Friday Cat Blogging – 1 December 2017

Last week I was looking out the window and noticed that the sun was shining brightly on my neighbor’s bougainvillea plant. Then one of the cats walked by on the top of the fence. I went out with my camera and immediately realized that a picture of a cat with the bougainvillea in the background would be spectacular.

However, the sun only shined properly twice a day, for about half an hour. And the cat had to be positioned just so in order to get the right angle. Needless to say, the cats cooperated about as well as you’d expect. I’d put Hopper on the fence and she’d immediately walk away. Hilbert would hop onto the fence, but by the time I got outside he’d decide to jump into the neighbor’s yard. In the afternoon I’d see Hopper heading toward the right spot, but as soon as she saw me she’d scurry behind a plant. (She’s afraid—with good reason—that I might be planning to pick her up and take her inside. She likes to make me play a little bit first before she agrees to be escorted inside.)

Long story short, I finally got the picture I wanted. Close enough, anyway. And it was even with the right cat, since Hilbert’s black face contrasts with the flowers ideally. He is today’s supermodel for the cover of Feline Vogue.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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