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You are here: Home / Open Threads / New Mexico Jackal – Update on Funds Needed

New Mexico Jackal – Update on Funds Needed

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You may have seen the post from Tuesday about one of our BJ peeps (ghost cat) whose housing fell through 3 days before she was supposed to move.  If you didn’t read about that, and you’re interested, click the title in the box below to go to Tuesday’s post.

New Mexico Peeps – We Have a Jackal Who Could Use Some Help

Thanks so much to everyone who made suggestions or supplied information – that was all very helpful to ghostcat!

And now we have a plan!

Taking our sage advice :-) ghostcat is going to stay put in Las Cruces for while she figures out the next steps.  We have secured a 2-month stay at an Airbnb that was considerably less expensive than even the Extended Stay hotel, where it was going to cost more to have the kitties there than to have the room itself!  Best of all, ghostcat gets to keep her 4 kitties with her, which was a major goal.

ghostcat has arranged for a Pod to store her furniture and for a person to get her stuff packed up (physical injury makes that tricky right now) and she is in the process of arranging for someone to haul away the junk she wants to leave behind.

If all goes as planned, her job will start again on Sept 5, at which point the proof of employment – requited by nearly all renters – shouldn’t be an issue, and she will have 5 weeks left at the Airbnb to figure out where she is going to go next and secure housing there.  (Apparently nearly all renters want to start leases on the 1st of the month.)

I am hoping we can cover most of the cost of the Airbnb so ghostcat can hang onto the savings she has so she’ll be able to pay the first month’s rent and damage deposit wherever she lands next.  The Airbnb will cost $3,600 for the 2 months, and she will contribute what she would have paid for rent at the next place, so it would be great to cover about $3,000 of the 2-month stay while she gets back on her feet.

Remember, more than funds, what ghostcat really needed most was some help thinking things through because she was so overwhelmed, help with making a plan while her brain was overwhelmed with anxiety, help with identifying options, and maybe even knowing she wasn’t alone in the boat.  And you guys did that; all that’s left is the boost for covering the Airbnb, and the job that is supposed to resume on Sept 5.

As always with fundraising, do not feel like you need to contribute.  If you do want to contribute, thank you!  We’re not doing this as a GoFundMe, so contributions will be through PayPal and Zelle.  I have asked ghostcat to let me know once she has (hopefully) hit the $3k mark.

All too soon, we will be hitting you guys up for funding for a Balloon Juice update – not planning a change in look or function (though maybe adding a few things) but we have a lot of custom code that is based on WordPress circa 2019, and it’s not 2019 anymore!    We don’t want to  ever get back to a place where the site is being held together with string and silly putty, so we are talking-to the developers and will hopefully be getting the ball rolling.  Also, an updated Balloon Juice store!

Not to mention that we will soon be working on funding for boots on the ground that can make a difference in 2024!

Details for ghostcat contributions.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

52Comments

  3. 3.

    Dangerman

    Awesome news to start the day.

    Well done, Jackals.

    ETA: Oh so close to 2 and Glory. For you Cribbage players out there, 3 feels like a stinkhole (for you non-Cribbage folks, well, a stinkhole is one off Glory).

  7. 7.

    sab

    Yay! Full service blog. Who knew you could get a blog to take over your executive functions when life stresses out your own? Sure would have helped me a lot in my life. This sounds snarky and I absolutely do not intend that. So glad the blog helped.

    I wonder what proportion of jackals are on the spectrum. Probably quite a bit higher than the population at large.

    Cannot contribute until next week since I had my own issues (hacked debit card. Hope you go to jail for that Beyonce concert. $500 per ticket for Beyonce? She’s good, but that good? Of course not, but it was my money not yours.)

    ETA What I meant is so nice this community is here for us.

  8. 8.

    sab

    Somebody would have had to scrape me off the ceiling if what had happened to ghostcat had happened to me.

  9. 9.

    Grover Gardner

    This is great, thank you everyone!  This situation has been on my mind since the original post.  I made a contribution.

  10. 10.

    Elma

    Kicked in some $$.  The bank website said she would get the $$ once she was registered for Zelle.  Hope that was just boilerplate was we lawyers say and ghostcat has it organized on her end.

  11. 11.

    Joy in FL

    I just tried to donate by PayPal. It would not let me bypass providing ghostcat’s first & last name, which, of course, I don’t know.
    I’m curious if that happened to anyone else, if you got around it and how.

  14. 14.

    Steeplejack

    @Elma:

    I just sent some 💰 about 20 minutes ago, and it went through fine; ghostcat’s Zelle account was recognized at my end (BofA).

