[Vision2020] Caturday (February 19, 2011)

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of NeighborsGo at:

http://neighborsgo.com/stories/66498

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Kim Weaver of British Columbia to escort cat from Oxford, N.Y., to
Lewisville home

By Lindsey Bever
lbever at neighborsgo.com

A cat-centric online message thread has brought together three families
with special needs. And now, the three are joining together to make each
other’s wishes come true.

Kim Weaver of Burnaby, British Columbia; Dona Olsen, director of Little
Mews Rescue in Oxford, N.Y.; and Marie Anderson of Lewisville met on
fark.com, a social-networking news site. The three are part of the
Caturday thread, a group of feline-loving friends who meet online every
Saturday to share funny stories about their furry friends.

“We’ve become a very close-knit group of people who love cats,” Olsen said.

But over the last several months, the group has become much more.

In 2000, Weaver, who works for a pharmacy software company, was diagnosed
with melanoma, a serious form of skin cancer. She now has a dandelion
tattoo on her wrist to remind her to keep fighting.

“A friend told me that I’m just like a dandelion. ‘No matter what is done
to you, you keep coming back stronger than ever,’” she said. “I think that
is a good representation of fighting any illness and to keep beating it.”

Weaver, 28, is planning an almost 5,000-mile trip to the United States on
March 4. It’s a sightseeing excursion funded through donations from her
online community. The group might even send Weaver to Walt Disney World if
circumstances allow, Olsen said.

For Weaver, the stamp on her passport will represent her part in escorting
an abandoned cat, Vanna, from Little Mews Rescue in Oxford, N.Y., to her
new home with Anderson in Lewisville. But for her Caturday friends, the
trip represents something more.

“A sort of Make-A-Wish through an online community to provide this brave
young woman with an adventure of her lifetime,” Anderson wrote in an
e-mail.

But Weaver isn’t focusing on herself. She’s also looking out for Vanna,
who lost seven of her eight kittens because she was malnourished during
her pregnancy.

“I don’t see the trip so much as important to me as I see it as important
for Vanna — so she can finally get to her forever home and for the family
she is going to,” she said.

Weaver said it’s also about Anderson’s 27-year-old daughter, Alex, who has
autism.

“[She] finds that playing with cats and having them around combined with
other items works definitely better than any medication she has been put
on,” Weaver said. “That is something I can attest to, as I firmly believe
that pet therapy does amazing wonders for people no matter how young you
are, how old you are or what illness you may have.”

That’s one reason Olsen said she knew Anderson’s family was the perfect fit.

“The more I’ve talked to her, I really have a good idea of how she lives,”
Olsen said. “Even though it’s really far away, I know Vanna would have a
good home with her.”

As for Weaver, she said she’s most looking forward to meeting her new
friends as well as Vanna’s kitten, Delta, whom she has “cyber adopted.”

“Finally meeting Dona 
 in person and giving her the biggest hugs these
little arms can give,” she said, “holding and squeezing and petting Delta
as much as possible and the chance to do one good thing in my life and
that is to help out someone else by easing what they go through by
bringing them the best help of all — another furball of love.”

Weaver’s route
March 4: Flying from Burnaby, British Columbia, to New Jersey: 3,001 miles
March 5: Flying from New Jersey to Binghamton, N.Y.: 228 miles
March 7: Flying from Binghamton, N.Y. to Lewisville: 1,557 miles

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown