This is Northern Californiaโs first free-roaming cat sanctuary, rescue, feline surgery center, and spay/neuter clinic. Thank you for rescuing and caring for so many cats ๐ฅน๐งก
TT๐ธ : valerielovesgrooming
Today in the United States we observe Memorial Day. It is a day we honor and mourn U.S. military personnel who died while serving their country. May they rest in peace. ๐บ๐ธ๐โโฌ๐พ๐โโฌ๐บ๐ธ
Today in the UK we are having a heatwave x BY ORDER OF LARRY THE CAT purrlease all cat parents make sure we have water with ice cubes & cool places away from the heat to nap THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS IMPURRTANT MATTER x @number10cat#kittytwitter ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฅฐ๐ฅฐ๐ฅฐ
When Mariska Hargitay was cast as Detective Olivia Benson in 1999, she thought she had landed a steady acting job on a new Law & Order spinoff called Special Victims Unit.
At the time, it felt like a career step forward. A solid role. A reliable paycheck. She had already spent years working steadily in television, including time on โER,โ but nothing that had truly made her a household name.
She had no idea the role would completely reshape her life.
Not long after SVU premiered, the letters started arriving. At first they were ordinary fan mail โ autograph requests, compliments, messages from viewers who loved the show.
Then the tone changed.
โI was assaulted when I was 15. I am 40 now and I have never told anyone.โ
Mariska sat alone in her trailer holding the letter, stunned silent. Soon there were more. Then hundreds more. Then thousands.
These werenโt fan letters.
They were confessions.
Women. Men. Survivors carrying decades of silence finally putting their pain into words. And the heartbreaking part was this: they werenโt writing to Mariska Hargitay.
They were writing to Olivia Benson.
A fictional detective had become the safest person they could imagine telling the truth to.
Mariska understood exactly what that meant. Survivors were so desperate to be believed that they trusted someone who didnโt even exist. Most actors would have thanked the audience politely and moved on.
She moved closer to the pain instead.
She trained as a certified rape crisis advocate. She studied trauma and sat with experts who worked with survivors every day. She wanted to understand the reality behind the stories arriving in her hands.
Then, in 2004, she made a decision that reached far beyond Hollywood.
She founded the Joyful Heart Foundation.
Its mission was enormous: help survivors heal and transform the way society responds to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse.
Five years later, another discovery changed the direction of her work completely.
Across America, rape kits were sitting untouched in police warehouses. Evidence collected from survivors after assaults had been abandoned for years โ sometimes decades. In some cities, the backlog reached into the tens of thousands.
Each forgotten kit represented someone still waiting for justice.
Mariska refused to let that continue quietly.
She testified before Congress. Met with governors, prosecutors, and police departments. Walked through storage facilities where evidence gathered dust. In 2017, she co-produced the HBO documentary โI Am Evidence,โ following survivors fighting to have their kits finally tested.
The film won an Emmy in 2019.
Her first Emmy had come from portraying Olivia Benson.
Her second came from doing the work Benson would have fought for herself.
Year after year, the movement grew. Mandatory testing laws. Tracking systems. Survivor notification rights. Funding for crime labs. Reform spread state by state until, in May 2026, Maine became the final state to adopt at least one major pillar of rape kit reform.
For the first time, every American jurisdiction had laws addressing the backlog.
Mariska called it โa promise that the system can and will be transformed into a source of light, not darkness.โ
Today, she is still playing Olivia Benson, now the longest-running live-action primetime character in television history. But when she talks about what matters most, she rarely starts with awards or fame.
She starts with survivors.
Because what began as letters to a fictional detective became something far bigger โ proof that when people are finally believed, entire systems can begin to change.
OZZY UPDATE:
Having been attacked by an urban fox and sustained significant injuries (legs, paws and body), our much loved Ozzy (yes, he's named after him!), underwent surgery to try to save the rear leg. unfortunately it was not succesful and he has had to have the rear leg amputated.
The vet tells us that cats become very adept at living with 3 legs? After a month of confinement insde the house to recover, today is freedom day and he can once again go out in to the garden.
Make sure your cat is kept in at night to keep it safe from such fox attacks!
Thanks to all the well wishers and supporters, it is very much appreciated.
@TeslaJigsaw On a cost basis, it would take 5.7 years to accumulate the total cost at a subscription amount of ยฃ99 per month, along with not being allowed to transfer to another vehicle.
I am waiting until it comes out an pay the subscription