Kate was an animal lover, a true animal rights advocate. Her passion was insatiable. she had a fierce determination to protect all animals as best she could. She amazed us all with her perseverance and dedication to the welfare of any and all animals. I can not tell you how many cats she brought home, but lets just say in the 25 Years Kate was alive, Monmouth and Ocean county had no stray cats to worry about, they were all at 5 West Main Street and Kate was their caretaker, much to the dismay of poppy Shea. He loved the 3 cats we already had, but Kate was relentless,"Dad, I found this kitten, abandoned, can we keep him? Please Dad? What could he possibly say, he always relented. This was her mission. She did one hell of a job. I want to share with you my absolute favorite animal story involving Kate. Cats were not her only mission... she was fiercly devoted, she was intense.
Kate and I went out to run some errands one day. I believe the mission was Joyce Leslie, a very low end clothing shop Kate believed existed solely for her. She despised doing laundry, so she shopped at Joyce Leslie, wore the outfit once, and then that outfit would never be seen again. It would remain on her bedroom floor and see it's demise. Anyway, back to the car ride. On the way home we were traveling down Belmar Boulevard in Wall twnsp. All of a sudden Kate slams her hand down on the horn, she holds it there for a good minute, she then precedes to take her other hand and whip it out the window flashing her middle finger. at who? I had no idea. What the hell was going on? We then came upon a long line of trucks parked at the side of the road... HUNTERS!!!! She laid her hand down on that horn before any hunter was visible, she had obviously done this many times before . I howled uncontrollably. She made sure that any deer in earshot would run like hell, and truly hoped all the hunters were screaming obscenities at this crazy person whom repeated this same routine daily, until hunting season was over. Kate made a difference. She was a champion.
