Help get the cats to safety

I moved from my hometown and an unsafe San Francisco apartment to Oahu to be in a place where I could be covid-safe and work on my next book.

The move became an emergency evacuation in a dangerous situation that put the cats and I through two months in filthy motels living out of two suitcases, emergency expenses that nearly made us houseless, and the loss of over half my belongings. When I assessed what was left of my stuff, still in a storage unit, I saw the emergency evac movers ripped apart my Pride and Trans Pride flags and snapped all the flagpoles (and even the medium flag sticks), which they threw on top of my belongings -- that they also broke and smashed by throwing my items into boxes without padding.

I'm currently in a temporary emergency rental, still living out of only two suitcases with both Max cat and Sam cat. It's stained and the furniture is sticky, but it's what I could find in an urgent emergency. I haven't been through this much trauma since I was a homeless kid on the streets of SF.

I found out last Thursday that I can't extend this rental and the cats and I have to be out before December 1st.

Now, a friend has a safe, stable place for the cats and I to go. I just need to get there.

This fundraiser is to safely ship the cats and what's left of my belongings to a friend's farm, where there is a cottage and a car waiting for me. Her farm is in New Zealand, which is also the subject of my next book. The Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies at Victoria University of Wellington has granted me a Visiting Scholar residency for my book, in addition to the Centre's assistance for research. The book is a non-fiction investigation of New Zealand's pandemic response. Stout has reviewed the book's complete outline and characterized it as a project "of national importance."

The book is an examination of New Zealand's pandemic response in the first three years of Covid-19, centering the story on societal impacts, community resilience, science, technology, the roles of Māori and Pasifika, the influence of misinformation, and course-changing (sometimes shocking) events in New Zealand that saw little, if any international attention. The book will also look at the road ahead, including the impacts of long covid. The world regards New Zealand's pandemic response as a success; my book seeks answers as to how and why this is described as such, and how, exactly, we are measuring pandemic success.

This GoFundMe is for veterinary and cat import expenses, their flight costs, and quarantine expenses; it's also to supplement shipping what's left of my belongings. Anything over the goal amount will help with shipping my stuff, replacing my bed and other essential items that were destroyed, and any incidental costs.

The cats and I have been through so much. I hope you'll consider helping me get them to safety and support my ability to get to work on a project I believe will change global conversations about covid and community care, and how we can remake trauma into resilience and hope.