Welcome to the first edition of Gentle Landings, the Gentle Heart Animal Advocacy newsletter.

Each month (hopefully) we will send out a little story on some of the sanctuary animals, how they came to be here and what their life is like now. This first story is about Mogli, one of the first cats to come here, before I knew what this would grow into.

Apparently abandoned, Mogli was found at a rest stop in California by a sweet and kind couple who were visiting from New Zealand. They fell for him deeply and kept him as their own. As their return home approached they explored what would have been needed to bring him with them, but eventually concluded it was better not to subject him to the ordeal, which included a quarantine period, among other things.

I remember being incredibly touched and impressed that they chose to keep him until the very last minute, right before they left. I think that some people, when facing something sad, would want to get it over sooner, especially when getting ready to travel to the other hemisphere. But instead they made it the very last thing they did here.

And so it’s always been especially important to me that Mogli have the best care I could give him, as close as possible to the life he would have had if he’d been able to stay with these two who truly rescued him. He has lots of friends here, human, cat and dog. He has free roam of the land, indoor and out. He will always be especially special to me, for lots of reasons, but one in particular stands out: His life could have been much different, and much worse, had it not been for a series of lucky breaks. This of course applies to all of our animals, and really, all of us who are doing okay in this world. But it was a really good thing to learn early on, the idea that we all have the ability to make a significant difference in the lives of those most vulnerable, simply by choosing to make sure that they will be okay.

Thanks for reading,

Chris