by her husband and partner for 41 years, Bruce McFarland
INTRODUCTION
I may have directed to come here, or you may have followed a link elsewhere that mentioned Zoe’s passing. I’m glad you’re here now. I will do my best to tell you everything you need to know, and where to go to find out more and do more.
THIS WEBSITE IS THE PLACE TO HONOR ZOE-ANNE WITH A DONATION TO BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SOCIETY
Zoe-Anne told me that only way she would like people to honor her memory after she died, if they could, would be, to make a donation to Best Friends Animal Society. You can read a little more about Zoe’s work with animals below and on her tribute pages, but it’s been said by her farmer family in Canada, that if it were up to Zoe, they’d all be vegetarians. Please note that it’s not necessary to post your name when you donate, “anonymous” is fine. I didn’t think it was necessary to post names or amount, but I thought a total was OK.
THIS WEBSITE IS ALSO THE PLACE TO FIND OUT HOW TO ENTER THE “THE NIGHT OF 101 CATS” SIGNED POSTER DRAWING ON SEPTEMBER 1, 2024
One of our favorite living artists, Michael Leu, internationally recognized for his own unique impressionist/expressionist painting and printmaking styles has created the “ZOEY 4 Spay & Neuter Tribute” shown here that honors Zoe-Anne. Michael has also donated four 34 X 24 inch signed posters of “The Night of 101 Cats,” the original serigraph which Zoe and I purchased in Munich in 2000.
We will be giving away signed posters at a drawing on September 1, 2024, but because everyone who donates to Best Friends might not want a “101 Cats” poster, we are asking you to submit your name if you want to be in the drawing. Making a Best Friends donation isn’t a requirement to win a poster, but you must be a friend or family of Zoe-Anne, or have donated to Best Friends.
To enter the drawing, send me an email to 101cats (at sign) Bruce1.com, with your name, and let me know you want to be in the 101 Cats drawing. If your name is drawn, we will contact you and get your mailing address to mail you the poster.
About ZOE-ANNE’S PRIVATE TRIBUTE/MEMORIAL WEBSITE
In trying to get Zoe’s memorial published online, I discovered that many of the free, as well as those where you pay a premium for a memorial website, make their money by selling stuff to grieving loved ones. Not only that, they sell your friend’s and family’s personal information to other businesses who try to sell additional crap to them.
It took me weeks to find a site that seems to value privacy and has allowed me to construct a private tribute site for Zoe’s friends and family. Guests must be invited by me to gain access Zoe-Anne’s Private Tribute website and your membership will be password protected. I hope that folks will feel more comfortable sharing their memories of Zoe-Anne in that environment.
I will be sending out invitations to many folks on Zoe’s lists, but if you want to make sure to receive an invitation, please send me an email to “ZKeeper (at sign) Bruce1.com” and tell me your name, email address, and how you knew Zoe. If I don’t see your name in her friends and family contact list, I will contact you to get further verification. I hope you appreciate that I am taking precautions so that as little shared information goes out to the entire world.
About ZOE-ANNE’S PUBLIC TRIBUTE/MEMORIAL WEBSITE
Because I think there is also a need to have a public tribute/memorial website that is accessible to more people, I am also creating one now. Hopefully it will be ready soon and will be shared with all. It limited personal information be a place there to post condolences. Because the private site will be virtually hidden, I think the public site will at least let people find out more about Zoe-Anne and it will give people a chance to contact me if they want to go to the private site and are friends and family.
About the Unveiling of the ZOEY 4 Spay & Neuter Tribute at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, tentatively March 30, 2025, Kanab, Utah
Zoe and I worked on most of the ideas of a tribute to her benefitting Best Friends Animals after she was diagnosed with AML on November 9, 2023, and before she died on June 29, 2024. We were even trying to think of ways we could incorporate some of Michael Leu’s artwork into a permanent structure to place in Utah. Zoe died on Saturday, and on Sunday I thought of I’d see if I could locate him and see if there was any way I could get him to do a memorial painting with Zoe’s Spay & Neuter license plate, and our two cats, Pasha and Presto. A couple of days later he said he would be honored to do it, and because we were raising money for Best Friends Animal Society, he donated 10 signed posted to support the cause. We hope many of our friends and family and maybe some new animal-loving friends will be able to attend the unveiling. Stay tuned here to find out more.
