This is the mnemonic I came up with as I took their paper collars off to give them a bath before moving them upstairs to the foster room, because they had been wrestling in the litter boxes on the bottom of their cage. You could watch me train the three little graybies if enough people tipped and/or subscribed that I could afford to keep them.

  • A is for Airport, with angular face

    B is for black and blazered Briefcase

    P is for Passport, with nose of Pure Grey

    Tram who is Trouble, all night and all day

    Ticket wears tuxes, Suitcase has a Stripe

    And Subway a stocking (on his left, not the right)

    (When I started reading them I thought it was a rhyme, then it wasn’t, so then I made it one)

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  • How are you feeling?

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    Rotten.

    Not going to happen for a while now. I didn’t get a dental clearance for surgery. Even minor gum disease can be a life-threatening complication in this context. I’m going to have to get a deep cleaning and spend at least four months using prescription rinses to get cleared.

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    How's your health insurance situation looking? I noticed that Oregon has a special Medicaid expansion that covers people up to 200% FPL (about $31k for HH of 1) or are you not quite poor enough for that?

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    I definitely made less than that this past year. But if I don’t make more than that this year, I will lose a lot more than my health insurance. The only reason I am still housed is that I inherited over six months’ rent from a great uncle who split the sale of his farm between about two dozen family members, none of them I have seen in 20 years.

    I doubt I could get this covered under Oregon Health Plan. They would just tell me to watch and wait until my aorta reached 5.5 cm. That is the point at which most people consider surgery, unless they have certain conditions, like Marfan syndrome.

    That is what Kaiser would have done if I had not said I wanted to move more quickly. Because that’s what most people in my position want, even though 5cm is the threshold where the risk of rupture becomes greater than the risk of death during the procedure. The surgery and recovery are scary and difficult, while the risk of rupture is hypothetical. The surgeon said that if I was a 6’4“ man, I would still probably have to wait. But since I am a 5‘8” woman, he could justify it enough to get it covered.

    So I would want to do everything I could to stay with Kaiser even if they didn’t have the best cardiac unit in the state.

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    I hate this. Medicare for all.

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    We were finally on our way there, with income thresholds for Medicaid being raised and age thresholds for Medicare being lowered.

    But people who got to stay on their parents’ insurance until they were 26 shoved it away with both hands, because it wasn’t good enough fast enough.

    None of those people have ever thought about the actual mechanics of an instant transition to MFA. The majority of the American workforce would have to renegotiate their contracts all at once. Everyone who works for insurance companies that is not just a profit-gobbling middleman would have to become a government employee or a government contractor all at once.

    Our system is so broken that we can’t fix it all at once without making things even worse. Expanding the government’s involvement in stages is literally the only way to make it work. And that has been slow going, since the political party that the majority of white people have supported ever since the other party gave Black people access to the voting booth and government benefits is adamantly opposed to the government helping people

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    Yes, you're right about the stages. But it all feels like too little too late and sometimes I'd rather burn it all down, make everything pay at time of service and then let doctors figure out how they could help people afford their services. Totally unrealistic, but tinkering with the current system, is also unrealistic.

    As someone who's had to navigate the individual insurance market for the past 20 years, I was quite invested in the ACA progress, but as soon as I stopped qualifying for the premium credits (which go away at ~$40k/year income, which is NOTHING in NYC), I wasn't able to use it anymore and had to seek out alternate types of catastrophic insurance and do my best to stay healthy.

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  • Tram is my favorite. 

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    And Groucho’s least favorite

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    Aww poor Groucho. 

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  • I love Tram but the grey noses are adorable 😍 

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  • “And then there was Tram, who is just pure trouble” xD

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  • I love this! Thank you! ❤️

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  • I like how the void is just Tram for trouble. I have a void and yep, chaotic trouble

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  • Wow, I LOVE the name theme and I love all these sweet faces!

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    I've never even considered keeping shelter names before, but if I get to keep the graybies, I will absolutely keep their names.

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  • I love this, especially the Tram is trouble bit, but I have a soft spot for voids

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  • I love Tram! Gotta love trouble! 😈

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  • Adorable descriptions! The marking on Briefcase’s face is called a blaze? Never knew that. My daughter’s tuxie has that exact marking on his face too! Is that old GoFundMe still available for you to use?

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    she has contribution links on other pages. sorry, but as someone on a fixed income (stupid name for it! I guess it's fixed because i's not having more?) I can't afford to contribute. darn! I just keep praying.

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    I know, I had a huge dental bill when she started asking so I could only donate $25. Fixed income here too!

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  • I love every one of these beebees.

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  • Breifcase looks identical to a cat we used to have. The "blaze" on the nose we used to call his star lol

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  • I just want ALL of them!!!!!🖤🤍🩶🤍

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    The most exceptional litter I have ever fostered, by far.

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    They are adorable and so fun to watch grow, I’m sure! ❤️

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  • I love that Tram is the only one who is a void with the smallest bit of white

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