Even though my own service helping out seniors has been keeping me fairly busy, I haven’t given up on my desire to continue with my volunteer work with Helping Hands, a wonderful organization worthy of so much praise for all they do for so many. I typically devote at least 3-10 hours a week to their cause. They serve over 720 seniors in the greater Foothills area of Yuma and their volunteer numbers fall off drastically during summer since many who volunteer are seniors themselves, winter visitors who fly the coop so to speak during the heat. Consequently, they can really use the help.
Yesterday I had a light client day so was cleaning the RV when I got an emergency call asking me to quickly help out an elderly lady whose air conditioning had failed. I needed to pick her up from her home, transport her to an assisted living facility, whereby she would be taken by someone else half way to San Diego where her daughter would pick her up from there. Over her protests that it shamed her to have to ask for such help, I reminded her that Helping Hands is there for instances such as this and that we were glad we could be of service to her. With our heat index now hovering daily at over 115 degrees, it wouldn’t take long to put a senior such as herself in dire straits inside a dwelling with no air conditioning!
On another note, Marc and I were asked by our daughter this week to take in her errant former cat. Through the recent divorce and Rachael’s subsequent move to a rental which would not allow pets, she thought her former husband would be able to keep Derby until her situation improved. Unfortunately, he too found it necessary to move into a place where pets weren’t allowed so he gave the cat to some friends. Derby was chipped as a kitten so when she escaped last week and was found wandering the busy highway in Troutdale, Oregon and turned in to the animal shelter by a Good Samaritan, it was my daughter they called. Distraught and horrified, Rachael asked if we could possibly consider taking her in so they wouldn’t have to turn her in to the animal shelter.
Now understand, Derby is a one person cat with an attitude, so this is no light request. She is nothing at all like what I would want for my own pet and we certainly weren’t looking to add a buddy to our lovable hunk of mellow yellow, our golden boy Tucker.
But with a daughter in meltdown over Derby’s real possibility of euthanasia, what’s a parent to do?
Marc will be returning with a new pal—one who so far is so ungrateful as to only hiss at him. Rachael brought her over to Bend and is trying hard to ease the transition for a cat who has obviously suffered major trauma in the past few weeks and months. I wonder what my golden boy is going to think when she walks in. Maybe she will provide interest for him to change from his now-normal summertime posture:
I nearly feel like a grandparent must when asked to babysit the grandkids when they had other plans. Do you do it or not? I told my daughter she’s going to owe me for this but we can’t stand the fact of beautiful Derby not having a chance at life. Tucker, did I tell you you’re going to have a new baby sister? Rescuing seniors and cats--that's me!
