It was almost a decade ago, but it was a day that Gwen Cooper — and every other American alive on that day — will never forget: September 11, 2001. At the time, Gwen lived near Ground Zero, and it was days before she was allowed to come home. That was awful enough for her, not knowing whether she actually had a home to return to, but the agonizing part was not knowing the fate of her three cats, including Homer, who was blind. Happily, Gwen was finally allowed back into her apartment and found her cats safe, but the trauma of those days has always stuck with her. In fact, it is one of the most gripping parts of her best-selling book, Homer’s Odyssey.
So no wonder the recent devastating tornadoes in the south have resonated with her.
Tuscaloosa County suffered severe devastation, and it is not only humans who are victims. There are many hundreds of lost and injured pets and farm animals that need attention. This is not a petty thing; somewhere out there are humans who have lost everything and could use the comfort of holding their cat close… except they have no idea where she is. Without medical attention, a horse might die and its rotting corpse become a breeding ground for disease. Animals that are lost and hurt are a human problem too.
Sadly, most of the veterinary clinics in Tuscaloosa became victims of the tornadoes too. But there is one that is still open, and right now, its vets are working overtime and then some: Canant Veterinary Hospital. Drs. Canant and Bronold desperately need funds for the medicine and supplies they will need to take care of the pets who are victims of the tornadoes, and they also need money to share with the shelters who are housing the lost and sick.
Gwen has created a ChipIn page for Canant Veterinary Hospital and I hope you will give something. So many of you helped the Japanese animals in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami; can you reach just a little more deeply into your pockets to help the tornado victims here in the U.S.?
I will be running the widget on my blog for the month of May. If you would like to give directly to Canant Veterinary Hospital, the address is:
Canant Veterinary Hospital
1100 Rice Valley Road North
Tuscaloosa, AL 35406
Right now there are humans in Alabama that are wondering if there is any help available for their injured pets, and they would really appreciate your help!
You’re so nice to spread the word about this. We hope they raise lots of green papers.
As residents of ‘Tornado Alley’, we know how devastating those tornadoes can be. Thank you for posting about this – we will be making our mom send a donation. We also wanted to stop by to ask you to please enter our contest – we’re sure you can give Pikku Punapippuri a run for his money!! We know you’re thinking about it, so we hope you can convince your human to post up your best belly photo!
thank you so much for this information, Sparkle. I will see what Mommy can do.
Harlot? What a great name! 🙂
We are sending purrayers for the Humans and the kittehs and woofies too. I’m going to make the Human go over there this week and chip in a little bit!
Thanks for this information Sparkle. We’ve been so worried about the people and animals in the devastated areas and continue to send purrayers to them all.
I made a donation and tweeted about them earlier this week (and made a donation of course). I guess I need to keep tweeting.
We are so sad not just for the human life which lays in devastation but the furry ones as well.
We will do what we can to help.
>^..^^..^^..^^..^^..^<
Abby Ping Jinx Boo Gracie
purrin
xoxox
~ManxMnews
Mummy has read the book about Homer and thought that it was so inspirational! We will have a look at the link and see what we can over if the UK are allowed to chip-in.
Xanthe xxx
I would be very upset if I couldn’t get a hug from the publicist.
I shared this for you Sparkle
Thank you for this post. What is going on in the devastated area in Alabama is awful. I chipped in a little and I hope it will help.
Thanks for letting us know and we will see what we can do Hugs GJ x
Thank you for this information. We really do need to take care of each other and our beautiful four legged friends…that is what this life is about! Homer’s Odyssey is such a great book…I couldn’t put it down!
A great post about terrible loss and need; we send purrs and prayers for all those affected by this horrible tragedy and hope others will also contribute to help them all recover…Wishing you all a happy week ahead, sweet friends…We love you guys…Calle, Halle, Sukki
Sparkle,
Thank you for this post!! I will post it on my blog and tweet it and get it onto facebook!! And I will find that chip in button in just a few seconds!!!
Michele aka MikiHope
http://www.Mikishope.com
MikiHope@Yahoo.com
Thanks for sharing this information, Sparkle. We are so sad and are purring very hard for all the animals and people affected by the terrible storms. We’ll get our mom to donate something.
That is so great, we will head over that way and see if we can help a bit.
Thanks for telling us about this Sparkle – we were watching the news and seeing the widespread devastation – truly awful. We will be purraying for all the animals and their humans and for the vets who must be so very busy. We will do a donation later this week.
Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx
Great post Sparkle.
Sparkle, that sure is a terrific post. We are so glad that you let us know about the Chip-in. We sure hope that most of the animals can be saved. Thanks.
Wonderful post.
pawhugs, Max
Sparkle you have written a very eloquent post. I will pass it on through twitter and facebook.
I love her book, and I will see what I can do for Tornado Victims.
But First thing I will do …Tweet and Feed this news whatever media I have, I guess it might help in some way.
Thanks Sparkle to post this news
xoxo