Feline lover remembered at memorial service
Julia Holmes 'just glowed' when she was in the company of cats, recalls her friend
Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, April 21, 2008

Neither a drug den nor a dark alley would keep Julia Holmes from rescuing a cat in need.
The feisty cat lover was so devoted to her feline friends that she would drive for miles to collect one for neutering or to rescue an abandoned litter.
"She would drive into some of the worst situations to get cats that needed treatment," said friend Roslyn Cassells. "She would walk into a drug house and say 'Hi, I'm Julia, I'm here for Buster and Killer' to these tattooed men.
"She could make connections with people others were nervous about."
Holmes, who died suddenly last year, was remembered Saturday at a special memorial service in Vancouver.
Cat rescuers remembered the soft-spoken Holmes, who loved cats so much she lived among them in a small room off the Meow Aid shelter in Vancouver. When she died, she was surrounded by those she had saved, as well as 10 of her own.
Holmes would have turned 57 on the day of the memorial.
Mandy Butcher, who knew Holmes for about 20 years, said the cat lover was instrumental in pushing for spay and neutering laws in Metro Vancouver.
Her motto, if she had one, would have been something like the adage: "the more time I spend with people, the more I like my cats," Butcher said.
"She was an outgoing and almost gregarious kind of person and very friendly," Butcher said. "She always tried to be friendly and smiley with people, but basically they disappointed her in the end."
She described Holmes as a woman who appeared outwardly happy, had a great sense of humour and lived simply, spending her days caring for the cats and her nights "reading voraciously."
Holmes, who had a grown daughter, was on a disability pension and had lived in the shelter on and off during the years and often had up to 20 cats of her own, Butcher said.
"She would just take whatever needed to stay ... older cats with problems or those that were less adoptable."
Holmes' life was so devoted to her felines, Cassells said, to the point where she wouldn't talk about herself -- or anything else.
She said her death has left a void in the cat-rescue community, where she had volunteered for decades.
"She really was focused on the animal stuff. She adored the cats, she just glowed around them. Even the most wildest feral cats would sit there like they were tame," Cassells said.
"You could always depend on her; you knew she would take care of everything. She was completely unafraid. She'd go to a back alley, into an abandoned house ... she'd keep going back until she got them all out.
"She did things to help and didn't wany any rewards."
ksinoski@png.canwest.com