Day: August 28, 2018

Sakler Moon has been accepted to the prestigious Albany Academy.

Ali and I and his mother and elementary teacher met with the school’s financial aid and admissions head for several hours in Albany this morning.

Today, I’m launching the Sakler Moo  Education Fund. I am committed, along with Ali and his family to supporting this very gifted young man and helping him get through this highly regarded private school.

Admission to the Albany Academy (founded in 1813) is a game changer for Sakler, who was born in the jungles of Thailand while fleeing with his family to Burma and a United Nations  Refugee Camp  to escape a brutal civil war.

I’m opening a separate bank account over the next two weeks and am accepting donations and contributions from the outside world. You can contribute by writing a check to me, Jon Katz c/o Post Office Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected]. Please mark all checks and payments: The Sakler Moo Education Fund.

We need $6,000 a year for four years to supplement the scholarship the school gave Sakler, a 14-year-old refugee from Thailand who had the highest honors of any student in his middle school, from which he just  graduated.

His mother Lae Pwy, who is very eager for Sakler to attend the academy, one of the best private schools in the country, signed a contract to pay $2,000 a year to the school if she can, I  committed to paying $6,000 this year and $5,000 in the three subsequent years until Sakler graduates.

I also paid $375 to pay for the school’s lunch plan. All told, I wrote checks for $3,375 today. And I need $3,000 additional dollars for this coming year.  I might also need to help Sakler’s mother with her payments. She is very anxious about being able to meet them.

It is a pleasure and an honor to help this remarkable person get the education he needs and has worked so hard for. Talk about doing good.

Lae Pwy is hoping to pay the money from her tax returns expected in the Spring. The family’s only income comes from Sakler’s father, who works at a local Wal-Mart stacking shelves. The family has no extra funds.

I assured Lae Pwy that if she had trouble, we would help her.

Sakler’s elementary ESL (English as a second language) teacher Caroline Espinoza was also present, she was one of the first people to spot Sakler’s intelligence and intellectual gifts, she has been supporting his schoolwork and  ambitions ever since he was her student in the fifth grade. She is a remarkably dedicated and committed teacher.

She translated the contract talk with Lae Pwy and helped calm her, she made sure she understood what was happening.

We talked for a long time. Bramble explained registration, the school’s uniforms, advisor programs and policies, and we went over the payment structure for all of us. Caroline, who has strongly supported Sakler ever since she met him, wanted to pay for part of his tuition, but I discouraged her, she lives on a school teacher’s salary with two small children.

I chose a monthly payment plan option just in case, but I am hopeful I can pay my share quickly and early each year, and not spread out any payments.

I’m concerned about Lae Pwy, she very much wants Sakler to go to the Albany Academy, but $2,000 a year is an enormous sum for her to raise, especially in a family of four whose only income is a minimum wage job. I told her not to  feel great pressure, she should do what she can.

Let us  handle it if you stumble, I said, the Army of Good is pretty powerful. Afterwards, I took all of these good people out to lunch to celebrate, it was the first time Lae Pwy had ever eaten in a restaurant. She told me she was very grateful.

I was much drawn to this good and shy woman, she wants me to come to dinner at her house.

Sakler, who is not demonstrative or emotional, was clearly excited. His life has just changed and he knows it.

This is a remarkable thing to happen for this family, It was Ali’s idea, and the rest of us embraced it.  We wanted to sponsor another member of the soccer team, but I said it just seemed too much to me to commit to supporting two different students through four years of private school.

Life in America is hard for the refugees, especially now, this will be a great inspiration for them and for their children.

I have never seen Ali so happy, one of his soccer team children is leaving the team to set out in the new world of this very well-known private academy. This is just what he has been working so hard to achieve for his player.

I know how much Ali will miss him, he and Sakler have always been close.

Salker has come a long way from the jungle in Thailand where he was born.

I told school officials I wanted to follow Sakler on  his journey through the Albany Academy, take pictures and write his story. They said they would be delighted.

I’ll be writing about this regularly,  we were all near tears today. I know what that family has been through, this is a proud and important moment, Sakler is living out the American dream. The school has a wonderful reputation, the atmosphere was impressive.

And yes, I will be fund-raising for Sakler. We are already more than half way there for this year.

So we need some help. If you want to help, you can contribute to Sakler’s education by sending  a check to my refugee fund (soon I’ll open a separate fund account for Sakler, I have to file some papers) c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected]. (Please mark the checks or payments “For Sakler Moo.”)

I’ll first pay off the money I owe for this year, $3,000 and start saving the $5,000 I will need in each of four future years, possibly more of Lae Pwy has trouble. I am fully committed to helping Sakler Moo get this very high quality education, he is the American Dream.

Please mark all money or payments for Sakler “The Sakler Moo Education Fund,” or just “Sakler Moo.”

And thanks, the donations have already begun to come in.

It is hard to imagine a more complex and painful dog story than Evie, the mixed breed Chihuahua I wrote about yesterday.

