Pamela Sedmak’s best friend of more than 15 years, Ripley, was a cuddly compact ball of coal-black fur, energy and love, who “looked like a little wolf-bear pup, right up through his final day” a few years ago. Sedmak, who adopted Ripley from Operation Kindness in 1991, took the loss of her buddy pretty hard — she was so heartbroken that she couldn’t even bear to take in a new dog. But when her animal-loving nature eventually got the best of her, she adopted two cats, Gibson and Tiger. Sadly, more heartbreak seemed to be on the horizon — Sedmak learned little Gibson suffered from a potentially fatal feline illness and when the kitty started exhibiting severe symptoms, Sedmak was crushed. “I couldn’t bear the idea of losing another one,” she says. She rushed Gibson, who was in excruciating pain, to Lakewood resident Dr. Benjamin Wright at Lakewood Veterinary Clinic. Wright discovered a critical urinary blockage resulting from the underlying condition, feline cystitis, which had caused life-threatening levels of potassium in Gibson’s blood. Gibson would die without a fairly complicated surgery. Fortunately, Wright had performed many of this same type of operation during his years practicing in an emergency care hospital. With the doc’s help, Gibson is alive, well, and living it up with his human and feline companions. Sedmak calls Dr. Wright and his staff “everyday heroes who saved her from a broken heart.”