may she rest in peace

My friend Bea was buried today. She was a good lady who ran a cat rescue operation out of her private home. She had about 90 cats living on her property.

I adopted my two cats from her about 12 years ago. Then, when I needed desperately to find another home for them last year, she took them back without hesitation. (My wife became extremely allergic to cats and began to develop asthma because of them, so we could no longer keep them. We had given the cats to somebody else two years before but he no longer wanted them. Our cats are now happily settled in at my sister's house).

Bea told me of the troubles she had with the local authorities. For example, she was not allowed to charge for adoptions because she wasn't a licensed shelter. This made it much harder to advertise and place cats. Charging a small fee for adoptions is a good thing, for two reasons. For one, it obviously helps recover the costs associated with running the shelter (medical, food, etc.). Secondly, it discourages folks who aren't serious or would do harm to the animal from attempting to adopt.

Here's to you, Bea. You brought much love to many cats, and to the people they ended up with.