"I rescued Alfie as a baby kitten and fostered him for over a year. He was a feral TNR failure and
it ended up taking him months to come out of his shell. And he was always, even when he was
adopted, very shy. But he had the soul of an angel. The most gentle, sweet cat I have ever met.
He was always shy but once he warmed up to you, he just wanted to be a lap cat, full of purrs.
And he liked to talk, he would have meow conversations with me.
I had given up on the idea of adopting him out and then a potential adopter, Jo, contacted me from
Petfinder. She was PERFECT. She didn't care that he was skittish, when she met him she fell in
love, even though he wouldn't let her touch him. She adopted him about 7 months ago and named
him Ollie. He went through a transformation with her. He had kitty sisters that he loved and played
with all of the time. He totally came out of his shell. It was a match made in heaven and I was so
optimistic about his long and happy life with his new mom and siblings.
Unfortunatly, about 6 months after Jo adopted Ollie, he got sick. The vet diagnosed him with FIP
which is a fatal mutation of a common virus that most cats have. The vet immediately started him
on steroids which helped perk Ollie back up. He spent the past month living a normal life,
bouncing around the house, playing with his sisters and eating lots of yummy canned food. Ollie
was comfortable and loved when he finally started to deteriorate and it was his time to pass.
Ollie made a huge impact on me, he gave me hope for shy kitties. I was blessed and lucky to have
spent a year with him. He was one of the special ones, just pure goodness and I'm so sad to see
him part this world so young. I'm just so thankful that I decided not to release him the day I trapped
him, that I met Jo who gave Oliie a real home, and he was warm, never hungry, happy and loved
his entire life." - Kristin McKnight, co-founder of SAR, 12.19.2011
In the words of Ollie's mom, Jo... "he was so strikingly handsome, and I was so proud to
have him in my family. Although he had humble beginnings, he had such a sweet & gentle soul,
he was so smart, and he was so long lean & athletic. When he trotted around the house (like
going towards one of the windows to watch birds) he looked like a gorgeous quarter-horse.
When he slunk down to the floor to sneak up on some unsuspecting squirrel on the other side of
the glass, he just looked like a magnificent hunter. He was growing into a gorgeous boy. My heart
was set on Ollie from the beginning...I truly believe we will see him again. I had a long talk with
Ollie about that before we went up to the vet's office that day. Maybe some day it will all make
sense -- as to why he was taken too soon. But I do know this ... I do not regret adopting him or
fighting the best I could to get a very few extra weeks for him. I loved him. "