2025 Angel Cats
Precious Patti left us too soon on August 18, 2025. She was approximately 16 years old and arrived at Blue Bell only a few weeks before, on July 12. Patti and her real sister, Colleen, came to Blue Bell after one of their owners passed away and the other needed to go into assisted living and could not take the cats with her. Their younger housemate Casper had been placed in April, but the girls had to wait a little longer for space to free up before they moved in.
Patti was sweet and outgoing. She loved to be around people, sitting in a lap or climbing on a shoulder. She and Colleen were very bonded and were often found snuggling together in a big bed on the ground or tucked away in a cave bed. After about two weeks, the girls began exploring the community and meeting their new housemates. Patti was curious and went all over the house with her tail held high. On July 26, we moved Casper from the Lower House to their room in the Upper House so he could be reunited with them. Their reintroduction went well. Patti and Casper were very relaxed with each other, sniffing, grooming, and completely at ease sharing the same space.
Prior to her arrival, Patti’s lab work showed she had chronic kidney disease, a common health issue for senior cats. She was not on any treatment when she arrived, and we were giving her some time to settle in before taking her to see our veterinarian for a recheck examination. On August 5, Patti was quiet. She was holding her head down and was having a difficult time walking so we took her to the vet right away. He was concerned about her level of dehydration, heard a heart murmur, and identified she had one enlarged kidney and one that was very small, something that her prior veterinarian noted in April. Her body temperature was below normal, so we transferred her to the emergency hospital for additional diagnostics and monitoring. Patti remained hospitalized until August 8 and was diagnosed with acute kidney failure. During her time at the hospital, her kidney values showed improvement. She was eating well, and was affectionate to the hospital staff, purring and giving head butts. We brought her back to Blue Bell and continued daytime hospitalization on IV fluids at our primary veterinarian. On August 10 she had a high temperature and stopped eating. The next day she was back at our vet for another round of IV fluids, and we started her on appetite stimulants. Unfortunately, she did not improve. We began to syringe-feed her, hoping that she just needed some time to bounce back. On August 13 her lab work showed a new problem, severe anemia. The kidneys play a vital role in regulating the production of red blood cells, so anemia is common with kidney disease. We think this was a delayed effect of the acute kidney failure she suffered the previous week.
Over the next few days Patti continued to grow weaker. We administered medications and gave her all the supportive care we could, hoping that she would recover. But she became more withdrawn, both from people and from her sister Colleen. They no longer shared the same bed and Patti no longer sought out laps and shoulders for as much human attention as she could get. She still enjoyed sitting on the patios and was active but would not eat on her own. On August 16, her family visited and that seemed to brighten her spirits a little. By the next day however, we could see the anemia was taking a significant toll. She collapsed and it took her several minutes to recover. She still did not want to eat on her own and we knew the time had come to say goodbye. We planned a euthanasia appointment for her on the afternoon of Monday August 18, but Patti began having difficulty breathing in the morning. Jenna took her to the vet right away and was with her when she passed peacefully over Rainbow Bridge.
One of Patti’s family members said, “I know my dad is happy to see her in heaven and she is curled up in his lap.” 2009 to August 18, 2025
Memorial coming soon
Memorial coming soon
We lost our Munchkin-mix Billy on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, just a few weeks before his 17th birthday.
Billy came to Blue Bell in February 2023 with his housemate Molly, all the way from Mississippi! Their owner passed away and her daughter promised that she would take care of Billy and Molly. Both kitties showed themselves to be very adaptable on their cross-county road trip. Billy even began to be more affectionate than he had been in his former home. He was shy when he first arrived, but staff worked with him patiently and soon his gentle, loving nature shone. He loved brushing and petting. He loved cuddling with Molly, and he was curious about the other cats. After about a month the two of them began exploring the house and had supervised visits with the rest of the community. Billy made more kitty friends and by May, he was comfortable all over the house, especially on the patios. In Mississippi, he and Molly were “mostly indoor cats with generous outdoor privileges,” a lifestyle they were able to continue to enjoy thanks to the large catios at Blue Bell.
