{"id":4814,"date":"2012-03-10T06:50:43","date_gmt":"2012-03-10T11:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/?p=4814"},"modified":"2012-10-30T14:05:26","modified_gmt":"2012-10-30T18:05:26","slug":"the-japan-disasters-and-the-revelation-of-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/the-japan-disasters-and-the-revelation-of-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Japan Disasters and the Revelation of my Life…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I remember the day like it was yesterday. Dan and I were in the car on our way to work and I found myself questioning my life. I remember saying it out loud. “Is this it?” \u00a0“Isn’t there something more to my life\u2019s purpose?” Dan and I had a job in the same company, but we were not emotionally fulfilled or satisfied with our careers. I didn’t know what it was that I wanted or what I felt was missing, but there was a certain emptiness in my life.<\/p>\n

Several months later, we were both laid off on the same day at the same time and all of a sudden that job that meant little to me, meant everything. I was unemployed and if I felt confused about my purpose before, it was far worse now as I quickly learned I had no real value in an economy that was not looking to hire a woman in her late forties.<\/p>\n

After a long personal struggle, it was actually my family of seven cats and a little inspiration from the Ellen DeGeneres Show that pulled me out of my depression and gave me the strength to follow a dream of mine \u2013 to write a book. I felt invigorated and empowered by the process and fell in love with writing about a subject I am so passionate about \u2013 my cats, but I still did not know what my purpose was or the path that I was about to embark on.<\/p>\n

I think I had originally envisioned I would write a book, everyone would fall in love with it, and I would become the next Dewey<\/em> or Marley and Me<\/em> so I could then retire and live a comfortable life out in the country with Dan and some horses, cats, dogs, and assorted farm life. What I had not envisioned is how profoundly the process would change me or where it would lead me. I have not achieved the fame or recognition I had hoped for and I still live in my same house with Dan and my seven cats, but my world has been so significantly enlarged and altered that I am often overwhelmed with emotion at the scope of it all.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

My personal revelation...<\/p><\/div>\n

I can\u2019t recall a specific day to mark the occasion, there have collectively been so many, but my heart is full and I have a purpose now. I can feel it in every fiber of my being and have embraced it with such passion that it has taken on a life of its own that I cannot control. I feel a true calling to educate people through writing, photos, and video about cats. Not just cats, but to create a broader public awareness about ferals, strays, spaying and neutering and cat overpopulation. I came to a strong realization that if me, someone who has loved and adored cats\u00a0 all of her life, did not understand the full scope and enormity of the dire situation, then how could we possibly expect mainstream America to fare any better?<\/p>\n

It started with my informative series about the Loews cats at the Portofino Resort in Orlando and the misconceptions about feral cats in general after I interviewed Christine Michaels of Riverfront Cats Miami<\/a>. It has now brought me to an international platform that I never expected. Someone in Japan had read one of my posts in the series and commented to me on facebook that I had helped her better understand how to care for feral cats. It turns out this extraordinary young woman gave up the comfort of her life in the United States – her friends, family, and even her two cats, to move to Japan to help the homeless cats in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit\u00a0Japan on March 11, 2011.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Compassion is a universal language...<\/p><\/div>\n

As we are on the eve of the anniversary of those horrific events, tomorrow I will begin my next series of interviews\u00a0\u00a0that will be continued in the\u00a0weeks to\u00a0come about not only this incredible woman, but several others who have devoted their lives to helping these cats. I am quite honored to bring these stories to life for you and am humbled beyond words at the dedication, compassion, and altruism of these people. It truly is a small world and the language of caring and compassion is universal.<\/p>\n

If you have not had a chance to read my informative series, “The Mainstreaming of a Feral Cat,”\u00a0here are the links. They also include compelling video footage of my interview with Christine Michaels as well as a visit to her Riverfront colony of cats that she manages:\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Part One:<\/strong> http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/the-mainstreaming-of-a-feral-cat-part-one\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Part Two:<\/strong> http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/the-mainstreaming-of-a-feral-cat-part-two\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember the day like it was yesterday. Dan and I were in the car on our way to work and I found myself questioning my life. I remember saying it out loud. “Is this it?” \u00a0“Isn’t there something more to my life\u2019s purpose?” Dan and I had a job in the same company, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[466,3],"tags":[138,236,84,300,299,1278,1266],"class_list":["post-4814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feral-cats","category-inspiration-healing","tag-deborah-barnes","tag-feral-cats","tag-inspiration-2","tag-japan-cat-network","tag-japan-disasters","tag-spay-and-neuter","tag-the-chronicles-of-zee-and-zoey"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Deb-Quote.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4814"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7873,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4814\/revisions\/7873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}