A Memorial Tribute Savannah Cat Breeder to Donna Pinillos
A Facebook friend, Mandi, from the United Kingdom, recommended Donna when I asked her about three breeders located in South Carolina. Mandi asked me to let her speak to Donna because she knew of a litter of F-2 kittens coming in the next few weeks.
Mandi sent me a picture of the kitten's mamma, laying by Donna's feet, pregnant with them. A few weeks later, I got an email from Donna and a picture of four wet, newly born kittens.
Donna thought she had three females and one male. I asked her to pick the BEST female for me, as I couldn't make the eight-hour trip until June. She said to give her a few weeks with the kittens to learn their personalities.
About two weeks later, I got a picture with mom nursing her kittens and a video of a little light-colored kitten. I asked Donna if that one was mine, and she said, "yes." That was my "Athena-Grace." Every weekend after that, I'd receive either a picture or a video of my kitten. Most of the time, it was Saturday, occasionally Sunday, with an apology from Donna for "being so busy, but wanted to send something for the week. I knew then she was an exceptional breeder.
During one of our early conversations, she told me she'd been a truck driver and saw a Savannah Cat in a magazine. She contacted the breeder, who said, "she only sold her kittens to celebrities and those kinds of people." Donna mentioned to her husband, Cesar, she felt disrespected as if being a truck driver wouldn't allow her to afford a Savannah Cat. It was then she decided to start a cattery. And she did just that!
After a few weeks, Donna posted the kittens' pictures to the Savannah Cat group on Facebook and tagged each owner's names. Those kittens were all sold within the first week of their life. The other two "girl" kittens turned out to be boys. Later on, one of those would become my Bartley-Zeus. Donna was so embarrassed! By this time, we would talk and text each other periodically to talk about Athena, my girl. I had a small kitten-sized harness for her and asked Donna if she would mind getting her used to it if I sent it to her. She happily agreed, and I also asked her if she would start calling her by her name, Athena-Grace, or for short, Athena.
A few weeks passed, and I received a video of my Athena and her mom, Livie. Donna talked to Livie in her cutest baby voice, and Livie jumped right up, left Athena flat, and ran over to Donna. That was another time I saw how much Donna's cats loved her.
When Donna put on Athena's harness for the first time, she sent me the video. It was beyond hilarious. Athena acted like she had cooties, trying to escape the harness. It was way too funny! Another few videos featured Athena giving Donna a new hair-do and all four kittens "helping" her sweep up the kitten room. My favorite was the one she called their "jailbreak," where all four had knocked down the screen door to their kitten room and were running around her bedroom.
A new breeder in Melbourne, Florida, had initially purchased Bartley. When Donna discovered he was a boy, that buyer decided to wait on the next litter for a female kitten. Donna had named him Mickey due to his large ears. My husband started following her cattery on Facebook, decided he wanted him and asked Donna to call him Bartley. Don drove up to get Bartley-Zeus a few weeks later. Now we had two of Donna's babies!
Donna and I had already planned for my mom and me to pick up Athena the first week of June, so I could meet the rest of her cats and servals she kept as pets. When Don went to pick up Bartley, he expected the kittens Donna kept in her special "kitten room" (off her master bedroom) to take off fleeing from a stranger. Far from it! All four kittens ran to him, with Bartley leading the way! Two were fighting over being in his hair, and two crawled up his legs. Donna snapped a photo of Bartley and Don and sent it to me. Donna was having a family cookout that holiday weekend and had invited both of us. I had other plans, and Don needed to get back home as soon as possible. She treated us like we were part of her family and had only known us for a couple of months.
On Don's eight-hour trip back to Florida with Bartley, Donna kept in touch with me by text and phone. She asked me if one of us could please sleep with Bartley that evening as he'd never been away from his siblings and was so young. Of course, we'd already discussed that and decided Don would spend the evening with him in our guest room. Again, such an amazing and caring person.
A week later, it was my turn to meet Athena. Donna had invited my mom and me to stay over as we had a three-hour drive from my parents' house in N.C. We arrived, being greeted by Donna and her husband. My mom stayed in the living room with Cesar talking and watching TV with a few of Donna's other kittens. Donna led me back to her kitten room. There, three beautiful sweet kittens greeted me. We sat on the steps and talked while two of those precious kittens were all over me! But neither was my Athena--she was attached to Donna.
We went to visit her outside pens to meet some of her other cats, especially her servals. Wow! Just wow! Her male serval, Bentley, was super attached to her. I couldn't meet him up close as he was "momma's baby," and that was it. I was okay with that. But, I met her female serval, Afra, and what a lover she was! I got my first and only kiss from a serval that day! Her cats had the best setup I'd ever seen. Each pen was spotless with a scratching post and a kiddie pool. All her cats were attentive to her as she took me to meet each one. It was apparent how much they all loved her. We were there for a few hours, and when it was time to go, I asked if she would bring Athena to my car. I couldn't separate Athena from her brothers as they ran and played. Donna brought her and teared up when she leaned into the car to give her to me. I told her not to worry; Athena would have the most wonderful life with me and to never change. She was indeed in it for the love of her cats, not the money.
Donna texted me the next morning to ask how Athena was doing. Don and she would text back and forth and exchange Bartley's pictures, and I'd do the same with Athena. I stayed for a few more weeks with my family in N.C. with Athena. Later that same summer, Hurricane Matthew threatened Donna's home. Since her area was prone to flooding, she brought all of her cats inside her home to safety. Not Bentley. He wouldn't go in, so she'd spend the hurricane with him in his pen while her property flooded. And if that weren't enough, she'd had a litter of F-3's born during that time.
That Christmas, Don purchased one of those F-3 kittens because, as he said, "she's the most amazing breeder with the most personality-filled cats." Any questions I had about my two and later my third, Donna always had a logical answer. I could ask her anything. She was always available. We kept in touch, and she became a very good friend to both Don and me.
In the Spring of that next year, Don sent her a cute picture of Matthew, the F-3. For the first time, she didn't respond; and she'd always respond. Donna loved to hear about "her babies." A few days later, we'd learn she suffered a brain hemorrhage and stroke. She stayed in the hospital for three months but couldn't recover. Her family brought her home and set up her bed in the living room overlooking her cats. She passed away peacefully a few weeks later, at the age of 55.
There was a memorial service for her in the fall. Along with her family were many friends she'd met as breeders of their cats, as well as other breeders too. We will forever miss Donna. I often want to share Athena, Bartley, and Matthew's pictures and videos with her. She'll always be known to my fur kids as "their Mommy-Donna."
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