I had never heard of this dog before! Amazing. Poor baby lived a long and
very useful life. She will certainly be missed:

Saint' of cats dies

Famous pooch saved felines by  hundreds

By MICHAEL WHITE
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Philip Gonzalez comforts his canine pal, Ginny, yesterday. The 17-year-old
mixed breed had an amazing ability to save felines from perilous fates.

She was tired, could hardly walk and spent her last days flopped on a worn
blanket.

Ginny, the little dog from Long Beach that rescued cats, was on her last
legs.

The 17-year-old mixed breed, who saved some 900 cats and was immortalized in
two books, died yesterday in the company of her owner and 18 cats she saved
from certain death.

"She hasn't eaten in three days. She's suffering from old age right now,"
Ginny's owner, Philip Gonzalez, said yesterday, looking down at the Siberian
Husky-Schnauzer mix's emaciated body as she took short, desperate breaths.

"I think she's going to go tonight."

And just three hours later, about 2:30 p.m., Ginny took her last breath.

The rescue dog's heartbroken owner fondly recalled the days when Ginny would
sniff out kittens in peril.

Gonzalez, 55, of Long Beach, remembered when younger Ginny yelped and ran to
the second floor of a Long Beach building under construction to rescue five
kittens trapped in a pipe. Ginny threw her furry body against the tall
plastic tube sticking up from the floor, Gonzalez said. The pipe fell over,
revealing the helpless felines.

"These kittens were maybe 3 weeks old. Someone must have thrown them in
there," said Gonzalez, who lives alone with three other dogs and the 18
cats.

Ginny first gained relative fame in the 1990s when publisher Harper Collins
learned of her story from a magazine article.

Gonzalez co-authored two books about Ginny and her rescues: "The Dog Who
Rescues Cats" and "The Blessing of the Animals." Both were translated into
numerous languages.

"They call her the Mother Theresa of cats," Gonzalez said.

In another memorable rescue, Ginny dug through a box of glass near a
warehouse to save a trapped kitten. "She jumped out of the car and started
digging into this box of broken glass, cutting her paws," Gonzalez said.

Ginny somehow sensed when cats were in trouble, then found them, cleaned
them and carried them from danger in her mouth.

Gonzalez also tried to train Ginny to sniff out money, but to no avail.

"I said, 'You like these cats? You want to feed them all? Then you pay for
it,'" Gonzalez said.

But in fact, she already had, because both books are bestsellers.

"I think she was a cat lady in a prior life," Gonzales said.

I had seen a television program about Philip and Ginny years ago! And
purchased the books mentioned in thhe article. Ginny really was a
feline kindred-spirit!

You can read more about them here:
http://www.theginnyfund.org/

Gennie and  =^..^= Marietta