The Bev Smith Memorial Fund at ORA

Beverley Smith. b. January 31, 1945 - d. June 23, 2011. Two months ago today, ORA lost a great friend and wonderful rescue ally. Bev was born in Toronto on January 31, 1945. This year when we took her out to dinner to celebrate her 66th birthday, it never crossed our minds that it could be her last birthday. Bev was very fond of animals, of all animals, cats, dogs, raccoons, skunks, you name it. Since an early age she took home any cat or dog in need. Six years ago, an ORA volunteer proposed to hold an eBay auction. Amongst the bidders we noticed a recurrent name, Bev Smith, outbidding everybody. As she explained to us later she was trying to get the most money possible for our organization by pushing the bids up although she did not even know us yet. We were an animal rescue and that was sufficient enough to get her attention and her sympathy. While playing that game, she ended up with a few items. Realizing that she lived close to us, we asked to meet her to deliver the goods and overwhelmed as always we are with cats, we asked Bev the usual question: "would you like to foster a cat?" To our amazement, she enthusiastically responded, "yes, anytime." Bev already had a large number of cats when we met her, but she really did wonders with the strays; she took good care of them and she socialized them so well that they usually got adopted very quickly. Bev fostered many of ORA's cats throughout the years, and although she has had some health issues, nobody thought that her end would be so close.

In honor of Bev, we will be setting up a special memory fund to help care for Bev's surviving and unadoptable feline family here at ORA.

Giving by Cheque:
Please make your cheques payable to "ORA-Organization for the Rescue of Animals", mark "Bev Smith Memorial Fund" in the cheque memo line, and mail them to us at:

ORA-Organization for the Rescue of Animals
P.O. Box 22608
300 Coxwell Ave
Toronto, ON M4L 3W7

Giving by Credit Card:
Please call Claudia at 416-726-5762 or Corinne at 416-726-8895 any time to make a donation to the "Bev Smith Memorial Fund" by credit card over the phone.

Giving by PayPal:
Please visit http://www.ora-animalsrescue.org/donations.html and click the "PayPal Donate" button to get started with your web donation.

Unfortunately, on June 23, 2011, Bev was found dead of a heart attack in her home. Animal Control was ready to remove her cats and bring them to the pound, but we could not let that happen. Although we had no idea where to house so many cats, we took over the responsibility of all of her 28 cats. This has been a large endeavour and some of these cats are still in very temporary accommodations. Some are adoptable, although not very young, but some are over 10 and need constant vet attention. All of Bev's cats were very well looked after. There is a lesson that we can get from Bev's passing: we never know when our end will come and we should never delay to make any necessary arrangement to provide for our animals should we predecease them.

Rest in peace, dear Bev! One day you will meet your kitties again, but until then, rest assured they will be cared for with great love and compassion, and to the best of our abilities.

Claudia Vecchio, Corinne Thaw and your many friends at
ORA-Organization for the Rescue of Animals
http://ora-animalsrescue.org