June 1, 2024
While searching for a way to tie in two related stories – Claire Shaw’s history of Medfield’s animal shelter and Tim Flaherty’s remembrances of the some of its former denizens – we learned that June is National Cat Adoption Month, June 4 is National Hug Your Cat Day, and June 2-8 is National Pet Appreciation Week. Later this month are National Take Your Cat (June 17) or Dog (June 21) to Work Day.
Dogs were domesticated about 12,000 years ago, and cats a few millennia later. There is archaeological evidence that ancient Greeks and Romans mourned the loss of their pets. Two thirds of the 131 million U.S. households have pets: about 90 million cats and 80 million dogs. Americans’ total expenditure on their pets is almost $140 billion per year. Much more information is here.
How Medfield’s Animal Shelter Came to Be
By Claire Shaw
Once upon a time, Medfield had no animal shelter, so some strays were taken to Heritage Hill, a veterinary practice on Farm Street. The situation wasn’t ideal, and did not last long, because it was in a neighborhood, and dogs will bark.
Around 1985, ACO Karen McGregor had a friend who donated a shed to offer some sort of shelter for stray animals. The shed had no electricity, no heat, no running water and was made entirely of wood. The only available lighting after dark was from two lights at the Treatment Plant. Over time, holes were cut in the back of the shed and someone donated runs for the dogs to have some exercise. This arrangement was in place for twenty years: 1984 to 2004.
Jennifer Shaw Cronin started as Medfield’s Assistant Animal Control Officer at age 18, and continued in this position for several years until she became the full-time ACO in 1993. Jenny attended Medfield schools and graduated from Mt. Ida College in Newton with a BA in Liberal Arts.
The state of the shed was appalling and grew worse with every passing year. Although picking up cats was not part of an ACO’s job, there were so many feral and/or stray cats in Medfield it became a necessity, which put an added burden on the shelter. Beacon Project, a community service organization in town, presented volunteer opportunities at the shelter to middle and high school students. This group raised enough money to obtain a heater for the old shelter. Despite its extraordinary roughness, sanitary conditions were constantly maintained at that shelter.
Karen McGregor left her position in 1984, and Louise Papadoyiannis became ACO until 1989, at which time Ray Burton, a member of the Medfield Police Department, and Jenny, still in college, shared the job as part-time ACOs.
Jenny relates a story that shows just one aspect of working under such disagreeable conditions.
“We had a dead animal freezer inside the treatment plant because the shelter had no electricity. I had a key to the treatment plant and went in there one night to put a dead animal in the freezer. In anticipation of a major snowstorm, one of the workers had stayed overnight. He woke up when he heard me coming into the building, grabbed a broom and was coming around the corner as I was coming around the corner at which we both stopped in our tracks and started screaming!”
In July of 1993, Jenny became a full-time ACO and, after dealing with the shed/shelter situation for more years than she cares to remember, Jenny asked that a new, more modern shelter be built. The request was denied, and she decided to build one herself. Soliciting funds through events and newspaper articles, money did start coming in. Mike Barta and Kim Agricola, Medfield animal lovers and protectors, stepped up to the plate and offered to help. With their expert fund-raising skills, they were instrumental in the creation of Shelter 2000, which was begun in 1997. The shelter was completed in September of 2004.
Jenny continues to enjoy her work as ACO and takes, on average, ten classes a year, the most recent being Reuniting Orphaned Wildlife. In 1998 she was awarded Animal Control Officer of the Year for the state of Massachusetts by the Animal Control Officers Association of Massachusetts and the Animal Rescue League of Massachusetts.
Cats We Have Known
By Tim Flaherty
Medfield residents and Medfield dogs and cats are fortunate to have the animal shelter. During the Covid pandemic, there was great demand for companion animals, to the point that at times the demand exceeded the supply. However, as the pandemic eased, many people returned their cats for re-adoption, claiming they couldn’t find time to care for the cats or the cost of cat food or kitty litter due to inflation. This situation caused considerable stress and confusion to the shelter animals.
About half a century ago, there wasn’t anything comparable to the Medfield Animal Shelter. Dogs and cats were less likely to be spayed, and if they didn’t have a home, they were apt to be picked up by the Animal Rescue League in Boston, and many were euthanized. When I was a boy living in the center of Medfield, we had many cats, too many kittens…and too many utterly depressing calls to the Animal Rescue League.
It would be many years before there would be anything that resembled an animal shelter in Medfield. Strays would be picked up by the police and taken to out-of-town shelters. But more and more people were becoming receptive to the idea of what came to be called, “No Kill Shelters.” Some suburban urban communities have even considered T.N.R., Trap-Neuter-Return.
TNR was practiced in Medfield. The upside of this situation is that these cats are not reproducing. The pendulum swung toward the preservation and humane treatment of homeless animals. To soften the image of street cats, cat lovers came up with the term “community cats.” With this new perception, progress is being made in the humane treatment and welfare of all domestic animals.
