Meda Kessler is an exceptional human being.  As the editor of  360 West magazine, she has a finger on the pulse of every cool thing happening in North Texas, but what makes her remarkable is her love and dedication to the most at-risk animals. She is wined and dined by the best our fair city has to offer, but anyone who knows her will tell you she’s happiest when she’s volunteering at the Humane Society of North Texas.  Besides cleaning the cages of discarded animals, and tending to her own rescued menagerie, she also looks after the feral animals at her office (mostly cats, but she’s been known to put out water for dehydrated raccoons during a heat wave too).

Cassie, 360 West’s official outdoor office cat, can never live inside a home. She’s not that kind of feline. But, like every other animal that crosses Meda’s path, Cassie has come to trust that Meda will look out for her. It was no surprise to anyone that Meda spent one of her rare days off rigging up a warm, safe place for Cassie to spend the coldest nights.

SLAC-kers are animal lovers, so when they heard Cassie was getting a new home, they wanted to help.  The girls picked pretty hand towels and sewed mylar blankets inside them. (Side note: mylar is supposed to act as insulation – reflecting the cat’s heat back onto itself. Mylar blankets are what volunteers wrap marathon runners in after a race, and they’re used in emergency survival kits.)

Here’s a tutorial about making a heat-reflective blanket for outdoor cats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcKK_Mmzzzo

One of our team was too sick to help sew, but she wanted to be on hand to make sure we were doing a good job.

As usual, we had a lot to talk about.

We’re still learning sewing techniques, so we’re hopeful the stitches held as Cassie rubbed up against them.

It was cold that day, and we somehow managed to leave the house without real coats or gloves, so there are no pictures of the girls installing the blankets (they attached them to the interior walls of Cassie’s house).

Here are Cassie and her raccoon friend six months later in the middle of a hot Texas summer.