During his time at Blue Bell, Billy became social, both with other cats and with volunteers and visitors. His “sister” Molly remained his best friend, and they could often be found cuddling together in their favorite spot at the top of the white cat tree in the buffer room. After Clarence passed away, Billy became Haggis’s new target for back-of-the-neck bonding bites. Many times, we witnessed Haggis stalk and jump on Billy’s back with a little squeal of delight. Other times we would find Billy with the fur on the back of his neck wet or sticking up at odd angles, a sure sign Haggis had been pestering him. Billy never seemed to mind this attention. Although he was patient and submissive to Haggis, he would sometimes bite Molly on the back of her neck! He loved attention from volunteers and visitors too. When a troop of Girl Scouts visited, Billy calmly sat in the middle of a circle of the girls, while two or three of them at a time petted him gently. Sometimes he would entertain visitors with his curious drinking habit: repeatedly dipping a paw in the pond or a water bowl and licking the water off his paw!
In May 2023, Billy visited our veterinarian for the first time due to constipation, which became a chronic issue for him. At that exam we also discovered he had a heart murmur. He began losing weight, and another exam in November revealed dental disease. We had an echocardiogram done to assess anesthetic risk and it was determined that his heart disease was mild, and he was not at an increased risk, so we proceeded with the dental in early December. He had a few minor extractions and recovered from the procedure well. He was alert and eating that evening, but the next day he was quiet and had no appetite. By evening he still had not eaten and was vomiting. His breathing rate was low, and his heart rate was high, so he was hospitalized at the emergency veterinarian overnight. By the next day he had stabilized and was well enough to return to Blue Bell. Unfortunately, two days later he suffered acute hypotension and hypothermia. We took him back to the emergency clinic for further treatment and assessment. He returned to Blue Bell after several days of intensive care, newly diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, pancreatitis, and GI disease. He started several medications to help manage these issues and his health stabilized until an episode of severe constipation in February 2024. We adjusted his medications and were able to get him back to regular bowel movements, however the radiographs taken also showed a suspicious nodule present in his lungs that needed to be monitored.
Billy remained in stable health throughout the rest of 2024. In February 2025 he tested positive for ringworm and joined Haggis, Rocky, and Honey in the isolation room. We discussed his case with the veterinarians and decided the risk of oral antifungals was too great given his numerous other health issues. We treated him with topicals and hoped he would clear the infection quickly since only a small area on his tail was affected. But the weeks turned into months, and his tests continued to show positive. As winter turned to spring and then summer, Billy’s weight and appetite declined. Radiographs and lab work in early June 2025 showed the lung nodule previously identified had grown into a larger mass and a new nodule was found. This was suggestive of cancer. In addition, the lab work showed significant progression of kidney disease. On the evening of June 17, Billy was very quiet, and his breathing rate was low. The next morning, he had no appetite and was having difficulty walking. We took him to the veterinarian for an exam. They ran lab work, and it showed his kidney values were continuing to decline, he was in kidney failure. He had lost nearly one pound in two weeks. With two severe medical issues, the prognosis was poor. We knew it was time to say goodbye to our sweet Billy.
Run In Paradise Billy-boy, Mr. Bill, Billiam. Your Mama is waiting to welcome you with open arms!
July 25, 2008 to June 18, 2025
We lost our green-eyed Pixel on Monday, March 24. She was 16 years old.
Pixel came to Blue Bell in December 2019 with her housemate Tz'u-hsi (Shoo-she, RIP 2020) after their owner passed away. Shoo had advanced kidney disease and only lived a short time with us. After she passed, we tried spending more time with Pixel, hoping that the increased human contact would encourage her to come out of her shell. But we found out from her family that Pixel was a very shy girl and needed space. She was most comfortable when someone she trusted sat quietly with her and brushed her. Once she was out in the Lower House community, she loved to sit up on the highest catwalks, soaking up the afternoon sunshine. She got along well with most of the other cats, but Loki often displayed aggression towards her and the two of them needed to be separated.
