Ben the Clinic Cat

03/17/2026

Missing our lucky charm today 🍀 Happy St. Gertrude's Day to all of our favorite cat lovers ❤️😺

When you don't want to put the St. Patrick's Day decorations away because the plague ruined your normal celebration 😒

01/06/2026

Longtime friends of Ben's will remember Sasha ❤️ She came in today for her yearly exam and is doing great.

Always wonderful to see our old friends.

I'll add some of her pictures of her time living here at MPPAH in the comment section.

12/14/2025

One last holiday party with the staff ❤️

10/23/2025

Hey friends.
We're still here.

Today was the first day I was mentally able to think about cleaning Ben's upstairs office. He has a small hoard of toys up there and I'd like to start giving them to some of the new kittens that come into work. Maybe this weekend, or the first of the month. He'd hate to see them wasted.

This time of year the sun bleeds through the curtains in the front of the hospital as we're closing in the evenings. Used to be Benny's favorite time to sunbathe. We'd have to crane him out of his favorite box for night night dinner time 😂

Miss him miss him miss him.
Hope everyone is doing well.

❤️❤️❤️ - Amanda

08/28/2025

Hey friends ❤️

Today, August 28th, is Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day - so I thought I'd check in and share the very first and the very last photo I took of our wonderful boy.

Missing him every single day but ESPECIALLY today.

Please share your wonderful animals in the comments that you miss 🌈

Remembering the love in our pain and grief will help.

- Amanda

07/28/2025

Hey friends, Amanda here.

Officially six months since we said goodbye to the CEO.

I thought by now some of my pain would have eased up but I still find myself able to cry at the drop of a hat. I've caught some clients off guard by bursting into tears when they ask where he is and still feel my chest tighten when people respectfully stop and look over his makeshift memorial.

Still, being at work, where he was, keeps me going. Seeing longtime clients bring in new kittens and puppies as they try to move on from their own personal pet heartbreaks helps heal me, too. For that I'm thankful.

More later - I just didn't feel like I could let this day pass without saying something. Although my heart dutifully checks in with memories of him every single day.

❤️ Amanda ❤️

05/05/2025

Hey friends.

Did a little cleaning this morning and tested myself to see if I could finally move his floor bed, but the pain was still too raw.

Miss him every single day ❤️

Talk again soon.

- Amanda

04/03/2025

Thanks so much to our friends in the Cats Of Instagram community for this wonderful surprise. We have a mini-shrine of Ben's cards and bed and this will be a beautiful addition to it 🥲❤️

03/28/2025

Tough day today, his first birthday not here with us. I hope he's celebrating with broths and Cheetos and naps in a heated bed.

Miss you so much, Ben. ❤️

03/27/2025

Hey friends.
We received a wonderful gift today from the Cats of Instagram community over on that platform. Our staff are so touched that so many came together and thought of us and our handsome CEO.
Our hospital feels empty without him, but this light will help him shine on 🕯️

Thank you so much 🥲❤️

02/28/2025

Hello friends.
Amanda Nelson here.

Today was officially a month since we gathered Ben's staff members in the lobby he ruled over and said our last goodbyes.

I look for him every single day. I check my feet in doorways. I move the keyboard above the computer so he doesn't have to mash his paws in the buttons when he's walking across to his water cup. I go to the grocery store and make a mental note to grab more broths.

But he's not there. And each time the realization squeezes tight in my chest like a sponge being wrung out.

I find myself missing the weird things lately - the songs I'd sing out loud to and about him, the way he'd spidermonkey around the pharmacy when he got out of his litter box. His meow in the mornings when we'd tell him it's time to clock-in.

I miss the sound of the bell on his collar somewhere in an exam room where I couldn't see him.

And now it still feels like that.
Like he's in the hospital somewhere where I can't see him.
And my heart breaks over and over and over again.

Working in veterinary medicine, I believe, teaches you to become more acutely aware to pain and suffering in animals. You've watched clients wait too long to make the call because of the pain it'll inflict and you've seen patients die way ahead of their time from accidents and errors and just plain unavoidable circumstances.

For that reason I knew I didn't want Ben to ever live a single day - a single MINUTE - of extra suffering just to spare us the rest of our lifetimes of grief missing him.

I know we made the right choice.

All of the wonderful calls, texts, messages, DMs, comments, cards, pieces of art, letters, and kind words have helped tremendously, so thank you to everyone that has reached out.

I took ten million photos and videos of this boy and I wish it were a billion more.

The video I'm including is from his last Monday shift, enjoying his favorite Cheetos. He hadn't eaten much on Saturday before this and even less on Sunday; so what a gift it was to us when we were already distraught for him to have a goodbye snack.

Talk again soon.
❤️💔