She illustrates almost all of the many complexities and choices facing people who rescue dogs and other animals and people who brings these dogs and cats into their lives.

Evie was pulled from a notoriously negligent shelter by the Friends Of Homeless Animals/RI, a rescue group I support and work with and am getting my next dog from. I find them to be loving, dedicated, honest, and empathetic, both to people and to dogs.

Evie has somehow worked her way into my head, and sometimes haunts me. Maybe it’s those eyes.

My first thought when I read about Evie, who suffers from heart disease, a hernia and heartworm was that she would be a hard sell. She has months of medical treatment ahead of her and it isn’t completely certain she will survive all of it.

The group rescued her because its very good-hearted members learned she has never known a human who treated her with love, and they feel she deserved this chance.

My friend Carol Johnson told me that Evie would be the hardest dog on FOHA’s roster of adoptable dogs because of her medical issues. Today, Evie was spayed and underwent surgery for her hernia. She is getting better.

I am happy to write about Evie and I hope  that she will get the love she deserves so late in life and after so much suffering. She already looks vastly better than she did a couple of weeks ago. I am no God, it is not for me to say if she be kept alive while so many healthier and younger dogs die.

In general, I believe it is morally questionable to keep sick dogs alive beyond their natural lives, and if they are suffering. But morality is a general thing, you can’t wrap it around every single thing.

People have to make up their own minds about questions like this, I don’t tell other people what to do, I just try to be honest about what I do.

I don’t think I would adopt a dog like Evie, I’m not sure which is more merciful, keeping her alive for treatment after treatment, or letting her die in peace and comfort. That’s the fascinating thing about dog rescue, it challenges us to feel and think and make decisions.

I am not one of those people who sees the world in black and white, I have many more questions than answers, I do not fit into most labels, I could not survive in the left or the right.

And obviously, I have no trouble publicizing her plight and hoping someone out there takes pity on her. I would love to write she is finally getting to experience the love of a human, she could have four or five years left to live. This suggests that I am torn, and of course, I am.

The good news is that Carol Johnson told me today that a number of people have contacted her to ask about Evie, and others had offered to make  donations on her behalf. That made me feel good. Carol’s email is [email protected], or [email protected]. My reservations ahead, it would feel good to know somebody wanted to love her.

Evie has prompted me to write a series of pieces about animal rescue, and the posts have sparked a substantial and interesting and thoughtful response.  I got about 100 messages. Since my piece was not meant to be critical of animal rescue, most people didn’t take it that way, and the comments were especially thoughtful and interesting.

Some people thought I wasn’t effusive enough:

“For whatever the reason, I didn’t feel quite good after reading it,” wrote Laura of my post, she is one of my blog readers. “You didn’t mention kitties and cats. They are extremely important to the lives of those who work, don’t have children, are infirm and unable to leave the house. Not forgetting to mention autistic children who identify with some cats with neurological problems they can identify with.
…We in rescue spay and neuter to the best of our ability. Finding homes for them is rewarding to get them off the streets where cruelty abounds!…
After texting this, I do feel good!”

I appreciate the post, it did make me think, it was both polite and interesting.

It also affirmed some of my reservations about the rescue movement. I told Laura that it isn’t my job to make her feel good, but to hopefully make her think. Sounds like I succeeded.

Writing only long lists of good things is not especially thoughtful to me, and I’m not a substitute for vallum. I have rescued countless animals in my life and don’t really need a lecture about how much good rescuing them does. I live with the good it does every day, it is lying at my feet and sleeping next to my bed.

But any institution that sees itself as beyond criticism, or believes it can only be praised, and never enough, risks self-righteousness and disconnection from ordinary people. And needs to be thought about.  Animal rescue is a complicate and emotional  experience. It is good to think about.

The fact that rescue does  good does not mean that it can never do wrong, or go astray.

I always feel I need to remind myself that I am in no way superior to other people, and that I must never hate people who think differently than I do, which is the vast majority of the human species.

I believe this need for humility is also true of me. I try to do good all the time, I  often end up doing wrong. I am human.

So Evie has gotten herself into my head, and calls out to me.

She brings focus to my mixed and confusing thoughts about rescue,  its amazing accomplishments, its excesses, it’s philosophical and ethical dilemmas, the new way of understanding animals in our world. If it is good, it is also hard.

I do know this: I would love to see Evie get adopted, I would love to see find some human love at the end of a very hard life. I would love to know she has found comfort and safety. I want to know if this seemingly unadoptable dog can be adopted.

I did think of doing it myself, but I just could not.

Audio: Evie, Continued.

I seem to have a new friend Zelda, she seemed to take a keen interest in me yesterday when I went out to the pasture naked to take some sunrise photos in the mist.

Today, I was fully dressed, but she still was following me around and nuzzling me, and posing for a close-up. Is this a real relationship, is it true love or just a momentary infatuation?

Will Zelda love me with clothes on, or just when I am naked? Is there a future for us?