Pixel’s health issues began towards the end of 2020. Like many senior cats, she struggled with frequent vomiting, low appetite and weight loss. Unfortunately, she did not tolerate the level of handling needed to administer daily treatments, so our options were limited to medications that she would eat in food. In February of 2023, her labs showed early kidney disease, and she was diagnosed with high blood pressure. We were relieved when she consistently ate her blood pressure medication mixed in food or a Churu. May of 2023 brought the first of what would become recurring urinary tract infections. Whenever an infection was flaring up, Pixel would let us know by peeing on beds around the house. She knew how to get our attention when she needed us, and luckily the UTIs were usually treatable with a single-dose injectable antibiotic. In September 2023 she began limping and we started treatment for arthritis. An exam in April 2024 revealed progression of kidney disease. The veterinarian recommended that we start Pixel on fluid therapy, and we attempted to do that for her. We hoped that she would feel better with the fluids and would learn to tolerate them, but after about a month we had to stop. Instead of being a bonding experience, the fluid therapy was stressful for her. She became terrified of Jenna in particular because she was the one giving fluids most frequently.
July of 2024 brought new challenges. Pixel was moved to the Upper House with all the Lower House cats during the flooring renovation. We hoped this move could be a new beginning for her, but she never really acclimated to life in the Upper House. She spent most of her days tucked away in a back corner of the third patio. When the renovation work was completed in August, we moved her back to the Lower House into her own enclosure. That fall and winter her kidney disease continued to worsen, and her weight continued to decline. One morning in February 2025, caregiver Cindy found blood in Pixel’s enclosure. She had a torn nail on her back foot. We were able to give her a topical pain medication and to take her to the veterinarian for exams to check healing progress. Although her nail was healing well, her appetite was declining. We tried a topical appetite stimulant with limited success. She was hospitalized for dehydration on March 7 and x-rays taken that day did not reveal any further insight into her declining quality of life.
Her owner’s brother told us that they both used to sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to Pixel. We sang that to her, and she responded to hearing the song. She relaxed and purred. When Joyce played a video of Judy Garland singing the song, Pixel turned her body to watch the screen. She continued to enjoy brushing from the few people that she trusted. During her last few weeks, we decided to manually medicate her to see if we could stabilize her with additional treatment. She tolerated the handling but unfortunately the medications did not work. On March 23, Jenna and Joyce reviewed the Quality of Life scale. In most categories Pixel scored in the middle range, however, eating was 0 and the amount she was eating was not consistent with life. We checked her weight, hoping she might be eating at night when her enclosure door was open to the community. When Joyce picked her up, Pixel was completely limp. That was a bad sign because normally she struggled when picked up. Her weight was down another pound from the beginning of the month; three pounds total lost since December. With that information, we made the difficult decision to have her put to sleep the next day since nothing had helped improve her appetite and she was already very weak.
Pixel received lots of love from volunteers and staff who were at Blue Bell on Monday March 24. Then Joyce took her to the veterinarian where she passed peacefully and quickly while listening to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Jenna said goodbye at Blue Bell. Even though she loves all the cats, she knew that her presence would only be stressful for Pixel due to their strained relationship. We asked the veterinarian to perform a necropsy, hoping to find some answers for her rapid decline. A few days later, we received the pathology report which concluded she had high grade, large cell lymphoma. This is a very aggressive cancer with a short survival time so we know we did everything we could for her.
Run In Paradise, sweet girl. We know Tz'u-hsi and your papa are waiting to welcome you with open arms Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Bridge)! 12/1/2008 to 3/24/2025
We lost our beautiful Baby on January 23, 2025. She was 16 years old.
Baby arrived on January 15, 2023 after her owner could no longer care for her. On her first day she was a bit of a hellcat, hissing, spitting and swatting at Joyce when she tried to go near Baby’s carrier! By the next day she was much calmer, greeting Jenna with head butts, meowing and purring. She started having volunteer visits within a week and was curious about the rest of the house. She had never lived with other cats before, but she was interested in her new housemates and ran out of her door a few times during her first few days. Within a month she was enjoying community visits and became a full-time community member by the end of March 2023. Even though the door to enclosure #5 was open, Baby mostly remained in “her” room and never really settled in another place in the Lower House. You could often find her enjoying her catio or sitting in the chair in front of her cat tree.
