Something my friend Nansi and I shared all our lives was our love for cats. The first cat I got from Nansi was some time in our 20’s. We were both still living at home with our parents and her cat had kittens. I adopted Midnight, my very first cat, and although he never took to me, he did love my mother and lived a long and happy life.

Flash forward many years later… in 2018 Nansi had to move out of a house she was renting a room in and was worried about a stray cat she had been feeding. She couldn’t catch him and was afraid he would starve once she had moved out. She posted a desperate plea on Facebook for someone to help her as she was running out of time. And so, I began a process of daily 5pm visits to her porch to leave food and slowly gain the cat’s trust. After I don’t know how many days (it must have been at least a month or two) Grey finally stepped hungrily into a cat carrier with me sitting right next to him to close the door. Grey became the second cat Nansi gifted me, and I have him still. He is honestly the sweetest cat I have ever known.

Then came 2025. A day after Thanksgiving Nansi was driving who knows where when a car crossed the line going in the opposite direction and struck her head on. I do not know all of the details but she was taken to the hospital where she passed later that evening. My friend since junior high school was gone, leaving an enormous amount of family and friends that she had graced with her presence in their lives. Nansi was a loving, gifted, spiritual woman who loved her music, theater, church, friends and family with as much abandon as her cats.

After a remembrance held for Nansi at her church that my wife Pam and I attended, we were touched by how many turned out to pay their last respects. We were all shocked, confused and grief stricken over the loss of our friend. And that is where I learned that her two cats, Beatrice and Selleck, needed a new home. Pam and I discussed it and decided to add them to our family of three cats. I picked them up the day before Christmas Eve and brought them to their new home which went incredibly smoothly – they all got along! And Nansi had somehow gifted me a third and fourth cat.

Sadly, while Beatrice seems happy and healthy, Selleck has a big problem. He has a tumor on his left front paw that wraps underneath and causes him great pain. A visit to our vet to review bloodwork and x-rays confirmed that it is cancer. Unfortunately, the only way to prevent it from causing more harm is to amputate his leg.

Selleck is a loving cat. The doctor estimates that he is at least 7 years old. He craves lots of attention and purrs loudly when petted, then he disappears to someplace warm and soft and snoozes. He loves snack time and chasing our cat Jasper. Both he and Beatrice have only been with us for a short time, but they have both claimed a place in our hearts.

It breaks my heart that he will need to lose his leg, but cats are known to move beyond this procedure very well and can live long and happy lives afterwards. It was either this, or watch the cancer claim him slowly.

His operation is scheduled for Thursday, January 15th. He will stay at the veterinary hospital overnight and I will be able to bring him home the next day. He will have stitches that will naturally disintegrate as he heals, and he will have a protective sweater to protect his shoulder. After two weeks he should be fully mobile and on his way to a healthy life.

But the procedure and follow-up aren’t cheap.

I know many of Nansi’s friends were not in a place to take in a cat, much less two cats, but I am hoping that with your contributions to this we can all help fund a new future for Selleck. Any amount is so very appreciated, and I know, wherever in the cosmos Nansi is, she will love you for it.