Story Of St Rita  Garden House Gallery   Table Top Gardens   

 I would be the last person to proclaim miraculous healing, or miracles of any kind, yet
the story of my cat Taco and St. Rita is a compelling story. Through the years I have
bought, sold and collected hundreds of antiques and I have always liked the unusual. I
found this old plaster statue from a church many years ago at a flea market. It was a long
time before I found out who St. Rita was and that she was the saint of hopeless causes. 

 It has never had any religious significance to me. I always thought she had a pretty face.
Several years ago while I was living in Mexico I saved a tiny kitten from certain imminent death,
out in traffic on Margarita street in Cancun, in front of the papaleria.

 I named him Taco. Taco was the greatest cat I have ever had. I have never loved anything
or anyone more than this cat and I doubt I ever will. Back in the states, I discovered that
Taco had a huge   inoperable tumor and even with little hope, he started chemotherapy
treatments, but to no avail. The doctor gave him two weeks. I could put him down right
then and there or I could take him home and let him die at home but he said it would not
get better, that it could be painful. I decided I wanted just one more day with my precious
cat that I loved so much so l took Taco home and made him a little special bed but he
kept going into the guest room where St. Rita was and at first I thought it was unusual
when I noticed that Taco was staring up at the statue as if he were looking right in her
eyes, as if they were communicating. That night, and again in the morning, still Taco was
sitting there, eyes locked with Rita's I could not bring myself to take him in and he
didn't appear to be in pain. 

Another day, and another day, most of the time Taco just sat and stared at St. Rita. In a 
few days I noticed a sort of calm on his face, more of a twinkle in his eye than he had had before. 
He had been given two weeks to live and now two weeks had gone by and Taco seemed to feel 
better. He stopped staring at St. Rita for hours but he still looked up at her occasionally. I took 
Taco back to the doctor. More Xrays were done, and the doctors were astonished that the tumor
had shrunk so much. A month later we go in and the tumor had shrunk even more. A cat that was 
given no hope of survival , bounced back to health and would be here today if not for a psychopathic
cat hating neighbor who killed Taco and two other of my cats. 

 It was then and there that I left society and moved to the country and established a retreat from the
 ugliness and cruelty of the world, a safe place, where no animal will ever be harmed again.

I still have St. Rita.