Baby loved snoozing in the sunshine and treats. With her beautiful long fur and large size, we wondered if maybe she was part Norwegian forest cat. That fur needed a lot of maintenance! She tolerated only a small amount of brushing, so she received a lion cut in June 2023. We were not sure how she would react to losing her floof, but she seemed to enjoy prancing around with her adorable new look. Baby had a temperamental personality. She could be extremely affectionate when she liked you, purring and giving kitty kisses, but the affection was always on her terms. She would swat or bite when she had enough and wanted you to just admire her from afar. In July 2024, she moved to the Upper House with the rest of the Lower House kitties during the flooring renovation. She and Cassia immediately made themselves at home. Within minutes of being released from their carriers, they were both rolling and sunning on the third patio. In the Upper House, Baby became more active and most days she would walk around the house and patios with her distinctive limp. Eventually she decided the chair in the main room right next to the lobby door was going to be her throne. She became more affectionate and greeted volunteers, staff and visitors. As you walked past her, she would reach out a paw to let you know she wanted treats, petting, or more of both. Joyce called it Baby’s toll-collecting chair. You had to pay the toll anytime you walked into or out of the main room.
We had several health issues to manage for Baby. She vomited frequently and came to us with arthritis and kidney disease. She was hospitalized for constipation in March 2023. After that episode we started stool softeners and fluid therapy to help keep her hydrated and more comfortable. She also received medications for arthritis. In May 2023, she began to have severe chin acne which took several months to clear. Her frequent vomiting continued despite treatment, so in September 2023 she had an ultrasound. The internist found GI inflammation and pancreatitis. Even with medication adjustments the vomiting persisted, albeit with decreased frequency. In February 2024, Baby was diagnosed with anemia and hyperthyroidism. Unfortunately, the treatment for hyperthyroidism had detrimental effects on her liver so we had to stop. Another ultrasound in September 2024 showed chronic age-related changes, but no masses or major concerns. October brought mucoid nasal discharge and sneezing, so we began a nebulizing treatment for her. She really enjoyed being nebulized and it helped improve her respiratory symptoms.
On Sunday January 19, Joyce noticed that Baby’s ears, eyes and gums were yellow. She had a low appetite for dinner but had been eating well earlier in the day and did not appear distressed. We kept her at Blue Bell for the night and took her to our vet in the morning for an exam. We were concerned about liver or gall bladder diseases. Lab work was sent out, and an ultrasound was scheduled for Wednesday. We brought her back to Blue Bell on supportive care in the meantime. She was quiet and only ate a few meat tubes, but she was still affectionate, and we hoped she would recover. The ultrasound showed acute pancreatitis that also seemed to be affecting her liver. Lab work revealed severe anemia and highly elevated liver enzymes. Her pancreatic values were also extremely high. We needed to get her to eat, but she wouldn’t. On Wednesday after the ultrasound she stayed with us in the office. Jenna syringed her high-calorie nutrient gel in the evening, hoping to stimulate Baby to eat on her own. On Thursday morning, Karen found her sitting in a dirty litter box. She gave Baby a bath, but a few minutes later Baby soiled herself again. She was extremely weak and noticeably more dehydrated from just the prior day. With her continued rapid decline and poor prognosis, we decided it was time. That final morning Baby enjoyed a trip out into the garden with staff and volunteers. She was too weak to walk far, but she was happy to sit in the sunshine and be petted until it was time for her last trip to the vet.
Run in paradise our beautiful Baby-girl. We know you have just moved the toll booth to the other side of Rainbow Bridge and will greet us there one day. 3/19/08 - 1/23/25
We lost our sassy southern belle, Cassia, on Wednesday, January 8, just two months short of her 15th birthday. She came to Blue Bell in February 2021. Her owner passed away the previous August, but with COVID delays it took her awhile to get here. She finally arrived via airplane, escorted by her owner’s friend, all the way from Louisiana! Her luggage included her favorite catnip fish, a Mardi Gras bed and her owner’s red vest. She had a very soft coat, with unique coloring called “torbie,” a combination of tortie and tabby markings.
