Friends, I was given the wrong e-mail address for the owner of the independent living facility in Virginia that is ordering residents not to feed a feral cat they’ve been caring for years, to destroy their gardens or make them uniform with every other garden, and to remove all bird feeders, even seedless hummingbird feeders. The correct address is [email protected].

My friend Cynthia Daniello, a blogger, writer and leader of the Joshua’s Dream Resistance in Bedford, Va., suggested I write a letter to Joseph Moore,  who is the head of Metropolitan Properties, the owner of the facility, in Washington, North Carolina. She hopes others will do the same: [email protected]. 

Yesterday, I  was asked to persuade her to drop her campaign to stop the banning of the individual gardens and the feeders, and I said I would only ask her to do that if the bans were temporarily halted in exchange for a real dialogue. So far, the management has refused to budge.

The residents are more than willing to talk and negotiate, but the company’s idea of negotiation is to ram arbitrary and bureaucrat regulations down their throats with little warning.

Yesterday, Cynthia sent the head of the company a letter:

The address I gave was [email protected], the correct address seems to be [email protected]. Letters to the latter address seem to be going through.

“The inspections” of the 50 residences on the property are scheduled to begin this week, and some of the residents – terrified of being forced out of their homes if they fail to comply – are already tearing up their much-loved gardens, and taking down the bird feeders they have had for years.

The residence management seems to determined to bully its way through these cruel and oppressive regulations foisted on people who are vulnerable and afraid.

Many of these residents are devastated at the loss of their individual gardens, and the creative opportunity offered. And they much-loved the birds they fed year after year, they even gave some of them names. “This year,” said one, “they won’t know where to go.”

Most are afraid to speak out. Cynthia is not afraid of anything that I know of.

If you are so inclined, please feel free to email Mr. Joseph Moore, [email protected].

This is not fair or compassionate. No one at the residence is known to have ever been harmed by a small garden or a bird feeder. Living things to watch and care for are essential to the elderly, who have lost most of the living things in their lives, from spouses to friends to pets.

They should not subject to additional loss from the people they depend on for safety and security.