Help Author Tobias Buckell and His Cats Move to Scotland

Help Author Tobias Buckell and His Cats Move to Scotland campaign photo, 1 of 3Help Author Tobias Buckell and His Cats Move to Scotland campaign photo, 1 of 3

Tobias and his cats rely on this fund for safe housing and a stable home in Scotland

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Help Author Tobias Buckell and His Cats Move to Scotland

Help Author Tobias Buckell and His Cats Move to Scotland

0% complete

$9,268 raised of 

135 donations
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Hi, I'm author Tobias S. Buckell, and these are my two cats, Pippin...
.. and Smokey...

And I'm hoping to use these cat pictures to raise your interest in buying them treats and safety in our new home, and as a thank you, I'll give you a massive bundle of -15- different eBooks of mine.

Longer story:

I've traumatized both these cats by moving to Scotland to explore more opportunities for my family (and take a step back from the US as I watch what is happening to those not born there, like me), using my identity as a British passport holder, but the move to a whole other country has not been without challenges.

We had saved up a war chest for the move, sold/donated/or got rid of everything we owned to travel with just two check-in cases each, and saved as much as we could, but that savings was destroyed by events out of our control.

Delays due to mistakes in my family's visas caused major expenses:

The first was that it took 18 months and 2 visa applications to get a spousal and family visa accepted. The first one was denied due to mistakes made by the system when it entered our application in. The dates on our forms were changed, the reason for our application was changed, and my work from home job income was ignored. In our second visa, although approved, mistakes were made on the application when transferred into the system again, such as making mistakes on the email addresses to send us notification we'd been accepted.

We've carried the cost of renting an apartment in Scotland for over a year, lawyer's fees for consultations about best courses of action about the mistakes (we were told to re-apply, not appeal), and we had to pay... let's just say that the budget for cat toys, scratching posts, furniture that the humans like to sit on and the cats play on, everything we thought we could sell in the US and use the money to get started again on the other side, all that's gone and then some.

Landed in Scotland, but the home is not suitable for felines, or humans:

I still was not going to post this, though friends asked, until we landed in Scotland and found out that the flat we'd rented in advance was uninhabitable. Some dirt and faded age I can clean my way out of, but most of the flat's windows don't close, and are blown open by heavy wind (and there's a lot of that in Scotland), meaning that the interior is exposed to the elements (a prior tenant taped the kitchen window shut with cellophane tape). There was black mold (five hours scrubbing I have it remediated). A tanning salon below is leaking ozone up through into the apartment which is so poorly insulated that it's noticeable. Pipes leak when water is run, the fridge is unusable, and so we've been staying in a hotel as much as we can as we seek new accommodation but...

...due to arriving after summer due to getting our acceptance later so late for my family's visas, the rental market is dead and we're coming up empty for anything safe.

We documented everything by video and informed the rental agency, they pointed the finger elsewhere. There's supposedly going to be a contractor coming, but if it's the same one that 'fixed' the kitchen window by screwing it shut with screws that stick out two inches around the sill and where then painted over and also 'insulated' the main bedroom by stuffing used shirts around the fireplace wall gaps and pillows and blankets into the flue (that can't be to code, right?)... I'm dubious.

I'm working with multiple different letting agencies to find a safe home for my family, including the cats. I also am looking for a temporary VRBO or something similar so we can feel safe as we look for a new home, and not walk around coughing and smelling damp.

What you get in thanks:

My deepest gratitude, and the cats a safe place to land as we wait for a place to open up that will be their/our perma-home. Every $1 spared is appreciated, and I will email anyone who leaves their email up a 15 book zip file with the following eBooks in it:

Collection-1-Tides-from-the-New-Worlds.epub
Collection-2-Mitigated-Futures.epub
Collection-3-Xenowealth-a-Collection.epub
Novella-1-Stochasticity.epub
Novella-2-Byways.epub
Novella-3-Tensegrity.epub
Novella-4-The-Executioness.epub
Thriller-1-Arctic-Rising.epub
Thriller-2-Hurricane-Fever.epub
Writing-Craft-1-Just-a-Draft.epub
Writing-Craft-2-Nascence.epub
Xenowealth-1-Crystal-Rain.epub
Xenowealth-2-Ragamuffin.epub
Xenowealth-3-Sly-Mongoose.epub
Xenowealth-4-The-Apocalypse-Ocean.epub

I'll keep this up for a couple of weeks, and on each Friday I'll share an update that will include a link to a Zip file with all 15 books as a thank you. Please pass this around, it's not just kitty food for cats, it's a great way to pay-what-you-want for a 15 book collection of DRM-free, ePub eBook files filled with hours of reading and adventure.
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Tobias Buckell
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Bluffton, OH
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