Animal Stories

Jackie’s Story

Jackie arrived at BrightHaven in August of 2001 and proceeded to touch the hearts, souls and lives of people too numerous to know, or count. A close friend was heard to comment that “BrightHaven is incredibly fortunate to have a yogi dwelling in its living room.”…and I guess that for me summed up her amazing life. For, you see, Jackie spent most of her six years here, in bed, unable to stand, much less walk. In the early days she could sit up on her elbows to eat, but most recently she simply… Read More

Joey’s Story

Joey arrived in June of 2004 and BrightHaven days were changed for ever! When only in his second year of life, Joey had been hit by a car, subsequently suffering back injuries which rendered him incontinent, with his back legs useless. His owner tried hard to care for him but confined him to one room as she was unable to manage his incontinence. Finally, faced with her own progressive illness, she was forced to seek help. Serendipity prevailed and Joey came to live at BrightHaven… Read more

Lucy’s Story

The “Lucky” black cat came to live at BrightHaven with her friends “Squeaky” and “Fuzzy” in October of 1999. Then 16 years old, she was the baby of the group and treated accordingly by her elderly brothers. The group had lived for many years as part of a large family in the care of a loving rescue lady. This person fell upon hard times and lost her home…an all too familiar story in these times! Read more

Mr. Woody’s Story

One clear thing about the genial Mr. Woody right from the very start, was that his life before BrightHaven was filled with love. This gentle giant loved everyone he met, and was delighted to lick every single human nose that came his way. Before BrightHaven, his recent past life was a tale so sad as to tug at the heartstrings, and even now we often shed a tear for what must have been the most traumatic day in his life. I refer to the day when fifteen year old Woodman and his beloved elderly gentleman flew by airplane together to begin… Read more

Panther’s Story

Where to begin I wonder, to talk about this somewhat shy black panther who came to BrightHaven back in 1993, along with his twin sister, Olivia. The differences between the two were immediately obvious…one large and black; the other a minute tortoiseshell with attitude! Olivia, or Livvy stepped into BrightHaven society that day, and with a flick of her imaginary fan and a toss of her long… Read more

Patti’s Story

Patti’s life never was the happy one of which she dreamed. It began with injury as humans threw her to the pavement to die and, at least happily did not then cease. It continued in the warm arms of rescue, but with so many brothers and sisters that Patti withdrew into her shell to become timid and fearful. After the death of the one person to have loved her Patti was alone again and filled with fear. That is when we could not resist her sad and soul filled eyes… Read more

Sarah’s Story

Sarah came to live with us at the request of a well-known author, who had heard of our work and prayed we could save her girl. She had tried the best that medicine could offer and hoped that our mixture of love, diet and homeopathic care would work a miracle. Sarah was so beautiful she almost took our breath away when first we saw her. It was hard to believe she was so very ill, but she suffered an awful dis-ease called feline plasmacytic… Read more

Tim’s Story

Tim was born in the family’s garage and cuddled with his brothers and sisters in their basket. The family made a fuss of the new babies when they came in to play and visit with them and the kittens really enjoyed the four young girls, although were a little scared by their effusive playing. After some weeks passed it was apparent that Tim could no longer walk and the family took him to the vet, who told them that he was paralyzed from the waist down… Read more

Trevor’s Story

Trevor came to BH in 1998 from New York after his beloved owner died and subsequently his rescue lady fell upon hard times. She decided to come to California to find her pot of gold ..and we all know the ending to that story!! Trevor ended up in a shelter with his family and BH agreed to take the elders of the group and so friends, Nigel, Millie and Meri came to live with us too. Trevor sadly for us joined them today. And so my story begins. It has been terribly hard to… Read more