Patricia Happie Ladew was a brilliantly creative painter, sculptor and writer who never met an animal she didn't love. Wherever Pat chose to live and work throughout her life, she managed to surround herself with her adored cats and dogs. For a while even an amazingly affectionate Ocelot named Max was one of Pat’s best loved housemates. Her real favorites, however, the ones for whom she always kept a special place in her bottomless heart, were the strays. It was for them that she formed and funded the "Oyster Bay Cat Foundation, Inc." in 1975, a non-profit organization expressly created to address the problem of homeless cats on Long Island. For the next 27 years, Pat devoted a generous amount of her time, creative energy and resources to the work of her foundation. After her death in 2002, the foundation was formally renamed the "Patricia H. Ladew Foundation, Inc."

Now, well into its fifth decade,  the Patricia H. Ladew Foundation, Inc., true to Pat’s mission, continues to provide ownerless cats with hope, love, medical care and housing.