
Speed's Love Story

My son calls Speed his little brother. My son lives with autism and Speed is his best friend. When Speed required emergency surgery, I asked myself, ‘How can we do this? But how can we not?'
Speed tells his story…
Speed’s my name and cuddling is my game. My job is to get my family to pet me whenever they are home. If anyone is sitting, then it must mean they want me on their lap.
My auntie says that I am not a cat, but I am a toddler. I don’t know what that means.
All I know is that I love to be with my human brother.


We do everything together. We sleep together, watch tv together, play games together, and play chase around the house. He gave me these long poles with strings on them that have toy fish attached.
They look just like the ones he uses, only they don’t have that yummy fishy smell on them. I just have to tangle that string up in hopes that one day I can catch a real fish. I guard the poles by moving them around the house and sitting on them because I don’t want my sister-cat to catch fish with them. I want to be just like my human brother.
It has been great for me during this thing that they call the pandemic. My family was home all the time! I loved it! But now they are leaving again. Bummer. I am so happy to see them when they get home that I wait by the door so that I can get a kiss. Then it is cuddle time!
Several months ago, I started having problems going to the bathroom. I had to take a lot of car trips to that place that helps animals. It is scary there, but they are really nice to me. Now I eat special food. I heard mom talking about how expensive it is. All I know is it tastes good and helps me pee. But it must have stopped working because I was trying really hard but couldn’t pee. I got really sick and had to take another car ride. My family was really upset.
This time they wouldn’t let me go home. I was super scared and missed my family. The people in the scary place were nice but they kept talking about how I might cross this rainbow bridge if I didn’t get surgery. Whatever that is. I just wanted to go home. Then suddenly, my mom was crying. But she was happy too. They kept talking about Ellie and that she was going to help me.

A Message From Speed’s family

My son is one happy guy for Speed to be home. I am beyond grateful and humbled at your kindness and generosity. The donors of Ellie’s have eased our financial worries. Because of you, I now know we can provide for Speed’s future needs. He is an extremely important member of our little family, and we love him so much. My son would be lost without him.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!