Remembering Catherine “Cat” Cummings

By: Hilary Stewart

Cat Cummings was an extraordinary woman.

I only knew her for a little more than 6 years, but she made a deep impact on me, and the multitude of people whose path she crossed. She was a fun, feisty, talented, intelligent, caring, responsible, driven and amazing woman and friend.

Cat moved in with me in March, to be closer to UCLA, her doctors, and the clinical trial in which she was involved. In July, I arrived home one night from being on the road for a week, and was hoping to be welcomed by my kitties. Cat was already asleep.

Sometimes, when I’ve been gone for a while, my kitties like to give me a taste of my own medicine, and they take their sweet time coming to see me. I still hadn’t seen either of my kitties by around 1am, so I went outside to call for them, and I heard this meowing out near my car.

I wondered to myself, “Huh. Did I lock the cat in the car when I was unloading my stuff?”

So I went out to my car and looked all through it, and I couldn’t find her. She had stopped meowing also, so I went back into the back yard. Then the meowing started up again, so I grabbed a flashlight and headed back out to the car area. I realized that the meowing wasn’t coming from inside the car, but under another car. I got down, and looked under the car and there was a blanket, a handful of dry cat food, and this teeny tiny little kitten; cold, scared and starving.

I caught the little guy, and brought him into the house. He was so small, so cold, and so weak. I guessed he was only about 4 weeks old…he literally fit in the palm of my hand. I was trying to feed him some water and some soft food, and just getting more upset and more upset that someone would have abandoned a tiny kitten under the car. So I got on Facebook and posted a pic of the little guy saying ” Look what a nice person abandoned under my car tonight…complete with blanket and a handful of dry food. He’s not even weaned yet! Aaargh…”.

Well, when I woke up and talked to Cat, she told me she felt terrible that she didn’t leave a note or something, but it was HER who had put the blanket and food out there. The poor little thing had been out there meowing all day, and she just couldn’t pick him up and care for him because she was actively going through chemo, so her immune system was shot. She couldn’t risk the germs, but she was hoping the blanket would keep him alive through the night. She was so ecstatic that I got him and cared for him.

She even helped connect me with her dear, dear friends at FixNation, and handled getting Gus fixed for me…all while fighting the hardest battle of her life. Cat was so amazing. Her love of cats, and her dedication to responsible cat families persisted all the way to the very last moments of her life. Huge thanks to FixNation. I’m proud to know you, and look forward to helping support and spread the word of your mission, thanks to Cat Cummings!