More about Zoe and I and Best Friends
Zoe-Anne and I have supported and donated to Best Friends Animal Society for more than 20 years.
We learned about Best Friends when our local chapter of Pet Assistance Foundation was having trouble raising enough money to assist all the local folks that needed help offsetting the high cost of spay and neuter at local vets. The Best Friends operation in the San Fernando Valley allowed us to refer some of our under-funded pet owners to them for reduced rate services.
As we worked with Best Friends, we realized that the organization had some pretty lofty goals, and that they were not only dedicated to providing needed desperately needed services for pets and pet lovers, but that they were highly effective in making every dollar go to work for animals throughout all of their programs.
Best Friends wants every animal to have a loving home and every shelter to be a no-kill shelter. Best Friends says: “Save them all,” which is of course, what Zoe and I want to do too, so with your help, we can save some more, help educate the masses, and help make sure every animal finds a loving family.
Shortly after Zoe’s AML diagnosis in November, we came up with the concept of making her memorial a fundraiser for Best Friends Animal Society. That was the only thing she wanted to ask her friends and family to support, if they were able. We talked quite a bit about different ways to do that, with an online outreach for donations always part of the concept, and because Zoe had wanted to visit the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, we came up with some ideas on how to make that part of the memorial plans as well.
We had purchased our personalized California “ZOEY 4 Spay & Neuter” License Plate soon after they came out, and we decommissioned it from her vehicle last year when we were getting her another vehicle, but decided not to put it on the new car.
We hoped there would be a way to create a permanent tribute memorial to Zoe and our Spay & Neuter work using the license plate and maybe images of our two current cats, Pasha and Presto. We were also trying to think of a way to incorporate the artwork of one of our favorite living artists, Michael Leu, as part of the permanent tribute.
We had purchased a large Michael Leu signed limited-edition serigraph, called “The Night of 101 Cats” in Munich in 2000. The picture depicts 101 cats of various coloring, leaping out of a red Trojan horse in the middle of the night. Zoe had it on the wall in her office behind her desk and her computer. She loved the image and so did Pasha and Presto.
The Michael Leu part of the tribute story turned out to be kismet. Michael lives near San Rafael California and has won countless awards for his impressionist/expressionist renditions of people, places, and especially cats. Michael has had a special relationship with his cat “Fuzzy,” and I think his ability to represent it in his artwork is remarkable. He seems to understand cats, and that makes him very special in Zoe-Anne’s and my estimation. His website is https://www.michaelleu.com/ .
Zoe-Anne died on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday afternoon I was at her desk, going through her computer for names of people to call, looking at the “101 Cats,” and noticed our Michael Leu portfolio book we had purchased in San Francisci, and started reading about his relationship with “Fuzzy” again and looking at the pictures he did of people with their cats. That was it, I decided to try to contact him and see if there was any way to get him to do a portrait of Zoe-Anne, with the license plate and the two cats. I contacted his gallery on Monday and he got back to me on Tuesday or Wednesday and said he would be honored to do the portrait.
I told Michael how much we loved the “101 Cats” and sent him a bunch of photos of everyone – including one of Pasha in front of the “101 Cats.”
I was speechless and nearly in tears when I saw the completed “ZOEY 4 Spay & Neuter Tribute”.
Michael was very moved by what we were doing by trying to raise some money for the Best Friends Animal Society and he donated 10 signed copies of "The Night of 101 Cats," poster (34in x 24in), which shows a red Trojan horse with 101 gorgeous assorted cats leaping out from the open door.
We will be conducting a drawing for 4 of the signed Michael Leu "The Night of 101 Cats" posters on September 1, 2024.
And in the future?
I hope that these efforts are just the beginning of finding news ways to help Best Friends SAVE THEM ALL.
Thank you everyone for honoring Zoe-Anne and Supporting Best Friends Animal Society
Bruce McFarland