Shirley Kearns

Shirley Kearns (1947 – 2018) was an ordinary person with a tremendous love for all animals, especially cats. She worked for the Federal Government for over 30 years; 27 years with the library of Labour Canada. Shirley was very sensitive to the rights of animals and she was firmly against hunting. Shirley’s favourite three cats were Brat, Little Bits and Scamper. She adopted Scamper when he was just a little kitten. After Scamper passed away, at the old age of 18, Shirley did not want to have another cat because she found that the death of a beloved animal was too painful.

Shirley gave yearly donations to organizations that looked after the welfare of animals. Over the years, she gave to the Ottawa Humane Society, and in the last few years, she gave thousands of dollars to the Country Cat Sanctuary in the Kemptville area. Shirley was aware that animals suffer from the same ailments as people: grave illness, homelessness, hunger, physical abuse, etc. Since the number of charitable organizations for people outweighs significantly those for animals, Shirley preferred giving to the latter. Cats, and animals in general, lost a great loving person on March 11, 2018.