“Sad Sad Day! She helped so many cats and kittens, sad day for the rescue world. What a lovely compassionate person. She was a cat angel.” – Sue Clark of White Lake who runs Free Spirit Cat Rescue.
“I’m pretty sure Anne has been involved in dozens and dozens of pet rescues over the years.” – volunteer cat rescuer.
“Anne dedicated her life to helping stray and feral cats.” – Ottawa and Valley Lost Pet Network
It is indeed a sad day for all those involved in cat rescue in North America and wider afield when a cat rescuer dies in a car accident. In this instance it is Anne Rettie, 68, who is described as a ‘cat angel’. Elisa wrote about another lady involved in cat rescue some time ago who died in similar circumstances.
Rettie was killed in a three vehicle crash involving two cars and a cement truck on a road east of the town of Almonte, Canada. She had a small farm near Almonte. She worked as a freelance technical writer and was well known in the cat rescue community of the area. She had a Facebook page. There is no news about this on that page.
A close friend who lives in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, Natalia Kudryashova, said:
“It’s just awful. She was smart, kind and really funny, with a kind of British style of dry humour. She was so engaging, we gradually became very close.”
Kudryashova and Rettie created a small online business selling handicrafts by auction on Facebook: Cat’s Cradle Online Auctions. The money made helped fund their cat rescue activities.
The other people involved in the accident were seriously injured but they are not life threatening injuries.
Sources: Ottawa Citizen and Facebook