The Medfield Animal Shelter has taken on a fresh modern-day look as opposed to how it appeared 20 years ago, long before any pandemic. In 2004, all the cats were out in the first room at the entrance to the shelter. There were about 15 cats, all content and socializing with one another. They were all mixed breeds and happy to have the run of the place, while all the dogs remained in their cages.
There was a lone female calico cat, just two years old, resting on top of a seven-foot-tall cabinet in a small, comfortable, straw basket. My daughter Vicky took a great interest in the calico because she looked so content from the madding crowd of cats and at peace with her surroundings. Vicky was told that the calico had been abandoned by a Medfield family that didn’t take her along when they were moving out of the town.
She was soon rescued by the Medfield Animal Shelter and spayed. Subsequently she had the tip of her left ear clipped so that she wouldn’t undergo another spaying operation in case she was ever homeless and rescued once again. From all outward signs, it was probable that this calico had been TNRed.
Vicky was impressed how gentle the young cat was and how the calico liked being held and seemed so very receptive and sociable, almost selling herself to a new family. Vicky named her new cat Missy and took her home.
Missy at first seemed a bit confused and disoriented, but she adapted very well in her new basement apartment with windowsills that were at ground level. Missy could jump up onto those sills and took great joy in being able to interact with squirrels and birds that separated Missy via the screened windows. Vicky enjoyed watching the fun activity and decided to put out shelled peanuts to attract more wildlife. There was even a young redtail hawk that tried to dive-bomb a squirrel that had gathered up some of the peanuts. But the young red-tail hawk missed her mark and knew she couldn’t take on a squirrel from the ground. She then took to the air and to date has never been seen again. This was nature at work where only the strong survive.
Missy appreciated and enjoyed her home, but after several years she developed an eye distress called entropion that made her eyes crusty, with a clear liquid discharge. Vicky took Missy, by then 10 years old, to the Medfield Animal Hospital, from which she was referred to veterinary ophthalmologist at the Tufts Veterinary Clinic in Walpole. Three days later Missy was up and running again and her eyes were better than ever. That operation probably extended Missy’s life by eight years. It was an expensive feline operation but was well worth the very successful operation.
Other than having some of her teeth removed, Missy lived to be 18 years old. Toward the end of her beautiful life Missy stopped eating cat food. The vets at Medfield Animal Hospital prescribed an appetite stimulant that helped, but Vicky could see that her beautiful cat was running out of her nine lives, so she reluctantly took Missy to the Medfield Animal Hospital to be euthanized and cremated, with her ashes preserved in an urn for remembrance.
Fast forward to September, 2023. Vicky wanted to adopt two new cats from the Medfield Animal Shelter that would keep each another company in a new home. She also wanted to see the new shelter that had been renovated just a few years earlier. When she entered, Vicky noticed that the cats and dogs were all in new cages as they awaited adoption, and there were also rabbits and guinea pigs up for adoption. The shelter was well maintained and shining, and the employees were dedicated and attentive.
Vicky was impressed with the entire place. She soon found a beautiful orange male cat, with a big body and a big personality…and a right ear frayed from a fight.
Vicky wanted to adopt him right away because he reminded her of a cat she once had as a child. She named him Cubbie because, at 20 pounds, he was as big as a lion cub. He was shy and skittish at first, but after three days he happily accepted belly rubs and enjoyed sitting next to Vicky when she was reading or watching tv in the living room.
The other cat that Vicky selected was a 16-month-old female tiger kitten with a lustrous coat and leopard spots on her sides. She was quick and graceful and could jump five feet to the top of the refrigerator. Vicky named her Allie, because she was rescued from a back alley in South Natick, Mass. Both cats had either been neutered and spayed and had up-to-date shots. Vicky was very pleased and made a donation to the Medfield Shelter and took the cats home.
Both cats had to undergo physical exams and were then prescribed cat food that was both wet and kibble, strictly for indoor cats to prevent feline obesity. To date both Cubbie and Allie get along well in their new home. They play together and amuse themselves and Vicky. Cubbie and Allie both quickly found their way to the two windowsills in the living room. From there they’ve been able to interact with a variety of oudoor friends like squirrels, chipmunks, and birds…and occasionally with another cat.
Life can be good for adopted cats. We hope more cat owners will keep them safely indoors. Trap-Neuter-Return isn’t the long-term answer for cat preservation. It doesn’t reduce the number of homeless cats, but it does normalize the idea that cats should be outdoors leaving them vulnerable to attack from predators. Cats are not throw-away creatures; they deserve to be respected and cared for and loved.
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I once had a beautiful black angora kitten that a close-door neighbor liked and wanted for his children. With his family living next door, we expected that his children would take good care of the cat. We couldn’t have been more wrong – when the kitten grew into an adult, it was left outside, never brushed, never neutered. In time, it became very thin…and then one day it never returned home.
This recollection reminds me of lyrics in the Joni Mitchell song Big Yellow Taxi: “…you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.” Why do some people fail to realize that domesticated pets need to be taken care of and provided for? Regardless of the perception, they have become our friends and companions.