06/02/2026
Every single day we feel the loss of our founder Susan’s husband Gary, who dedicated his life to taking care of collier county’s cats. Yesterday we spend the day in remembrance of his birthday. He would spend long days taking cats to and from satellite adoption center, training adoptable cats to walk on leashes outside to give them a life that many cats couldn’t dream of once they are adopted, and spending his nights feeding hundreds of colony cats, in the dark, to keep them safe. The way Gary would drop everything and run if a cat needed him was something you do not see in humans today. We was kind and gave everything he had for these cats. He was a tough cookie, and wasn’t afraid to do what ever what needed for the kitties. The fact I can no longer go and scroll through the hundreds ups on hundreds of texts he sent me, with 5 minute long videos of kittens playing, with nonstop 💪🏻🐈❤️💪🏻🐈❤️💪🏻🐈 emojis sent to me everyday, texts thanking me for endlessly for doing social media for the cats, breaks my heart deeply. I kept his text message thread, and it was deleted in it’s entirety accidentally. This volunteer cries many days not being able to go back anymore and read his messages. We miss you Gary. You are loved and missed so much. I can’t even begin to say how much the cats, us, and dear Susan miss you. CMP nation please lift up Susan today.
