The Globe and Mail
The beneficiary: “Donna” is a 55-year-old former marketing strategist with grown children who lives in Toronto with her dog, “Rusty.” Donna lost her father a decade ago.
The inheritance: In his final months, Donna’s father – with whom she had “a great relationship for a long time...until we didn’t” – reached out to her after years of estrangement with an unforeseen request. “He said he was in hospital at the end of his life and needed someone he trusted to take care of his cat,” she says. Long story short: Donna inherited a middle-aged furry feline we’ll call “Buttercup.”
What she did with it: Donna’s the first to admit she wasn’t keen. “I’m not a cat person, if I’m being honest,” says Donna, who’s actually a dog person and already had two at the time. Still, Donna didn’t hesitate to pack up her car and drive four long hours to pick up Buttercup. “Regardless of our relationship, it meant something that he trusted me to care for his cat and wanted me to have her.”
Since Buttercup had a laundry list of expensive ongoing medical conditions, Donna’s (wealthy) father loosely promised to send money, which never materialized. Luckily, Buttercup did come with pet insurance which covered most but not all of the $30,000 in vet bills. Taking her to the vet all the time, however, was Donna’s job. “Every week, this cat went for acupuncture, massage therapy and a walk on the water treadmill,” says Donna. “Every Thursday was a three-hour cat spa.”
The ‘golden child’ who defied her father’s plan for his million-dollar estate
Donna wasn’t expecting to receive anything of her father’s estate, but Buttercup (through Donna) was a contender. In Canada, like most countries, pets are considered property and not legal persons, and therefore cannot directly receive money. Testamentary gifts to their caregivers or even Pet Trusts can be set up for the luckiest of pets, though Buttercup was not one of them when Donna’s father passed and his will was finally revealed.
“His new family got everything. I got the cat,” says Donna, who nonetheless had no regrets and was only more determined to learn to love Buttercup. “If this was the only thing I was ever going to have from my dad, gosh darn it, I was going to cherish that cat.”
What she learned: Buttercup lived for eight more years, during which Donna didn’t quite become a cat person, though she came to adore this particular cat. “She was so friendly, she wasn’t skittish, she was very much like a dog. She was the best cat ever,” says Donna.
Their story has a happy ending, but Donna’s the first to say that it’s the rare exception and not the rule when it comes to inheriting a pet. She knows this first-hand, since her experience with Buttercup encouraged her to open a pet rescue.
“The vast majority of pets that come into the shelter come from people who don’t want a pet that’s been willed to them,” she says. It’s not abnormal for the beneficiary to be completely clueless that a pet was coming their way from an owner who inevitably thought they’d be thrilled. They are not.
“People think, of course, everyone wants their pet, but the truth is nobody wants their pet. That’s the sad truth,” says Donna. It’s especially true for older pets, she says, who often come with thousands of dollars in future dental and medical bills. Another pet or children in the home only complicates an already fraught situation.
If a pet owner fails to plan for their animal entirely, the bleak task of rehoming falls to the executor, who is as unlikely to adopt them as anyone else. “Pets aren’t money that everyone will welcome,” says Donna. “They’re a living being that deserves to be happy with someone who wants them.”
One of Donna’s successfully rehomed pups was Rusty, whose owner did the right thing when the time came. “Her husband passed and she was going to long-term care, so she asked me if I’d be willing to adopt Rusty,” says Donna. Once a stray, Rusty is a 13-year-old mutt Donna has known his whole dog-life.
To ease his transition, she takes him to visit his former owner whenever possible, and so that she never finds herself in a similar situation, Rusty will be the last adorable pet Donna succumbs to adopting into her home. “He’s such a great little guy that I couldn’t say no,” she says.
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