In Memory of Queenie 1/18/2014 – 1/8/2024
A lot of cats find their way into Shadow Cats after surviving against all odds, through TNR work, cruelty seizures, hoarding situations, or as a last resort after suffering substantial medical difficulties. Queenie’s story is more gentle, though perhaps no less of a tearjerker. She lived with her favorite person and a few other cats, including Poco! She knew tremendous love in her lifetime, the comfort of a home, and a loving embrace, but her life changed in 2022 when she lost her person.
She was rescued, but she and Poco struggled to adjust to their new lives. Her rescuers plead to keep them together, a bonded pair, as they traversed this new territory of grief. Thankfully for this bonded pair, Shadow Cats had room, and we welcomed them into our lives with open hearts and hands at the ready for some well-deserved pets. Shadow Cats previously had a ‘Beauty Queen’, so that’s when the darling nickname Queenie was born, and she wore it so well.
Over time, they adjusted and grew into expected and known fixtures in our lives. Queenie found a favorite spot on the windowsill in the Oasis kitchen, spending many of her days sunbathing sweetly. She ruled over her domain with a merciful paw, though every now and then she wasn’t afraid to smack a certain Calypso that encroached upon her space on the windowsill. Mostly, though, they napped together on soft blankets, watching the sun rise and set, and Queenie enjoyed even the littlest of life’s splendors on her perch.
When she wasn’t on her perch, she waited expectantly on the kitchen counter for someone to exit the laundry room or slink into the kitchen so she could receive eagerly anticipated pets…and treats! Our Queenie certainly had a greedy streak, and every day when the staff cracked open cans of wet food for feeding, Queenie could be found sampling the main batch before it hit the masses. Quality control is a very important job, after all, and our benevolent ruler was kind enough to risk it herself for her subjects! What a thoughtful girl.
And so very gentle. Queenie had this way about her—these big doe eyes that reminded me of Twiggy, the model’s. She’d look up at you, so soft, so tiny, and when you’d move to pet her, she’d vibrate with the sweetest purr. Gentle, so gentle. Gentle as her passing from this life and into the next. She left us as calmly as she walked with us in life, surrounded by loving hands, a laugh about her quirky little personality, and so many tears shed. We knew it was her time to go, struggling to keep on with masses on her liver, and she left us with a final breath. Perhaps a sigh of relief, with no more pain to feel, and with her favorite person’s lap waiting to be warmed across the rainbow bridge, and so many other Shadow Cats waiting to greet her across its rippling waters.
Queenie, you will be so incredibly missed, for not even the wallflowers go without our love, our affections, our entire hearts. Thank you for loving Queenie—the volunteers, the staff, Louis R and Michelle P who sponsored her, and any listening to her story now. She was a special girl, and she will never be forgotten, forever memorialized in our garden and in our hearts.
Queenie had 2 Sponsors
Louis Rossi
Michelle Polanco