How To Help My Ferals During Hurricane Irma

[maggiedemi]

That's terrible. So they broke into the hotel room? How many of your cats were in there? I'm so glad none of them escaped. That's great that all your ferals survived though, we were worried.

 

[surya]

You gotta train those cats to jump the burglars. I am sorry to hear about the burglary and the stress it is causing your little girl. Karma will come around for the burglars. I am glad your cats and their new houses faired well. We were rooting for you and the cats.

 

[lavishsqualor]

I only had my two cats, Atticus and Thirteen, in the room.

The thing about the room is that my partner is 100% certain that he pulled the door shut when we left. Management however claims that he failed to actually shut it all the way since there was no forced entry. We'll never know what really happened but my partner doesn't tend to make many errors . . . and if he says he pulled that door shut then I absolutely believe him. To add insult to injury it took me two hours to get my DL replaced today. But the picture is much better than the previous one so there's a silver lining.

 

[lavishsqualor]

You gotta train those cats to jump the burglars. I am sorry to hear about the burglary and the stress it is causing your little girl. Karma will come around for the burglars. I am glad your cats and their new houses faired well. We were rooting for you and the cats.

That's what my partner said. If we'd had Pit Bulls in the room we'd still have our stuff. Even so, I think I'd rather have no stuff and my cats.

My daughter kept worrying that the thieves had hurt Atticus and Thirteen or scared them. I guess I need to work on their Attack Training.

 

[maggiedemi]

Good boys for staying there and not running off. My two cats would have been long gone...

 

[orange&white]

At the end of the day, I still believe that the vast majority of humans are decent, honest people who just want to live as happily and peacefully as possible; people willing to help each other out of a crisis.

The criminal element is a tiny minority of people. For them, I'm comfortable with the thought of breaking their knees and cutting off their hands. Most people who haven't been burglarized don't share my residual feelings.

 

[Norachan]

I'm so glad to hear that you and your cats are all OK.



I've been worried about you. We got hit by a typhoon on Sunday. Nowhere near as powerful as Irma, but it brought a load of trees down and the sound of the wind kept me awake all night.

How awful that some people take advantage of others at times like this and steal things. It's easy enough for an experienced thief to get into a locked room and not leave any sign of having forced their way in. I'm sure your partner did close the door behind him. Makes me wonder if the hotel management were somehow involved......

Anyway, it was only stuff and stuff can be replaced. The main thing is that you and your family, four legged and two legged, are all OK.

I hope your daughter will get over this. My home was burgled when I was about her age. They took my purse with the pocket money I had been saving in it. Only about 80 pence, but I was devastated. My dad explained that some people don't do well at school and so can't get a good job and that is why they have to steal from others. A very simplified explanation, but it struck a chord with me. I remember thinking then that I should be a teacher when I grew up, so I could help people get a better education so they wouldn't have to steal.

Give your daughter a hug from me, I hope that she can get something positive from this experience.

 

[daisyd]

I'm happy to report that my ferals came through Irma unscathed, as did their newly built shelters. I'm back on a regular feeding schedule and everything looks really good.

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update, but Irma did a number on my family. I actually thought that because I live downtown where most of the lines are underground that we would fare quite well and that our lights would be back on shortly. They've never been off for more than a few hours since we bought the condo back in 2004. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. When we were given an estimate of five days I started looking for a hotel room. The only place I could find one was not the sort of place I would normally seek accommodations but they had power and vacancy and I considered myself lucky to get it because absolutely everything in Orlando and the surrounding area had been sold out.

That first night, after we got the cats situated in the room, my partner, daughter and I left to go walk around downtown to check out the storm damage. When we got back, our door was standing open and one of my cats was sitting in the hallway! Someone came into our room while we were gone and took my wallet, my phone and both our laptops. They also took my daughter's backpack, along with the key fob for my car. My wallet had my driver's license in it, my debit and credit cards, and my social security card.

Naturally, there were no cameras in the hallways.

We stayed there until Friday when our lights came back on but you can't imagine how glad we were to get out of there.

Normally, I'm able to give these kinds of things up to the universe and just believe that the person who took whatever from me needed it more than I do. The difference here though is that the event absolutely terrified my six-year-old daughter. The hurricane didn't phase her but the idea of people coming into our room and taking things has spawned nightmares and a whole lot of insecurity. That really REALLY irritates me. She can't seem to get over it so she's going to start counseling next week.

I think of myself as a nice, even-tempered guy. But when people mess with my family all bets are off. What if Thirteen, my cat that was in the hallway, had run off?? Each time I think of it I get madder and madder.

Anyway, I'm assuming that all members who were in the path of Irma are present and accounted for?

Glad you are ok !! However that is truely nasty what happened ! you and your family were going through enough let alone this happening ! Things can be replaced however your little girl has now had to learn early than I suspect you wanted that some people are not very nice . And poor cat ! Thank god thirteen just sat there . X

 

[surya]

Atticus and Thirteen were smart enough to play it cool, they probably just said take what you want, we don't want any trouble here. When I was a kid, my cousin who was visiting for the summer stole from me. That really bothered me a lot. She was just a messed up kid. Maybe the person who stole from you was an employee who had a key.

 

[kittychick]

So happy to hear you all made it through - including the ferals! So sorry it still ended up being a traumatic event (we just had our bikes stolen out of our garage this weekend - and even though that's WAY less than what you lost and were put through emotionally - - it still creeped me out!!).

Again - SO glad everyone made it through!

 

[Sarthur2]

Thank goodness you and your family and cats are okay.

How upsetting to have had to experience a burglary on top of everything else from Irma! I'm so sorry your daughter is suffering.

I hope normalcy will return soon!

 

[lavishsqualor]

At the end of the day, I still believe that the vast majority of humans are decent, honest people who just want to live as happily and peacefully as possible; people willing to help each other out of a crisis.

I agree wholeheartedly. I love what Anne Frank said: "In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."

If she can believe that, I figure we all can.

 

[lavishsqualor]

My home was burgled when I was about her age. They took my purse with the pocket money I had been saving in it. Only about 80 pence, but I was devastated. My dad explained that some people don't do well at school and so can't get a good job and that is why they have to steal from others. A very simplified explanation, but it struck a chord with me. I remember thinking then that I should be a teacher when I grew up, so I could help people get a better education so they wouldn't have to steal.

That explanation sounds exactly like what my parents would have told me at that age, and it's very similar to what we told our daughter. What a great kid you must have been to have wanted to help people like that!

 

[lavishsqualor]

Good boys for staying there and not running off. My two cats would have been long gone...

Thirteen was just lying in the hallway by the open door, lounging lazily. When we showed up she had this look on her face like, "Do you realize, human, what I've had to deal with in your absence???"

On the other hand Atticus, my gray male tabby, the one who smells amazing, was cowering under the bed. He probably thought cat burgers had come in to steal him because of his amazing smell!