We're feline so much love for Jimmie

A kind-hearted Trim woman who adopted the cat of an elderly man after he passed away firmly believes that fate brought little 'Jimmie' into their lives.

Bevin McEvoy and her partner Dylan were living in Toronto and just the day after Dylan relented to Bevin's pleas to get a pet, a text arrived to her phone appealing for someone to adopt 'Jimmie', after his owner Gerry died.

Gerry was a resident of a retirement village and had no family so one of the sales people in the complex had sent a text to everyone she could think of in the company and also put out appeals on Facebook to find a new home for Jimmie. Bevin worked in HR for a private equity firm which handled a large portfolio of retirement complexes including the one Gerry lived in, so this is how she came to hear about the furry feline.

There were more surprises in store for Bevin as just a few weeks after adopting little Jimmie, she got an email to say that his owner had left $5,000 in his will for whoever adopted him.

It came as a huge surprise and Bevin said she had never heard of anyone leaving money for a pet in a will before. She couldn't believe it and said she just started crying as soon as she read it.

“I never in a million years would have thought that. It was a really lovely surprise, it reinforced just how much Jimmie meant to Gerry in his last few months. Jimmie was only two and a half so Gerry can't have had him that long a time.

“We were the chosen ones, it's really about fate and what's for you wont pass you by,” she said.

She recalled how she had been wanting a pet for ages but as they were living in a condo, she didn't know if they had enough room. Then they went to a party in a friend's house one weekend and their friends had a dog and a cat. Bevin started thinking would they get a cat. Dylan wasn't so keen but when their friends twisted his arm, telling him it wasn't that big a deal and to just do it, he relented.

That Monday, Bevin was at work when she got the text and a picture of Jimmie and a message saying can you give him a home.

“I thought it was fate, it was meant to be so I sent the text on the Dylan and he was like God that’s very quick! I said I didn't go looking for him, it kind of fell on my lap.”

Bevin explained about the man in the nursing home passing away and having no family and Dylan agreed they would give Jimmie a home.

“The next day, I went over and picked him up from the neighbour who had been feeding him. I wrestled with him to get him out of the 50sq feet room. He came with all his bits, litter tray, food everything, and I brought him home.

“He hid in the cupboard for the first few days, then he started coming around and playing.”

After agreeing to take on Jimmie, Gerry's lawyer handling his estate told her that Jimmie wasn't neutered and there was money in the estate for that.

“I just thought we'd submit the invoice and get money back but about two weeks later I got an email out of the blue saying, we didn't want to tell anyone in advance because we didn’t want it to effect their decision but that Gerry had left $5,000 in his will for whoever took Jimmie on for the care of him going forward.

“I just started crying immediately. I never heard of leaving money in a will for a pet before. It helped us out so much, vet bills in Canada are crazy. But we were just delighted to have him. There are people out there paying thousands for pedigree cats and we get paid to take him which was mental.”

Jimmie very quickly became part of the family and when Bevin and Dylan decided to move home in December 2024, they didn't even think twice- Jimmie was coming with them.

Bevin said it didn't even enter her head to leave him behind

“It wasn't that complicated, he could come on the plane with us, at our feet, so that was grand,” recalled Bevin but she did say he cried pretty much the whole way home.

“When we got home we put the carrier down and we thought he would be straight under the bed but he was out sniffing around and exploring straight away, he is very comfortable here.

“He went from a 50sq foot apartment to a 500sq condo and now he is in a house, he doesn't know himself. He is upgrading all the time.”