Editor's Note: As fate would have it, a day before this package was to run, an electrical fire ravaged Last Hope Cat Kingdom. We decided to present Bea Ahbeck's photos and Carol Reiter's story as a tribute to Renate.
Renate Schmitz's world came to a crashing, shuddering halt on a hot June night two years ago.
Her 29-year-old daughter, Ramona Schmitz, was shot and killed in the presence of her 6-year-old daughter Jasmine. Ramona's boyfriend, Christopher Marberry, was the prime suspect in the case.
Marberry, 25, committed suicide within days, on the run from law enforcement. His body, with a bullet wound to the head, was found inside a black Lincoln Navigator in a peach orchard.
"He killed her. He killed my daughter," Renate Schmitz said.
But Marberry didn't kill Ramona's dream to open a safe haven for cats and dogs. Renate Schmitz has dedicated her life to raising her daughter's two girls and keeping the Last Hope Cat Kingdom in rural Atwater open.
Schmitz was born and raised in Germany, and came to the United States in 1984, when Ramona was 5 years old. Mona, as Ramona liked to be called, loved animals and got a job working at Santa Fe Pet Hospital in Atwater.
"She was always concerned about all the sick animals," Schmitz said. "She talked about having a place where we could have all the animals."
Schmitz and her daughter scraped up the money to buy 18 acres in rural Atwater, and the two worked to get the rescue open.
Then Mona met Marberry.
"I never felt comfortable with him, but I didn't mix in it," Schmitz said. "It was her life."
That day in June 2008, Mona was going to tell Marberry the relationship was over. The two had a 6-week-old baby, a girl they named Dessira.
When Mona told Marberry to leave, he went crazy, Schmitz said Jasmine told her and the police.
"He kicked the doors, and Mona told Jasmine to 'run, run, run,' " Schmitz said.
Jasmine ran next door, but it was too late. The neighbors found Mona shot several times, right next to her baby.
Marberry committed suicide, and Schmitz was left to pick up the pieces of her life and those of her two granddaughters.
Schmitz has custody of the girls and is adopting them. She also has expanded her daughter's dream into a place of peace for unwanted animals.
The acres of rural Atwater land now has areas fenced in for cats that can go indoors or hang out in the sun outside. Dogs have kennels, and there is pasture and corrals for the horses that have ended up there.
Schmitz, 59, said she depends on volunteers to keep her rescue organization going.
Schmitz starts her day at 5 a.m. She takes Jasmine to school and Dessira to day care, then goes to work at her "day job," running a cleaning service.
When her formal workday ends, she returns to the animals.
"We are open 24 hours," Schmitz said. "We have people coming here at all times."
As much as she loves the animals, Schmitz' first love is for her granddaughters.
"Dessira hangs on me. She is so special; she is the last of Mona," Schmitz said. "The other night she took off her socks and her feet looked just like Mona's."
People often ask Schmitz how she keeps going -- taking care of two young children, running a cleaning business, and feeding and cleaning up after dozens of animals.
"Sometimes I ask myself how I do it," Schmitz said. "I do it in memory of Mona. She was always for people. We try to do a little bit of what she did."
Reporter Carol Reiter can be reached at (209) 385-2486 or creiter@mercedsun-star.com.
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