    ETA: I think you need to use ghostcat’s email address, per WaterGirl’s instructions in the related post.

  15. 15.

    oldster

    @Joy in FL:

    I was able to use PayPal to send her some cash simply using the email address provided in the link, sc.

    as_clinton100 at yahoo.com

    Worked without their asking me for any other information about her.  Though, on my first try I had an extra empty space before her address, and they said they did not recognize it. Once I removed the space, it worked straight away.

    edited so the email address won’t get spammed.

  16. 16.

    Maxim

    I also mistyped the email address initially, and got the request about providing their name. When I had the email addy right, it didn’t ask for anything else and it went through without a hitch.

    P.S. Yay for keeping the kitties with her! So important.

  19. 19.

    Joy in FL

    @Maxim: That is exactly what I did the first time I tried to donate by Paypal– I had mistyped the email. Once I had that right, everything was simple.

  20. 20.

    Joy in FL

    @mvr: Thank you : )   I finally saw that I had mistyped the email, and I think that’s what caused my initial problem.

  23. 23.

    Steeplejack

    I just talked with WaterGirl and have a few notes:

    She is out and about and won’t be back home until 2:30 EDT. If people are still having trouble donating after reading the next paragraph, you can send her an email (WaterGirl at balloon-juice.com) and she will get back to you.

    For donations: all you need to donate via Zelle or PayPal is ghostcat’s email address, which is shown in WaterGirl’s “Details” sidebar. You don’t need any other information.

    (Note: It’s not usually a good idea to post someone else’s personal email address in a public thread—#15 👀—which is why WaterGirl put it in a sidebar.)

    WaterGirl is somewhat concerned that in her upbeat recap of ghostcat’s situation people might get the impression that the money situation is mostly taken care of. That is not the case. The money still needs to be raised, and quickly, because ghostcat has to move tomorrow (Friday), and a big chunk of the money will be needed up front.

    In WaterGirl’s absence, I will monitor this thread for the next few hours and will be happy to answer anyone’s questions, to the best of my ability.

  24. 24.

    oldster

    @Steeplejack:

    Can you pop into this thread now and then and give us a running tally of what’s been collected and what is needed?

    Other fund-raisers have used gofundme and the like, where you can see how much has been raised already when you go to the site. Here, none of us know.

    And if it started looking like more was needed, I might be able to dig a bit deeper….

  27. 27.

    Steeplejack

    @oldster:

    I am not in contact with ghostcat, but WaterGirl is. She said that she will give us an update after she talks to ghostcat and gets home later.

    This fundraiser is different, because we don’t have a thermometer to look at, but it gets the money to the recipient much faster and with less overhead than, say, GoFundMe.

    I am a bit concerned because I’m not seeing the usual “I pitched in a little” comments that are on most fundraising posts.

  28. 28.

    MazeDancer

    @Steeplejack: Perhaps changing the post headline might boost participation.

    Like “Emergency fundraiser for BJ Mom and her 4 cats”

    The fundraising part is a little far down in the post. Also, plenty people who didn’t see original post, so scrolled on by, would be interested in helping a BJ person.

  39. 39.

    Maxim

    @WaterGirl: Per part of the discussion upthread, it might be helpful to edit the post title to make clear that it’s an emergency fundraiser?

  41. 41.

    Karen H

    Successfully donated through PayPal. Will keep watching this thread for totals. I can probably come up with more if needed.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    I just spoke with ghost cat, and $1,500 has come in so far through PayPal and Zelle.  Next time we talk I’ll think to ask her how many donations that was. :-)

  46. 46.

    cckids

    Done via PayPal. So glad your kitties will stay, that will make any place feel like home. Please keep us updated.

  50. 50.

    EarthWindFire

    @WaterGirl: Second the evening post. The Holy Fuck thread made this less visible to me for awhile. I’m probably not the only one.

    I can also contribute again, it would just have to be post-Labor Day.

  52. 52.

    ghost cat

    Yesterday was an awful day. My primary response to major stress isn’t to fight or flee. I freeze & collapse, which is counterproductive in my current situation. But you guys are a definite bright spot. I can’t thank all of you enough for your generosity and good wishes–I’m overwhelmed in a good way! Today & Saturday aren’t going to be much better. But after that, things will improve because I have a quiet place to land at an airbnb. Thank you to the person who suggested airbnbs. I would never have thought to look at them, and I found one that was the least expensive option overall. Best of all, the owner doesn’t care how many cats I have and doesn’t charge extra!
     
    Thank you for giving me some breathing room to curl up with my kitties and recover from this awful week before I start the search for more permanent digs.

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