Critter Haven Will Soon Be No
More.
Within these pages lies a
soon-to-disappear weird
and wonderful world of Critters and Codgers in the California mountains.
You'll see lots of Critters who own two old Codgers body and soul. You
may even get a glimpse of one of the Codgers if you look quickly, but you
needn't worry overly much about being burdened with Codger photos.
We always concentrated on the Critters and the countryside because they're
easier on the eyes. We're going to miss them more than we can say.
We've now found homes for most of the Critters, for which we
thank all of you who adopted them. Alas, however, we can't find
anything that we can afford except a one room shack with a single-seat
outhouse. In the near future, we will be homeless unless a miracle
occurs.
For the time being, please enjoy the photos,
and cross your fingers that we Codgers find a place and the means to move
before we're ousted.
How We Got Here, and Why
We Will Soon Be Homeless...
In 1998 our house and business in the California Delta were
flooded and declared unfit for human habitation by F.E.M.A.. Since neither F.E.M.A. nor our
homeowner's insurance would pay for the repairs, we lost our home. From
there, things went decidedly downhill.
Then Jack's son asked us to caretake his property the High Sierra Mountains.
There
wasn't much here when we arrived: a double-wide trailer, a well, a
septic system, electricity, propane, a phone line, lots of tar weed, and, of
course, deer, tree squirrels, ground squirrels, lizards, newts,
rattlesnakes, tarantulas, spiders, insects, more spiders, a mountain lion or
two, a bobcat, a bear from time to time, a fox or three, and LOTS of coyotes.
However, the view was (and is) terrific. We love the
sound of the creek in the wet season, and the courting songs and
conversations of the Frogs. Feeding and interacting with the
Hummingbirds has been amazing and enlightening! We do hope that they
don't die after we've gone, as there will be no one to feed them.
Little by little, we adopted various abused, abandoned,
and/or unwanted critters, added a
few amenities for them, and settled in to a far calmer life than we had
known
before.
We named the place Critter Haven, and it was full of love
and joy! Although we have no income but Jack's Social Security, we
managed to squeak by, and it was worth the struggle to save so many lovely
animals and find or provide homes for them.
However, on 12 July 2009 everything changed. First, we
were ordered to get rid of all the Critters. We had to immediately find homes for our Critters.
Petey, the Yaks, four Pygmy Goats, a bonded Grey Goose and Pygmy Goat (Koose and Sonia), two adult
Emus (Oscar and Olivia) and their chicks, and all of the Ducks (finally!)
have been adopted by lovely folk who've seen us on the news or heard of our
plight from friends. A Border Collie named Angus Fergus Rufus
Dufus Fergil McDuff and an outside cat (Minerva Winifred, or Minnie Winnie) still need
someone who'll love and care for them. Jack and I could also do with
some T.L.C. ourselves about now. I've
posted photos and a bit about everyone on the Adoptions and
Rescues page, and you can browse the various pages on the left to see
more.
Then, a few days later,
we were ordered to find somewhere else to live and to move off the property.
Now we've been ordered to remove any mention of what's
happening from this website, told to remove the links to the TV News
interview, forbidden to post about our plight on the internet, and we've
been prohibited from having any visitors who are not personally pre-approved
by the Landlord.
On Sunday, 20 September 2009, these signs appeared at the
entrance to the driveway:
As you can imagine, this is extremely bad for Jack's Alzheimer's.
It's common knowledge that changing a dementia patient's environment and/or
routines, and continuously stressing someone in this condition, causes
acceleration of symptoms. We don't understand why Jack's son is doing
this to his father. Our hope is that we can find somewhere affordable
and get help with moving our stuff, but, if that doesn't happen, we'll have
to sell what we can, give away the rest of our things, and live in our van.
********************************
Critter Haven in the News!
Our Story:
http://www.ksee24.com/younews/51267007.html
Watch the Critter Haven inhabitants on the KSEE24 News Video, and tell us
what you think:
http://www.ksee24.com/news/local/51443887.html
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDj-Cgw9PXA
Feel
free to add comments!
You can write to us at:
Critter Haven (without the spaces, followed by @ and no
space) netptc (without the space) (a .) (no space, and) net
Click here to donate or to read our Wish List.
