March 22, 2006
C.A.S.H., and Anne and Peter Muller, would like to express to Mary,
Bob’s wife, and Tara, Bob’s granddaughter, the deep sorrow and loss we
feel over Bob’s passing. Bob was among those rare and special people who
touched our hearts. His gruff voice was in stark contrast to his
compassionate heart and love for all animals. After Bob moved to Sullivan
County, NY, he was able to expand the number and types of animals that he
could care for. Bob helped our many demonstrations over the years with his
innovative and succinct slogans and artistic devices. He enlisted his
grand-daughter, Tara, who drew amazing pictures of animals and political
cartoons at an early age. So many mornings Bob would call to tell me to
get the newspaper because of an article or a letter that he found. Then he
would make copies and send them to us underlined and annotated to save our
time reading them. There was no better sleuth! Bob passed unexpectedly and
only days after a fire burned down the top floor of his home. He called to
say that one cat had jumped from the roof and couldn’t be found, and I
could hear the pain in his voice, it was worse than the material loss of
property. We were so happy when his wife, Mary, said that the cat came
back before Bob passed away.
Days before Bob’s death, he sent us a list of sayings that he thought
we could use. One of them was similar to a Zen koan: “Hunters that get
shot can say they walked a mile in deer hooves or bear paws.”
