AMY'S ARTICLES

DR. JAMES R. RICHARDS, A LASTING LEGACY

Tick-tick-tick-tick…Look at your watch, please.

Take 15 seconds to think of the special people in your lives who have made a difference. Maybe it was your first grade teacher, an older sibling, a best friend, or college professor.

Have you told them lately? The clock is ticking.

Writers work alone. We sit before a blank screen praying our typing fingers create magic. Twenty years ago as a struggling pet writer, telephone interviews offered my sole link to busy experts. They weren’t always keen to spend time with a neophyte, and more often than not used technical jargon I later struggled to explain in laymen’s terms. Even in 1991 after having a few dozen pet articles published, experts often couldn’t be reached or simply refused to do interviews with a nobody. Even friends urged me to write about something more important. Heck, who was I? Just another wannabe writer who happened to love cats and dogs.

Jim Richards was different.

He didn’t watch the clock during interviews. He explained medical terms before I asked--and never made me feel dumb. He called felines “kitties” for heaven’s sake! And he even shared office space with Dr. Mew, a black and white tuxedo beauty. Although published in peer-reviewed journals and respected widely in his field, he welcomed getting cat health and behavior information out to cat breeders, shelter professionals, animal welfare volunteers, and everyday folks like me who simply loved their special cats.

Long before I dared call myself a real writer, he valued me as a professional and (unbelievably) treated me as a colleague right from the beginning.

For nearly 17 years, Jim’s support was only a phone call away. He became a nationally recognized authority on vaccination protocols for cats, and served as president of the American Association of Feline Practitioners. Jim’s talent for bringing people together for a common feline cause became legend. As the Director of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine’s Feline Health Center, he not only offered the university’s extensive expertise, but routinely provided me with names and contacts of other veterinary experts around the country and the world.

Jim gave me my cat-writing career.

As a direct result, in 1992 the Cat Writers Association (CWA) was founded, now home to more than 200 professional communicators who specialize in feline issues. Jim became a member, and even sponsored the “Cornell Feline Health Center Veterinary Issues Award” for the contest. Probably 90 percent or more of members have stories of Jim's generosity and how he helped their careers just as he did mine.

We became friends over the years, although we didn’t actually meet until Jim offered the keynote address at the 2004 CWA Writers Convention. He validated us all that night, explaining that yes, indeed, what we do as cat writers is important. That we can change the world for cats, for the people who love them, and even for others we’ll never know.

I had the honor to introduce Jim that night, and finally had the chance to tell him how he’d touched my life and changed it forever. Now I treasure that memory, remember his smile, his laugh--his friendship--most of all.

James R. Richards, DVM died April 24 in a tragic traffic accident while trying to save a cat’s life. His work, of course will live on, even as my heart breaks and the cat world weeps.

The welcoming purrs at Rainbow Bridge must be thunderous.

Look at your watch. Please.