Moving expenses: For me and the cats

It took six months after an emergency evacuation with both cats -- months in filthy motels living out of suitcases, emergency expenses that almost made us houseless, and the destruction of over half my belongings -- and the cats and I have finally secured a safe, "Healthy Homes" inspected apartment with a one-year lease. Securing it took what I saved over the past three months living with both cats in a tiny one-room metal sleepout (no running water) on a farm in the middle of Aotearoa New Zealand. Long covid has all but destroyed the lives of the farm owners, and all plans to expand living quarters are postponed indefinitely: I must move.

Now the cats and I just need a little help getting across the finish line.

The cats and I move to Wellington in two weeks, where I'm working on my upcoming book in conjunction with Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. 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. I can't wait to be near the campus and all the resources Stout is extending to me for this important project.

I had begun working on the book right before I moved the cats and I from an unsafe apartment into an unexpectedly dangerous living situation. Among the destroyed items included my bed, three bookcases, my dresser, a table and stools, cat furniture, and then because of the movers, I lost a number of personal items.

The emergency evacuation movers ripped apart my Pride and Trans Pride flags and snapped all the flagpoles (and even the 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 have yet to find out exactly what I've lost; what's left of my apartment contents is still in transit. I've been told by the shipping company to expect another month of waiting.

The cats and I are still living out of what could fit into three suitcases. This means the cats and I are moving into a flat with what we've been living out of hotel rooms and furnished rentals with. Meaning, I have some summer clothes and personal items, two towels, some electronics, lots of covid safety gear, and a small mess kit consisting of utensils for one, two bowls, one plate, two mugs and a glass, a small hot water kettle, as well as a tiny toaster oven. I only today realized that not only do I need a mattress to sleep on and a chair to sit in, but that -- now that I'll finally have a kitchen again -- I'll need a pot and strainer if I want to make pasta. But I do not want to ask for more than I need.

This fundraiser is to rent a van so I can drive the cats and our belongings to Wellington and get just a few bare minimum basics to make the apartment livable for now. The threshold amount of this GoFundMe is for van rental and fuel, a mattress and base to get it off the floor (+delivery fee), bed sheets, a small desk and chair, one extra cat carrier, a cat litter pan, and a few kitchen items. If this fundraiser exceeds its goal, I have a wishlist of items that include a small cat tree, a sitting chair, a side table, and a small monitor. The places I used to estimate my funding goal are Target Furniture NZ, Kmart NZ, RentalCars[dot]com for one-way vans, and The Pet Centre NZ.

The cats and I are coming out of survival mode and we have been through so much to not just survive a bizarre and terrifying set of circumstances, but to also keep reaching for and fighting to make this book a reality. I believe it will change global conversations about covid and community care, and how we can remake trauma into resilience and hope.

I hope you'll consider this GoFundMe and all it means. If you don't have the resources, that's okay, too: sharing this page will help us out, too.