“Cats get short-shrifted in EVERY shelter. They are considered expendable. Dogs will always outrank cats when it comes to adoptions.” These are words written by Carol Wallace, who now worries about the future of her own cats as she struggles with cancer.
Carol and her husband Chip moved to Tombstone in 2000 from San Diego. They were both retired from their jobs, she as a veterinary technician and he as a middle school social studies teacher. Buying a home in the San Diego area proved to be cost-prohibitive, so they moved to Cochise County where their home looks over the desert landscape outside of Tombstone. They bought a home that was comfortable for their rescued animals. Chip built cages for their lizards and nursing kittens, and even built a glass divider off the kitchen to separate healthy from sick cats.
Enter the Wallace home and you will be sniffed down by the friendly felines at the front door. The home is modestly furnished, where cat trees and window perches blend in with the furniture. In the back yard is a small Memorial Garden for all the unwanted shelter cats and kittens that didn’t survive their illnesses and that died in her home under her care. As a shelter volunteer who tended to cats, feeding newborn kittens every few hours is exhausting and not always successful. Carol made sure not one cat died in vain or without feeling loved.
Every cat in the Wallace home has a personal story that both Carol and Chip gladly share. There are stories of abandonment, abuse or near-death. There is Coal, a black cat found wandering around Tombstone and who now curiously sniffs down any visitors to his him. There are Punkin and Boo, a brother and sister pair who were abandoned at the Tombstone Small Animal shelter as small kittens, and Magoo, a handsome older Siamese mix from the Huachuca City Animal Shelter.
Magoo, like many of Carol’s cats, is a special-needs cat. He was initially categorized as a feral cat, but Carol sensed that he was not feral, but just scared being at the shelter. He is a quiet, affectionate boy now. Sadly, he tested positive for Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) after Carol took Magoo home, a potentially deadly virus which is almost always a death sentence for cats in our local shelters. When Magoo recently suffered a serious eye infection, she feared that Magoo would have to have his eye surgically removed. Thankfully Dr Hayatt at the Coronado Veterinary Clinic was able to save the eye by prescribing strong antibiotics. Now Magoo’s eye is healed.
Carol loves all these cats and a few more. Her favorite cat is Jasmine, a cross-eyed Siamese mix who is the only cat allowed to go outside. “She was such a darling bottle baby and is the only cat who is allowed outside,” explains Carol. “ She follows Chip out to get the paper every morning and spends her days laying in her bed on the driveway. She is very bonded to me and when I could walk, she followed me everywhere. She won the cutest cat award a few years back at the Sierra Vista Heralds’ Pet Idol Contest. I adore that cat. Jasmine will also try to reach up to the front door knob to try to open the door and go out.
The Wallaces have always been surrounded by animals. Carol’s dad Charles Nicholson was a forest ranger in Colorado and often brought baby birds or injured animals home to care for them. Carol got her love for animals from him. Years later she got her veterinary technician certification from San Diego Mesa College.
It’s therefore understandable that Carol’s husband has similar interests. Carol and Chip met in a pet store that caters to fish in San Diego. Their first date was May 18th, 1975 and they were married on September 13 of the same year. Together they were active in several San Diego animal rescues, including Project Wildlife and the Turtle and Tortoise Society of San Diego, which Chip founded. Over the years both of them were presidents and vice presidents at different times. Together they gave slide shows and presentations about turtles and tortoises. When Carol worked at Mesa College as an Animal Health Technician, she helped build the raptor enclosure. She and Chip also rescued large reptiles and kept them in their home, “including a baby alligator that some dips*** brought from Florida.” Three monitor lizards and two Iguanas also made their home with the Wallaces.
Their lives together always involved saving animals or treating sick or injured animals. It didn’t end with cats and dogs and turtles and tortoises, but also ferrets. “I would give lectures on ferret and reptile care at Mesa college and at the zoo auditorium,” continues Carol. Ferrets have been illegal in California since 1933 when the species was deemed an exotic animal, so she helped take ferrets to Arizona, where they are legal. “When we came to Arizona in 2000 we had 13 escapees with us,” says Carol. “When we crossed the stateline I gave California my finger!” Sick, old, ferrets were cared for until they all died of natural causes.
Carol continued her love for animals at the Tombstone Small Animal Shelter once she and Chip arrived in Arizona, where she focused on cats for five years. She spent many a late night and early morning bottle-feeding abandoned newborn kittens, many which she took home to nurse. She also took home sick kittens and cats. Those who did not survive their illnesses are buried in the backyard in a Memorial Garden that Chip built.
It was Carol’s more recent dream to establish a rescue for cats, naming it “Peace for Paws” and giving her expertise to the Huachuca City Animal Shelter after the town council agreed to allowing volunteers help with the shelter animals late in 2011. There she washed and groomed matted cats and socialized scared cats. Her help didn’t end with cats, though, as she also helped out with dogs that needed medical attention. One rambunctious pit bull mix that suffered from a prolapsed uterus needed immediate attention. She paid for the dog’s medical expenses and fostered the dog at home.
She has had to scale back her attention for animals on herself this past year. Carol is battling an especially aggressive form of small-cell cancer in her spine. An operation to remove a tumor has left her wheelchair bound. She can no longer take care of her animals like she had been. The Wallaces had to rehome all their dogs when Carol’s cancer became a 24-hour concern, something that still gets her close to tears.
The Wallaces are alone in getting any financial help. The insurance company is refusing to loan durable medical equipment that would make things a lot easier, plus they have a very hefty copayment for all drugs that Carol needs, and some are very expensive. Their old Toyota recently needed $1500 in repairs which also bit into their budget. The animals still need to be fed. She fears that Chip will lose the home they have created in Tombstone, along with all the remaining cats that for years have brought her much joy.
"I don't want to die!" said Carol recently. There's still that fighting spirit in her.
An online fundraiser has been established at the Carol-Wallace-Medical-Fund online at http://www.donationto.com/Carol-Wallace-Medical-Fund
