If you know Alice Villalobos, you likely have a story. And it might be a story of a life.

“She saved my cat’s life, but I’d trust her with my own,” says CAT FANCY editor Susan Logan of the veterinarian who specializes in oncology. Logan isn’t exaggerating.

Ask Jack Stephens, a veterinarian and pioneer of the pet insurance industry. “I would be dead. Alice saved my life.”

In 1990, doctors told Stephens he might die from throat cancer. His only option was to try an operation to have his jawbone and tongue removed; he’d never speak or eat again — if he even lived through the painful ordeal. “This is what the top cancer doctors were telling me,” recalls Stephens, who today is the CEO of Pets Best Pet Insurance. “I only knew Alice casually, but she was so persistent, begging me not to do that surgery.”

**Get the November 2007 issue of CAT FANCY to read the full article.**