Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

I am pretty overwhelmed by the kindness and thoughtfulness of Dr. Jonathan Bradshaw and the staff of the South Arkansas Veterinary Clinic. Dr. Bradshaw knew i might be worried about Bud, he was neutered yesterday (on top of his heartwom treatments).

Dr. Bradshaw said the surgery went well and he sent me this photo of Bud when he was taken outside for a walk this morning.

I am eager to get this guy home to the farm, but i will have to be patient for awhile yet. The first photos I saw of Gus were very different, he was a wreck from being abandoned outdoors and also from his heartworm. He’s not coming until the first week of October.

In this photo, Bud looks like he is ready to get on with life.

I had no idea he was such a handsome fellow. He looks quite fit, Carol Johnson and Dr. Bradshaw have done an amazing job of bringing him back from the dead. When I saw an early photo, I didn’t think he could stand up.

I am also very happy that the two homeless dogs I put up for adoption from the Friends Of Homeless Animals rescue group – Jen and Albert – were both adopted yesterday, pending approval. The Army Of Good is deep and full of love.

There are all kinds of ways to get the right dog, but the Friends Of Homeless Animals/RI is certainly one of them. They specialize in homeless dogs, dogs with heartworms, and desperate dogs. They are the rare rescue group that is actually a pleasure to work with.

They even pick up the phone.

Anyway, thanks, Dr. Bradshaw, for your thoughtfulness, and thanks for the new and fresh perspective on Bud. He is not the same dog I saw in that grainy photo a couple of months ago, great work and thanks.

Sakler Moo graduated junior high school in Albany this June with the highest grade point average in the school. He hopes to go on to college to become an artist or an engineer. He is a gifted artist.

Everyone on the soccer team must be on the honor roll, says Ali.

His favorite thing in America is the soccer  team, he says (so do all the other players). He has been in American for several years and like the other members of the team, he mostly misses the freedom he had in Thailand to move about freely.

He loved hunting squirrels with a slingshot, he said,  you can’t do that here in America, not in the middle of Albany.

Sakler is a gifted artist, he loves to draw. Next week, Ali and I are taking him shopping for clothes for high school. He needs sneakers and pants and a shirt or two. Sachler is quiet and sensitive with an easy and wry smile.

He gives me a hug when he sees me, and I am told he is working on a portrait of me. Fair enough.

I took these portraits because I wanted you to begin to get to know some of these children that you are doing so much to help. You are  transforming their lives, introducing them to America, broaden their horizons and strengthen their sense of community.

Ali is an extraordinary father, mentor, friend to these children, he is guiding them and supporting them every day. They revere him.

As I look for activities and “adventures” for them, I look for ways to build their confidence and community, to show them more of America than they have seen, and to come to understand just how welcome they are here to so many Americans.

Thanks for your support. We have made an enormous difference in their lives.If you wish to contribute to this work, you can do so by donating to the Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816 or via Paypal, [email protected].

I will continue this portrait and writing series so you can see the people whose lives you are supporting so wonderfully.

Jorsein has been in America for four years. His favorite thing is the soccer team.

He is an honor student in his middle school, and is shy. Like the other players, he misses the freedom he had to walk around his neighborhood, play soccer barefoot and go where he pleased.

He very much loves the trips the soccer team is now undertaking, thanks to the Army Of Good. For the first four years of his life here, he did not once get to go outside Albany except for a soccer game or two.

He is happy to see more of America and to learn about it. His family now is the soccer team, he lost much of his family  back home.

Thanks for helping Jorsein to see the world and learn about America. Like the other players, he has increasingly been taunted by American students in the school, who make fund of his hand-me-down clothes and even suggest he doesn’t belong here.

I told him there are many people who believe that he does. If you wish to help Jorsei, you can contribute to the Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected].

Saw John has been in American for four years, his favorite activity here is the soccer team. He is from Thailand, and spent several years in a refugee camp. Nothing has diminished a ready and heartfelt smile.

He wears his hair in a pony tail and misses the freedom he had to walk to see his parents where they worked and to visit his friends. Here, they can’t walk much in their neighborhoods. He is an  honor student heading for high school in  September.

Next week, we are getting him some new clothes and shoes. If you wish to help Saw John, you can contribute to the Gus Fund, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected]. And thanks.

When the soccer team went to Ramblewild for their forest and tree climbing adventure yesterday, I joined them at lunch. I wanted to talk with them and take some portraits, so you generous people might have a sense of who you are helping.

I often see these young people but rarely get to sit down and talk with them, In the coming weeks and months I hope to visit them at home and meet with their mothers or fathers. They need help too.

I am especially fond of these young men (and two women, who do not wish to be photographed or written about), they are gracious and warm and honest about their often very difficult lives.

Many lost everything, as their families did when they came here, and they are struggling to adjust to a very different life in America. They must now worry about being in fashion with clothes, they are experiencing the challenges of urban life, often amidst great poverty.

Back home, they played soccer in their backyards barefoot, not there are leagues and teams and uniforms and fancy and expensive teams. Back home, they had freedom to go and walk everywhere they pleased.

Here, they must be driven everywhere, and their streets are often too dangerous to walk about freely. At home, they lived a peaceful and rural life, amid animals and trees and  water. Until it wasn’t peaceful any longer.

Back home, their families were intact, they were comfortable, now they mostly live with single parents working long hours at minimum wage. They have all lost someone dear to them. They have all spent years in  refugee camps.

Ali is their pipeline to the outside world, the soccer team their support and community. The Army Of Good makes this possible.

Klue says he misses home, he says the soccer team is the thing in life he most enjoys.

I am happy to know him and support him. We help him with clothes, necessary tablets and digital equipment and with tutoring if he needs it. He has the most genuine and radiant smile, and treats everyone with kindness and courtesy.

He appreciates the trips and journeys he is now able to go on, he is seeing a wider world.

If you wish, you can support Klue and the soccer  team and their families and the refugees living in New York State by sending a donation to the Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz. P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected].