Kitten comforts dying teenage girl and then her mother on the girl’s passing
Beautiful Kylie. Photo: Mutual Rescue
This is a triple whammy. The girl benefits, her mother benefits, and the cat is a rescue cat, so the cat benefits as well. It really is a classic case of how a rescue cat can do something special for a family.
At 12 years of age, Kylie was diagnosed with metastatic bone cancer. She underwent some pretty brutal treatment which was going quite well and during that treatment Kylie asked her mother whether she could have a cat companion. Her mother, Robin, agreed when the treatment had been completed.
Sadly, during the last days of her radiation treatment it was discovered that her cancer had spread throughout her body and that her illness was therefore terminal.
Kylie with Liza. Image: Mutual Rescue
They adopted a young, dark tortoiseshell cat, who they named Liza. Liza comforted Kylie for 2 1/2 days as she stayed with her until the last moments of her life.
On Kylie’s passing, Liza provided comfort to Robin during the days weeks and months that followed the death of her daughter. Robin puts it beautifully:
“Kylie told me to take care of Liza, but is also like she told Liza to take care of me.”
It almost seems that Liza stepped into the shoes of Kylie and bridged the gap between death and then life. Liza has carried Kylie’s spirit into the world after Kylie’s passing.
Robin with Liza
The story is recited by an organisation called Mutual Rescue. I really like that phrase. It implies that both cat and person are rescued in many cat/human relationships. The purpose of the organisation is to show the power of human-animal connections, focusing on rescue animals.