Normally, my blog is a place where I share what I find to be the frequently overwhelming and hopefully hilarious stories of finding, buying, rebuilding, and creating something that feels like home. My aim is usually to be entertaining, or at the very least informative, in my posts. After all, why else would you be here?
That's not the case today. Today, all I have to offer is a very sad story told in an attempt to help the aforementioned friends.
Kira and Travis are fantastic, intelligent, compelling people with warm hearts, wonderful senses of humor, and the sort of opinions and ideas that open you up to a whole new world of things you might never have even considered until you discussed it with them. I have many, many happy memories of time spent at their old apartment here in Pennsylvania before they moved out of state for Travis to pursue his graduate degree. Although I haven't had the chance to meet their new dog, many of those happy memories included their two cats, Faustus and Mika, whom they have had since college. In fact, the very first time I went to their house, I ended up sleeping on their couch and waking up bleary-eyed to Mika cuddled up against me on one of the pillows. He has always been a wonderfully loving and patient cat, curious about everything our pack of friends were doing in the livingroom, tolerant of all the times we plopped Kira's handmade jewelry on his head to dress him up as Pharoh cat, and more than a bit of an affectionate, purring mooch whenever one of us had nummy-smelling food.
Sadly, Mika has spent the last several months fighting a very aggressive form of kitty-cancer. Tragically, Mika lost his fight last night. To quote Travis, "He fought for life with a courage and ferocity and grace that will inspire me for the rest of my life. Those we lose will live on in that way, in our choices and actions, the thumbprints made while shaping our character." Travis can be incredibly eloquent like that.
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| Mika of the Big Eyes |
Mika will be sorely missed by many who knew and loved him and, as a long time pet-owner myself, I know all too well the sort of hurt that my friends are experiencing right now. You see, that's the thing about pets - they fill our lives with laughter, and happiness, and comfort, and love. They wiggle their furry way into our hearts. And, eventually, they break them. The fact that, knowing this, we continue to bring them into our lives and forge that amazing bond is a testament to all that they give to us. Often, we do all that we can to return the unconditional love that they show us. Sometimes, it feels like it isn't enough.
In Kira and Travis's case, they tried to return Mika's love by giving him all the time that they could. While I wish that these sort of things could be fought purely with the love and support of friends and family, the reality of the situation is that they require medicine. And as someone who works for a pharmaceutical supplier, I am keenly aware of the fact that medicine costs money. Heath care costs are not, much to my dismay, something that can be paid with loving messages, or hugs, or tears of sympathy and support. As a result, they have taken on - and I quote - a "staggering" amount of debt to cover the cost of Mika's veterinary bills and are now still left with that even though sweet Mikachu is gone.
And so, when I sat down and thought about what I could possibly do to help them from several hundred miles away, what I came up with was this. It isn't much, but here it is:
In an attempt to offset the debt which they took on in order to care for their cat, Kira began a special line of jewelry dedicated to Mika that she sold through her jewelry business, Anima Metals. She also started a blog about the process, The Mika Project, which can be found on Wordpress. The Mika Project, like all of her jewelry, is lovely. I own two of her necklaces and two pairs of her earrings. One of these sets was given to me as a Christmas gift and, every holiday season, I find myself gravitating to it again and again. I'm pretty sure a fair portion of holiday pictures taken of me by my boyfriend's family are ones in which I'm wearing something that Kira made.
Keeping that thought in mind, I feel compelled to say that not only is her jewelry physically beautiful, but it's been created by a fantastic person in a gesture of love made towards a dear member of her family. I can't think of a better Christmas gift than that.
If, in the course of the coming holiday season, you have a gift to buy for your wife, or girlfriend, or sister, or mother, or aunt, or nana, or good friend, I'd like to ask you to consider buying something from Kira at Anima Metals. I certainly will be. And if the heart-felt emotion behind both her work and this request isn't enough to convince you? All of her items are handmade, sold through a small business operated entirely in the United States. You can find her work to view at the following sites:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/AnimaMetals
www.flickr.com/photos/animametals/
www.facebook.com/animametals
Click on them. Give them a look. See if anything shiny catches your fancy. For purchase, please use the Etsy site.
(Note: Kira has kindly informed me that although she does not have many items in her shop right now - due, presumably, to both having to travel for her day job and her need to care for her beloved cat - she intends to spend the next several weeks creating more jewelry dedicated to Mika. If you don't see something that strikes your fancy now, please continue to check back throughout the holiday season.)
In the meantime, rest in peace, Mika. You will be missed.
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| Kira and Mika in the Jewelry Studio, on a Happier Day |
Image Credits: All images are copyrighted to Kira Scott and/or Anima Metals.
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