So what is an Emotional Support Animal?
- It's basically an animal like a cat or a dog who understands you and makes you happy when you're sad, in pain or just content.
So what's the difference between that and the chronic pain companion?
- The ESA is more like if you have a mental illness vs being physically or medically disabled with one or more clinical issues.
- ***Chronic Pain Companions are not considered as an ESA, not many professionals would consider CPCs as an ESA only a select few will.
For Example like myself and be prepared for the list. When I mean a list I mean it.
- Borderline Personality Disorder (mental illness)
- Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (it's an rare 1 per 2,000 chance autoimmune disease that overlaps with other autoimmune disease)
- Fibromyalgia (its been explained as a central nervous system disorder when it can be neurological as well)
- Scoliosis (physical disability meaning curvature of the spine)
- Degenerative Disc Disease (meaning my spine is deteriorating over time)
- Ophthalmic Migraine (Optic Migraine meaning I go blind from 2 minutes to 30 minutes depending how severe the migraine is)
- Vertigo (I don't really need to explain it other than it feels like you're walking and then you can feel the earth's gravitational pull moving)
- TMJ (Its like your jaw locking as you're tilting your head back gasping waiting for it to stop as it restrains you or dislocation of the jaw or pain)
- Tinnitus (ringing in the ears)
- probably another illness the next time I go see my rheumatologist.
You're probably thinking how are you still alive from all that pain.
These are my Chronic Pain Companions/Emotional Support Animals.
HakuCPC
He comes to my aid when I have my flare ups or episodes. That's my baby. He normally has two left white whiskers on his eyebrow. |
TogetherThese are my boys. They are battle of the flowers cats from 2015 that is celebrated here in San Antonio. They both compliment each other in personalities.
|
NinjaESA
He comes to us when we are not happy. He's more of my fiance's baby than mine. |
So what was my process of getting them to be what they are now?
Every kitten/cat is different. You can't just pick one you have to know about them personality wise. Always ask if they are like a comfort cat, esa or cpc or just a normal cat. With these two Haku I have had him two weeks before he was born with his mother Scarlett she was a long hair black cat and she was friendly and needed a home so we brought her in and then realized she was pregnant with her small frame. After time passed Haku was born and we found Ninja 3 days later. I heard him meowing on the same day Haku was born but couldn't find him we found him in a flower pot which his mother Silver I think she was like a maine coon mix beautiful cat but she couldn't be rehabilitated she was too feral for us to do anything with her. We brought his litter and the mom in because it was raining during that time and I think it rained for about a week.
So as they were growing older Silver she wanted out of the home there two litters were about two weeks of age now. So she got out and didn't come back for her litter, we were lucky that Scarlett accepted her new litter to take care of. When all six I think there were 6 total about 4 weeks old learning about their little world Haku decided to pick me none of the others did but him. I didn't know at the time and was not diagnosed with my multiple illnesses a few months after that. He became an excellent cpc. Ninja we didn't intend on keeping him but he won us over. So from then on we kept trapping kittens that could be rehabilitated so they can have a good home. Within 2016 I started grooming kittens to learn how to be good CPC/ESA based on their personality. As I'm aware of I'm the only one who does this. Making them learn how to be gentle, learning the word ow, that's not nice and etc. And people who adopted from my family are happy with those kittens at the time now cats and they love what I have done with them. Others that were basically affectionate and normal I don't get updates on.
Now it's 2017:
I was told basically get your primary care physician to write a note like a prescription stating that you need your animals for your emotional support and well being for your x amount of cats. And a separate paper that says all your medical conditions so landlords don't think you're making it up. People do things like that just so they don't have to pay the pet deposit fee. The home I used to live in did not like we had cats even though I had permission paper or not to have them there, they wanted me to throw them into the road so they could get hit by a car. I refused to do that and just moved. I'm not gonna stay in a home that thinks cats should be killed.
So as they were growing older Silver she wanted out of the home there two litters were about two weeks of age now. So she got out and didn't come back for her litter, we were lucky that Scarlett accepted her new litter to take care of. When all six I think there were 6 total about 4 weeks old learning about their little world Haku decided to pick me none of the others did but him. I didn't know at the time and was not diagnosed with my multiple illnesses a few months after that. He became an excellent cpc. Ninja we didn't intend on keeping him but he won us over. So from then on we kept trapping kittens that could be rehabilitated so they can have a good home. Within 2016 I started grooming kittens to learn how to be good CPC/ESA based on their personality. As I'm aware of I'm the only one who does this. Making them learn how to be gentle, learning the word ow, that's not nice and etc. And people who adopted from my family are happy with those kittens at the time now cats and they love what I have done with them. Others that were basically affectionate and normal I don't get updates on.
Now it's 2017:
I was told basically get your primary care physician to write a note like a prescription stating that you need your animals for your emotional support and well being for your x amount of cats. And a separate paper that says all your medical conditions so landlords don't think you're making it up. People do things like that just so they don't have to pay the pet deposit fee. The home I used to live in did not like we had cats even though I had permission paper or not to have them there, they wanted me to throw them into the road so they could get hit by a car. I refused to do that and just moved. I'm not gonna stay in a home that thinks cats should be killed.
Where do I find a CPC or ESA?
- It's hard to find especially for cats because not everyone is going to devote their time to making them what they need to be based on their personality. If you really want a CPC/ESA you can adopt from me. You don't have to pay an extensive amount of money when it's through the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition and you only have to pay up to $150.00 for a single kitten under $200.00 for two. I can tell you which foster I have that is perfect for that. If you are specifically looking for a dog there are rescue organizations that are made for that.