I received the following letter Monday from Scott Cerreta and Katherine Glaser. I have edited nothing.

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I can’t help feeling sad and depressed of late. With all the recent turmoil surrounding the Hermitage, my wife and I decided to visit. This was in response to a letter we received from the Hermitage explaining their position against the false claims made by the “Save the Hermitage” group.

When arriving at the Hermitage, we were greeted at a locked security door. We stated that we came to visit Ritmo. No one seemed to know who Ritmo was. Then a call came from a person in the back saying, “Ritmo is dead.” The harsh phrase still rings in my ears.

Ritmo was a precious feral kitten living under the house of my father-in-law in Strawberry, Arizona. When my wife and I made our way up to visit, the clan of five kittens had been dwindled down to two, likely falling prey to coyotes in the area. On that trip, after an hour of befriending the kittens and scratches that ran up and down both my arms, we only managed to capture one kitten, Ritmo. A one-week follow-up report revealed that the mother and remaining kitten were no longer to be found alive.

We were fortunate to save this beautiful silver, tan and white Manx (tailless) kitten from the fate of her littermates. However, our first pet turned out to be more than we bargained for. She made great progress in becoming friendly, but she would not take to the litter box. After a weeks time, I affectionately named her “shitty-kitty.” Her favorite activity of the day was smearing poop all over the house walls and my leg, as she rubbed affection with a present all over me.


We sought help from two vets. The second vet recognized that Ritmo had the Manx syndrome. Manx cats do not have tails. Sometimes, as a result they are born without nerves that control the bladder or rectum. Ritmo suffered from both fecal and urinary incontinence. As one can imagine, Ritmo was too much for us to handle as a first pet.

We explored our options. The Humane Society would certainly dispose of Ritmo, and this was not an option for us. We happened upon the Hermitage at a time when the cat population was around 400. Obviously they were not accepting new residents. However, because of Ritmo’s condition they made an exception. Ritmo became a resident of the Shysters. As we understood it, Shysters is a special place for unadoptable cats, a sanctuary for adorable cats with medical conditions. Ritmo was placed on a special diet and had to be manually expressed of feces and urine several times per day.

During our visits, we also met Panda, another Manx cat that suffered the same condition as Ritmo. We felt relieved that Ritmo found a proper home. In return, we sponsored Ritmo with contributions given to the Hermitage. We also adopted two healthy young cats during that visit, Hobbs and Maynard. We changed their names to Proximo (Spanish for Next) and Neko (Japanese for Cat). A year later we returned to the hermitage during another visit with Ritmo and adopted two young brothers, Paws and Spot. We also changed those names to Mir and Voyna (Russian for Peace and War).

The Hermitage is a unique cat shelter that offers the residents of Tucson an alternative to the Humane Society. We chose the Hermitage over the Humane Society for its mission and vision as seen by its creator, a Russian Nun, Sister Seraphim, in 1965. It is a sanctuary for difficult cats, like Ritmo. We loved her, but could not offer her the care she required. We enjoyed visiting and sponsoring Ritmo. We were grateful to have the Hermitage here in Tucson.

Now, Ritmo is dead. When we asked about the circumstances surrounding her death, we were told only that she had serious health problems. There was no elaboration. However, when we had asked about a month earlier about renewing our sponsorship of Ritmo, we were told that she was doing great. Though we would like to believe that the current management provides the best care possible for its wards, the contradiction between a cat which is thriving and then too ill to live one month later drives us to question that care. We could only conclude that either the first response reflected that the cat was not known and was ill or that the cat was generally in the same condition, but too feral or too poorly cared for in the turmoil, therefore more ill than she had previously been. Either explanation saddens us greatly, and we feel disappointed and troubled that we did not intervene sooner.

It is clear that the Hermitage is not the sanctuary that it once was.

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Curious and bright-eyed
Always getting into things
Tenacious children that know no limits
Sailing gracefully off of the counter

Ostentatious and brazen
Vanquishing the evil ‘roaches
Ever the mighty hunter
Relinquishing ground to no bug

Terrors of the house
Hissing and spitting at one another
Eventually whacking rumps
Rambunctious and full of life

Always there with a purr or a nudge
Insisting on immediate head scratches
Never sharing their “pet’s” attentions
But perfectly willing to groom one another
Obvious rulers of the house
Whenever humans aren’t around

Beautiful in all aspects
Regardless of age
Indomitable in spirit
Despite all attempts of control
Gatos eterno sobre el puente del arco iris
Eternal cats over the Rainbow Bridge

Whimpering, whining
Clumsily pouncing on strings,
Eternal kitten.