Lazarus

Dedicated to my very wonderful good friend: Styggy
and to four other generous kind friends and people:

for participating with her, in her very creative, beautiful, charity adoptable event, that she created for The Shelter Project

This is what it looked like:


I cannot thank you all enough, for the amazing part that each of you played in this project, for "The Shelter Project"... a project so dear and important to me, and to others who love and care about animals very much- but that means the most to the animals we all want to help.
You are ALL, all kinds of awesome!



The Story of Lazarus

Of course if you familiar with the Bible at all, you know probably know *that* story of Lazarus.

And indeed, the story of THIS Lazarus, pictured here, is how he was named- because of the story in the Bible.

And it goes like this:

I happened to be at the shelter on this fateful day, during opening hours (because I'm more often there during after-hours). And some tourists, who had been camping at one of our beautiful campsites happened to find this teeny tiny all-white kitten in a dirty puddle of water, after some heavy summer rain we'd had. He was wrapped up in towel, but he was completely flattened. They were anxious, but they didn't quite realize the emergency, until our Director rounded the lobby corner eying the eensy bugger, and yelling at the top of his lungs:
 "I need my people, STAT!"
and grabbing up the whole towel complete with baby.

The Director, with his team in tow, rushed to the medical room, and went to work as fast as they could. The tiny kitten was cold, NOT breathing, and as mentioned flat. They could readily hear no heart beat. They used a stethoscope. Still nothing. Yet, something was pulling quite strongly at the Director to not give up. He retrieved yet another stethoscope- a better one... there it was!
But oh, it was so very very faint, and rickety, time was of the essence- it already had been! He took the kitten by his little feet and hung him upside down, and cupping his wee icy head, he gently swung him from side to side.

Stop, stethoscope, and repeat.

After the second time, he began to breathe again, and you could detect his heart beat with your hands through his chest... though still so faint and erractic... but a HUGE and MIRACULOUS first step!

A couple of his people on the team were getting a kennel prepared in the meanwhile, ... it included a heating pad, because warming him up was absolutely KEY, as the little guy was not out of the woods by a long shot! And he had not yet opened his eyes either... but as he maintained breathing, the Director finally decided to leave work.

However, it was at this point, I reminded him that animals who are unable to move, say due to paralysis, should not be placed on heating pads- and since we did not know if this was the case or not, it would be safest not to keep him on one, and try to warm him otherwise. So we hurried back in there,
and Lo and Behold, little Lazarus, had completely risen from the dead... wide eyed, observant, seemingly only a little worse for the wear.

We were both completely awe-struck, and Lazarus, was the ONLY name there ever was for him.

Meanwhile, he stayed quite a while in a big kennel in the office of the Director...
in order to keep an eye on him, regain his strength and nutrition.

And then one day, a completely different Emergency situation came along and a different cat was in need of the director's office, as there was still no space available at the time for anymore cats at our shelter, and both cats were not allowed to share that space, and Lazarus was brought home to me...
very strong by then, about the same age as Xochitl, (so I gave him the same birthday- Cinco de Mayo/ May 5th) and they have been best buds ever since! He is so awesome! They are super together, and oddly enough, it is the first time ever that we've ever had a pet who was instantaneously accepted by every other pet right off the bat!

Lazarus, or Lazzy as we call him for short, is a very very special boy. He seems to be an "old soul" but plays super hard, and loves to play all the time. But when he rests, he is very comfortable, and sleeps completely on his back wherever he is, even in the middle of everything, totally exposing his underbelly. He never sleeps any other way.  He loves to be pet that way, and I love that, because I love cat-belly, and not all cats are that comfortable with that, let alone 100%!

If you've even read this far,
I'm sorry this is long, but this is one of my favourite animals stories that I've personally known,
and I've been excited to simply share it.


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^{[ NOTE: Thank you, in advance, for any 's I may receive for this image. I am honoured and grateful that anyone would think well enough to it. So thank you from the bottom of my heart . I understand if you don't have time to comment, but thank you for any kind comments, too.
It's important to know this NOW, as I may NOT be able to do individual thank-you's for 's, or in case I cannot respond to each comment, either. Thanks for understanding.
And, if you just came to view, I appreciate that, too.
]}


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