rescuer, and a recent news item inspired her to come all the way from New York out to the West Coast to pick up a kitty.
The print on the item is probably a little small for you, so I’ll recap. (You may have even heard of this story). A 34-year-old man was arrested after extreme cruelty to a kitten. He put her in the freezer, squeezed her until she cried in pain and threw her off a second story balcony. The police found he also had an outstanding warrant, so he’d been in some other sort of trouble too. When Beth heard the story, she was so moved that as soon as the kitten was well enough, she wanted to foster her.
My human saw the other side of the story — the horrible man who tortured the kitten. And she knows that any of the boys we see could turn into that man, a decade or two in the future, if the circumstances don’t work in their favor. That’s why she thinks it’s especially important for them to interact with a cat. She feels that bringing me around to see these boys may not necessarily save them, but it might make them less likely to be cruel to kitties someday.
I do want you to know that the kitten who was rescued, Olive, is thriving now. Here is a recent photo of her from Beth Stern’s Instagram.
2022 Somali Cat Calendar Starring Summer Samba
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So glad Olive is thriving. It’s great you and your human reach out to inform others about wonderful we cats are.
Bodacious
Hello Summer and human. It’s been a while due to visiting my mum but I could not sleep and this post caught my eye as I looked around my buddies. Your Human is very compassionate and sees beyond the surface, thank her for that won’t you, it lets you have fun and changes worlds.
Love to you and Binga and Boodie and Human.
Marjorie
That poor kitty! I hope your visits to troubled youngsters help give them empathy for animals.
Your photos are glorious! Summer you are just the most beautiful cat! And My human gets so very angry when she reads about animal abusers. All we can say is that we are overjoyed that Olivia has a loving home!
Purrs
Marv
Your photos are always fabulous. We’re glad that Olive is safe and loved.
The Florida Furkids
You take great photos Summer. So sad what happened to that poor kitty.
We are glad Olive is doing so well now.
We think it’s awesome that you and your human do therapy visits at those boys’ homes. We bet it will make a huge impact for some of them.
Thank you for sharing this, Summer. Our mom had a similar thought about these boys when she read about your visit. Olive is a real beauty, and we are so happy she is getting a second chance. XOCK, angel Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, angel Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth, Calista Jo, Cooper Murphy and Sawyer
We can’t even read stories like that anymore. There were several similar stories this past week in the NY Daily News which we skipped over. Male humans are so cruel—except my Pop and a few others in Blogville. Beth Stern is amazing and TW always liked Howard and knew he had a soft side.
An awful awful man. So glad the kitty is thriving.
Hey Summer, you have such an elegant face.
Sometimes your human is pretty smart, Summer. Humans don’t seem to appreciate things they haven’t experienced themselves, so hopefully those boys meeting you will be the experience they need so that they will grow up to think cats are cool and not something to be cruel to. High paw to you for visiting them and making that possible!
Your human is right, Summer. You never know who you might influence . It’s important to remember that some of those troubled boys could still have good hearts but had bad parents; those boys also need reminding that there is kindness in the world given freely to dependents such as pets and children.
the critters in the cottage xo
Summer, your human has such a good heart! You are both making a difference in so many ways. Olive is so beautiful. Thank goodness she survived such horrors.
It is a wise cat that doesn’t forget all sides. Abusers of our fellow creatures will also abuse their own kind and vice versa. Help kids and adults appreciate life and living is so very important, and your work helps that so much. I doubt you could put a value on you and others do in that regard. Small acts of kindness and being human (a much over used and under applied phrase in my opinion) create ripples that can change nations.
Toodle pips and purrs
ERin
You are lovely as always. And we are thankful you are out there being a positive influence
Actually, I want to thank the person who reported the man, who was torturing that kitten! THAT is where our society fails, too often. Kids need to be around animals, to learn empathy and nurturing skills. Not everyone has to love dogs or cats or guinea pigs, but you don’t have to mistreat them. Summer, you are a living doll…has anyone said that to you before?
Oh that sweet dear kitten – what horrible terrors she went through! I hope that bad manmonster is locked up for good! Thank goodness for those that came to the kittens rescue! Summer, I sure hope that by introducing goodness in the form of you and other anipals to wayward youngsters that they learn compassion and appreciation for all creatures great and small. Kisses for all you do.
Thank goodness little Olive was rescued and is safe now. I have no words for that awful “man.” Humans like that sicken me. MOUSES!
Empathy – hardest thing in the world to teach…
I don’t think you can take a bad picture! You’re always beautiful!
This gave us leaky eyes. Lexy, pass me a tissue, please. Summer, you are so right about those boys. We hear our mom talk about early intervention and teaching compassion at a young age. You and your human are doing such a great thing by visiting those teens and teaching them kindness.
Summer, you look fabulous in all your photos and mom could not look at nor read that story because she is unable to get the scenes out of her mind’s eye. However, she read what you said and what the commenters said so we have the idea. You are absolutely right. I never in the world thought of that as a great reason to visit those homes. You are so right! Maybe it will make a difference. I hope with all my heart to does and again for the hundredth time…thanks to the both of you.
Summer every day is a photogenic day for you….
Thank you for sharing Olive’s story and many blessings and hugs to Beth and Howard for loving and nurturing her and letting her know there are kind humans. We agree with your human’s thoughts on visiting boys homes too
Hugs madi and mom
Those photos are lovely. It’s so heart warming to know that beautiful innocent creature was rescued, and is loved. And we agree, positive feline interactions are very important, especially among that demographic.
You are always photogenic Summer. I can’t read about the abuse, it upsets me too much. I am glad Mrs. Stern did something to help though.
You’re always so photogenic, Summer. We agree with your human, if you can help one of those boys then visiting them is a success. 🙂
beautiful photos and a sad story.
I always think positive things come from supervised animal human interactions. I say supervised because sometimes you do need to protect the animals, teach others how they should/shouldn’t be treated, and intervene in cases where some are not capable of understanding the damage they do.
We used to bring Bailey to visit my grandmother at the nursing home and while he was there he had a roster of people he visited. I had no idea who, but he always knew he he should approach and who preferred not to be greeted by him. On the days I wasn’t able to bring him, people I didn’t even recognize would approach me asking me where their friend was and why I’d not brought him to visit them. He played an important role in their lives even if I had no idea who they were. I often regretted I wasn’t in a position to train him as a therapy dog as I think he’d have been ideal to work with adults or children.
I do think when children have positive, healthy experiences with animals they do see them as live real creatures and not objects to use in anger. This is a wonderful project.
You and Summer do such wonderful work with the therapy cat visits……and you really sometimes never know WHO and HOW you have touched someone. Hopefully by getting to know the gentle nature of cats, those boys would never dream of hurting one. In the meantime, SOOOOOOOOO happy to hear Olive has a forever home after all the hideous torture she endured. We do love happy endings!
Love, Teddy and Mom Pam
You look absolutely wonderful Summer! We are so happy Olive is safe and happy now. Humans who are cruel to animals need to be eliminated.
That poor kitty 🙁
So glad she was rescued and we hope she finds a loving forever home really soon!
Purrs xx
Athena and Marie
Hopefully these kids you see, will not become the hateful cruel adults.
Hopefully you are reaching some of these troubled teens so they don’t become cruel adults.