​I am so sad to tell you that on Sunday we said goodbye to Mary.  On Saturday night, she suddenly started to not feel well and by Sunday morning she let us know that she was ready to let go.  The vet thinks she probably started to have an internal bleed from the tumor that had extended into her abdomen.

It was such an honor and a privilege to care for her over the past six months.  The first time we ever saw Mary, she was sitting in the back seat of a car of someone who had found her wandering the streets of Sacramento.  In all of the 38 years that I have been doing animal rescue work, I have never seen an animal that was so emaciated. Every bone stuck out from her skin and she could not walk.  Her face was sunken in from starvation, yet her huge brown eyes begged for help.

So we took her in knowing that she probably would not live very long.  She was diagnosed with a very advanced anal cancer that our veterinarian said was inoperable.  We were told to take her home, slowly start to feed her, and give her the best end of life possible.  And that's exactly what we did.  Our veterinarian predicted she would not survive more than a month.

But one month passed, and then another and another.  And Mary made herself right at home in our house.  She was fed five small meals every day plus lots of treats that she always ate with gusto.  I feel so honored that she bonded with me very quickly.  In fact, she never took her big brown eyes off of me.  Wherever I was - there she was -  lying on the floor next to my chair, watching me make her dinner, or under the piano as I fumbled through a Chopin nocturne. 

I do feel that somehow, for some miraculous reason, Mary was meant to find her way to us.  It's amazing how in just 6 short months, this beautiful, gentle being made her way into the hearts of so many people.

I miss you so much Mary.  You will live in our hearts forever.
-JP Novic, CAPE Executive Director