Beloved longtime FAAS volunteer Robert Woolley passed away on January 4 at the age of 79 after a short illness. He will be tremendously missed by everyone whose lives he touched. We hope you enjoy this story we put together about him as a small tribute to an incredible man.
When Alameda resident Robert Woolley met his future wife in 1967, they both loved sports cars and sports car races. It’s what drew them together. They went to Laguna Seca for dates, and a year later they were married.
Something they didn’t have in common was their preferences for pets. Robert was a dog person. Johanna was a cat person. “I was a little afraid of dogs, actually,” Johanna says.
But through their 56-year marriage, as their love and their family grew, so did their menagerie of pets. A dog here, a cat there, usually brought home by Robert after getting them from people who didn’t want them anymore – and later, from FAAS.
“He had a big heart, and sometimes it seemed like there was always a new animal coming into our household,” Johanna recalls.
As often happens in longterm relationships, Johanna and Robert became more like each other with time. Johanna grew to love the dogs, and Robert became a genuine cat man.
Their first pet was a little black dog named Coca. Robert was in the Army Reserves and came home with the wee dog, saying he was going to find her a home. Coca lived with them for the rest of her life.
There were a couple of bearded collie rescues along the way, including Barkley, whose person had placed an ad in the paper saying he was always escaping from the park in San Jose and needed a new home.
And there were loads of cats. Among them, their neighbor’s bonded pair, Ralph and Lulu, who were facing a six-month quarantine when their owner was moving to Australia. Cole, a co-worker’s Russian blue. Boots, the cat of another neighbor, who had to go into a skilled-nursing facility.
The Woolleys started volunteering for FAAS more than 12 years ago. It was the ultimate transformation for dog-person Robert, whose volunteering was focused on FAAS’s cats.
They also fostered some kittens, and Robert was especially drawn to helpong cats who were at the end of their lives. He took in several fospice (a portmanteau of the words foster and hospice) cats during his time with FAAS.
Johanna rattles off some of their names as easily as she does the names of her grandchildren. “There was Selena, Dory, Mirabel, Cosmo, Cookie,” she says. “All the fospice cats stayed with us until the very end.”
Why fospice cats? “Robert didn’t want them to die in the shelter. I think he must have imagined that their owners had to give them up and he wanted to give them the love they once had,” Johanna says.
Robert was also instrumental in helping keep FAAS directed toward the high standards we are always striving for.
“Robert was the North Star for both FAAS, and for me personally,” says FAAS CEO John L. Lipp. “From the very beginning, he saw the potential for expanding our services and always felt like one of my biggest advocates.
“If Robert was happy, you knew things were moving in the right direction. He will be missed, but his legacy of caring will be a part of FAAS forever.”
One of Robert’s favorite cats in his dozen-plus years at FAAS was Gandalf, a much-loved (though sometimes spicy) boy who lived at our South Shore Adoption Center for a very long time until he was adopted late last year.
Robert would come in and give him his kitty crack (Churus) and play with him as best as any human could play with Gandalf. When Gandalf was adopted, Robert wrote a beautiful note to his adopter. (See image below.)
“I was so glad he got to see Gandalf adopted,” says Johanna. “He was thrilled.”
Johanna is left with a gaping hole in her heart and her life. But she’s not facing this alone. Besides friends and family, there are three cats at her side.
There’s Charlie, who was found in the wheel well of a car. Sally, who was so scared and shy when Robert met her at FAAS that he couldn’t help but adopt her. And Lucy, because after surgery, Robert needed a lap cat and adopted this snuggly girl.
Johanna is trying to make life as normal as possible for them. And they’re helping her get through this heart-wrenching time. She looks at them and pets them, and Robert's kind and loving spirit surrounds her.
“He lives on through them in a way,” she says.
Thank you for the beautiful tribute to my dad. He loved his time volunteering at FAAS, and he is the reason we have had 3 FAAS alumni’s in our home.