Guelph woman to honour memory of beloved cat by helping other cats in need

A Guelph woman is honouring the memory of her late, beloved tabby cat by crafting and selling toys and donating the funds to local cat shelters.

The Remmy Project was created by Denise MacDonald and named after Remmy, her cat who died about a year ago.

"I wanted to do something meaningful to honour Remmy when he died. I've just always believed the best way to honour an animal is by helping another one," she said.

"He was just that one pet of a lifetime. That one that you just love all more than all the rest combined. And when he died, it just devastated me. And I just felt like this gave my grief a purpose, something more positive to focus on."

MacDonald is hoping to help cat rescues across southwestern Ontario.

She says people can show their support by donating some much-needed items, including bed pillows and craft supplies like yarn, fabric, threads, pipe cleaners, pom poms and hot glue sticks. She plans to use those materials to make more toys and items.

MacDonald wants her handcrafted toys to take some pressure off of local cat rescues.

"I've been involved with multiple rescues over the last 10 to 15 years and I see how much they struggle with those bills. The biggest challenge across the board with all the rescues is raising money for vet bills," she said.

"When I see what these people, these volunteers, are out there doing every day, it's so inspiring. It makes me want to help, to do something."

MacDonald says she's been making catnip squares to sell and raise money for cat rescues every Christmas, for many years. After Remmy died, she was inspired to ramp up that operation and make more toys, cat beds and even some earrings.

About half of those items she sells herself to raise money for the rescues. The other half she donates as-is to cat rescues, who sell it to raise money for themselves.

She estimates the toys have raised about $7,500 in total.

'Every little bit helps'

Real Trooper Cat Rescue is based in Perth East and is one of the beneficiaries of the Remmy Project.

Laurie Hamilton is the rescue's founder. She's hoping to raise about $700 by selling the cat toys and goodie bags they got from the Remmy Project.

"Every little bit helps. Our expenses are never-ending," Hamilton said.

"Often we have very expensive surgeries. We have one [cat] that has a dislocated hip right now that we don't know what we're going to be up against for in expenses. A couple [cats] need liver shunt surgeries. So every little bit helps to make a difference for those medical cases or anybody else for that matter."

Hamilton says Real Trooper Cat Rescue can only continue because of donations.

"We aren't a registered charity. We don't have any sponsorships of any sort. So donations from individuals and for her to be starting a project specifically to try to help rescue this is amazing and she'll make a world of difference," Hamilton said of MacDonald.

Hamilton said getting officially registered as a nonprofit will require time and funds they don't have.

The cat rescue has been open since February 2022 — and they're hoping initiatives like the Remmy Project will help them go on for a lot longer.

"We in general have about 50 to 70 [cats] in our care at any given time. In the three years that we've been running, we've adopted out over 300... and our numbers are even increased from that."