Legal beagle family helps the cats
Two generations of lawyers and a teenager leave their mark at the Pahrump cat rescue.
Peggy Sutton is a North Carolina attorney and works part-time in the Best Friends legal department. She has a penchant for grumpy cats, quirky cats, special-needs cats…ok, she’s a bona fide “crazy cat lady.” Turns out it’s in the genes.
Peggy told her daughter, Sarah Kirby, that she was going to help the cats. At first, Sarah, who is an attorney in Virginia, said she just couldn’t make it, too much to do, you know. But of course, when Peggy said, “Ok, I’m leaving,” Sarah couldn’t take it.
Peggy got a twinkle in her eye recalling how easy it was to twist Sarah’s arm. “Sarah called back and asked if two or three days might be of some help. Then she called back again to say that her daughter, Emma, who is 16, wanted to come also and she had made reservations.
“What a pair. They worked the entire time they were there, helping me with the laundry, working, cleaning the cat rooms, and finally purchasing CD players for the hospital rooms with soft music CD's for the cats there.
“They were so touched at the death of one of the cats, that Emma picked sunflowers on the way to the compound and put them in a water bottle at the memorial post and asked me to promise to replace them each day, which I did. They both did not want to leave, but Emma's junior year at high school was to start the next day. I loved their being there with me and they were a great help.”
Peggy’s contribution is something the staff is still talking about. She turned a terribly disorganized laundry room into the ‘Cat Gap.’ She pulled everything off of the shelves, sorted the towels, pillows, quilts, etc. While doing loads of laundry, she deep cleaned the entire building, creating a place for people to sit down and catch a quick break, converted the bathroom from “gas station décor” to catered hotel status with a clean pile of bath towels, wash cloths and bathmats. And in her spare time she organized the procedures for the wash station to clean cat food dishes and cat boxes.
Adding to her grandmother’s efforts, Emma drew ‘Happy Cat Toy Shoppe’ along with a happy cat.
“I have never seen so many dedicated people working so hard in such hard conditions. Each day there are improvements, and I can only say that I have never been so proud of being a part of the Best Friends family.
“There is one cat who used to live in the laundry and now is part of the general population whose name is Puddin’. She is my kind of cat. She cries and cries and I would go out to soothe her. When I picked her up she was so grumpy and rude, that I re-named her ‘Grumps.’ She met me every morning.
“What an experience! I hope that I get the chance to come back for a week or ten days.”