Cassia was generally sweet to people but often showed sass towards other cats. She wasn’t thrilled about having to share her new home with so many roommates, and it took about six months for her to fully integrate into the community. At the time, the Lower House was full of females with big personalities, Coco, Angie, and Bella U. (black and white)! Male cats like Kitty, Jack, pre-weight-loss Jambo, shy Little Guy and gentle old Hunter were also subject to her wrath. Just a few weeks after her arrival there is a note in her chart about an incident where she escaped from her room, went to the patio, swatted at Jambo and scared him so badly that he fell out of a bowl! She made it clear from the start that she too was a Blue Bell queen.
When black and white Bella passed away in February 2023, Joyce said that there would never be another office cat in the Lower House. But Cassia had other plans. She started coming into the office and doing things that Bella used to do, as if Bella had given her instructions to help heal Joyce’s heart. And so, we did have another Lower House office cat. She loved her special place in the office. She greeted visitors from her chair, the stool or the countertop. She was happy to be offered multiple meals throughout the day and had a cute habit of standing on her hind legs and batting at her pink food bowl with a paw as it was lowered to her. When it was time for her to return to the community, we had to carry her tucked into her Mardi Gras bed. Otherwise, she would protest with a loud meow and possibly even a swat! Her status as office cat came with a risk because she was known to be an occasional door darter. One day a volunteer did not completely close the Lower House front door. Cassia was snoozing in the office and must have noticed a new breeze. She got up to investigate and discovered she could just stroll out the door for unsupervised adventures. Jambo was snoozing on his catio and fortunately that caught her attention just long enough for Jenna to walk out of the Upper House and notice what happened. Jenna acted quickly, but calmly, and was able to bring Cassia back into the safety of the house. We didn’t end her office privileges since it really wasn’t her fault. She was only doing what a curious cat would naturally do. But we did institute a new policy that Lower House cats could only be in the office with staff supervision.
Cassia loved lying in the sunshine, catnip, and being brushed. She had her own wire brush and would stand on her hind legs to rub her gums and face all over it. In the summer of 2024, Cassia moved to the Upper House with the rest of the Lower House cats during the flooring renovation. We weren’t sure how she would do, but she immediately came out of her carrier and rolled around in the sunshine on the third patio. She was happy to find new spots to hang out. Like many of the cats that moved from the Lower House, she did so well that we ended up letting her stay in the Upper House after the floors were completed. Her introductions to her new roommates went much smoother this time, and she was one of the first cats to integrate. Eventually she figured out that the Upper House had an office too, and she became one of the regulars.
Cassia’s health problems began in November 2021. She had an acute episode of GI issues - vomiting, diarrhea and low appetite. She had another acute GI episode in May 2022. We started her on treatment for IBD/GI lymphoma shortly after that. Unfortunately, she continued to lose weight over the next few months despite treatment. Testing in March 2023 led to a diagnosis of probable GI lymphoma. Cassia began coughing frequently during the summer of 2023 and was diagnosed with asthma in December. She was breathing more comfortably after starting treatment with a kitty inhaler, but she was still having frequent, often bloody diarrhea. In April 2024, an ultrasound revealed a thyroid cyst and colitis. We made changes to her treatment plan at the vet’s recommendation and even tried fecal transplants, but the diarrhea persisted. We repeated an ultrasound in August 2024 that showed no significant changes from the prior scan. Her weight and appetite declined over the next few months. She was diagnosed with anemia, and we also began treatment for arthritis to help her be more comfortable. She started having fecal incontinence in October. In November, her gums began bleeding and although she had significant dental disease, we were worried about how she would do under anesthesia in her weakened state. However, the severity of her dental disease was making it difficult for her to eat, and we decided to move forward with the procedure, hoping we could stabilize her if her appetite improved. She made it through the dental, but her appetite never improved. She still struggled with daily diarrhea and fecal incontinence. We knew she was uncomfortable, so we decided it was time for our sweet, proud girl to cross Rainbow Bridge. On January 8, 2025, Joyce and Jenna took Cassia to the vet one last time with her Mardi Gras bed and favorite brush. We played a little Louisiana jazz as she passed peacefully into her owner’s arms once more. 3/06/10 to 1/08/25