Animal lover leaves SPCA $1m

An elderly woman has left $1 million to the SPCA.

Animal lover Betty Napier, 88, died in Tauranga earlier this month and her will included a $1 million bequest to the national body of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to look after animals in the western Bay of Plenty.

Moments before she died her cat Rocka, who she shared with her neighbour and goddaughter Jacqueline McEwen, jumped on her bed.

"She loved the cat and told him what a handsome boy he was," Mrs McEwen said.

Mrs Napier and her husband Ivan, who died several years ago, had no children and set up one of the first fashion shoe shops in Hamilton in the 1930s.

Mrs Napier lived briefly in a retirement home in Brisbane after her husband died but was unhappy and returned to Tauranga where she invested her savings with the help of Mrs McEwen's husband, Jim.

Mrs McEwen said her godmother was a very proud and private but very frugal woman.

"She had a very duchess look about her. She never slouched and sat very erect with her shoulders back.

"She loved her animals. She had a dog Bidgie and we shared a cat called Rocka."

The cat got its name Rocka after the wealthy American banking family the Rockefellers, when it was hit by a car and returned from the vet with a huge bill which Mrs Napier paid.

- NZPA