Cat Placed On National Organ Transplant Waiting List Receives Baby Grand

Edmonds, WA

One local cat is alive and in high spirits today after hoping for and receiving an organ transplant that changed her life forever.

Shortly after her birthday last month, Tyber, a 12-year-old, spayed, Domestic Short Hair came down with what she thought was the flu. Tyber had never thought much about organ donation.

That changed instantly on the afternoon she became ill and passed out in her home. When she awoke in the hospital, doctors told her she had been put on the National Organ Transplant Waiting List, her organ had failed.


This Hammond organ died while Tyber was playing Bach

The organ, a Hammond T-200, was bought used from a social club in the early 1980s. Tyber said she’d always wanted to buy a new one, but had recently lost her job as a donut maker and could not afford one.

“I hardly ever played that old thing, but that morning I did give it a try,” Tyber said. “I felt like if I played some Bach or something, I would feel better. But the amp blew out, one pedal fell completely off, and then it just died on me. I fell off onto the floor in disbelief and woke up in the hospital."

She told the Gazette she had been taking piano and organ lessons since she was a kitten, paid for by her grandmacat, and immediately felt the loss. “I was very depressed,” she said. “I wasn’t sure how to go on without it. Music has been a part of who I am for as long as I can remember.”


Tyber is now relaxed and relieved that she has received her organ transplant

Tyber said she signed up immediately for a transplant. “Piano, organ, it didn’t matter to me at that point,” she stated.

Nearly 100,000 cats are on the National Organ Transplant Waiting List waiting for a viable organ. On an average day, about 77 cats receive organ, piano, and sometimes even synthesizer transplants from other cats who either quit taking lessons and want to be rid of the organ, are moving, or are getting a divorce.

But thousands more never get that call from the transplant center saying a suitable donor organ or piano has been found, and the old model is just left to die, alone, in the living room.


After only 2 days on the recipient list, Tyber received this Baby Grand, which became available due to a nasty divorce

"I had been on the donor's list all of two days. The doctor gave me 12 hours to live.... By the grace of God, they found me a baby grand! It isn‘t an organ, but it‘s close enough."

If you or someone you know has an organ, piano, synthesizer, or even a drum machine that they are not utilizing, please consider the many benefits of organ donation. You, too, can save someone’s life.

"It was a miracle, to be honest with you," Tyber happily said while playing her donated Yamaha GB1K Baby Grand Piano at her home in Edmonds. “Music is my life,” she said.

Copyright Sharyn Thoma
Piano Cat Photo: Thanks to Old Cats Rule
Piano Photos: Courtesy www.yamaha.co.uk