CW : Some really heavy stuff - self-harm

I found SaveAFox a while back. Don't even know what. Was ready to write today when I sat down and saw this video from Ethan of SaveAFox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ql.....9a1zk&t=4s


Mikayla's videos were always something to make me smile. Her cheerful voice, her love for the animals in her care, the bubbling enthusiasm were things that made my day so much better.

I don't know much about what sort of bullying and accusations were going on in her life. Regardless of the accusations, millions of people's lives were brightened by Mikayla's videos. And so much money has been raised for wildlife rehab because of them.

Seeing the open grief on her husband's face. Hearing him describe doing CPR on her. That was one of the hardest things I've ever had to watch. One of the most emotionally devastating.

And I am ANGRY. So fucking angry.

Because regardless of the veracity any accusations of her quality as wildlife rehab or fiduciary irresponsibility, the relentless bullying and online harassment was so bad that it drove her to take a step she should never taken. A child doesn't have a mother now. A husband has lost his wife.

I would never wish the pain that I have experienced in my life... the pain that her husband is feeling now, on any one person. Because wanting someone to feel that pain means someone else's life is lost.

But god damn, I CAN wish that all the folk that perpetrated the kind of harassment that would drive someone to suicide... I hope they are named, shamed and ostracized in every part of their lives.

That I will never hear her voice again in a new video about Finnegan or any one of the multitudes of animals in their care makes my world a little darker.

The perpetrators of such harassment stole that from me, as much as mental illness did. Stole it from her husband, stole it from their daughter. Stole it from the lives of the animals she cared for.

Go donate to the organization. They deserve it.