Danielle called herself the "Mother of all cats". Cats seemed to just gravitate towards her.

Stray cats in particular seemed to feel very safe and secure near Danielle. Where other

people couldn't touch a stray, they seemed to allow Danielle to touch them always.

She loved cats more than any other animal. One of her favorite cats was Penny,

who was a stray that Danielle and Rick found on Christmas Eve in 2000. They took her

in and she became a wonderful addition to their family for 9 years. Penny passed

away in 2009 also. Danielle did this caricature of her in 2005 and the painting

looks exactly like Penny as you can see from the photo above taken in 2004.