Confessions of the Cat Lady (3) - The Animal Aid Association

Speaking of cats and what I wish I did, I helped Ruth Spoor begin the Animal Aid Association. This was the early Sixties, I think. Ruth was a famous artist who lived on Bearskin Neck. She loved cats and I loved cats. She asked me if I would help her, partly because she knew I had a place to put them. That first shelter was a shed-type barn that you'd put a horse or a cow in, and the chicken coop. None of them were especially marvelous. They're not there anymore. They fell down.

 

 

I had tons of cats in the cottage. I called it Cats Behind. We first put some of the cats into the chicken coop. There was a variety of weird cages. The ASPCA did give us some decent cages, after a while. We put those in the barn. I took care of mostly cats, a few puppies. That was the original home of the Cape Ann Animal Aid Association.
 

Ruth Spoor was one of the Cape Ann "old maids." She was a tough old girl. Wouldn't put up with any foolishness from anybody. There were several old maids. They had their own little car. Sometimes they had their own little dog. People would say snotty things to them. They had to give as good as they got. I was sort of in training for it. I never minded the life, the choices I made. Stayed single. I would have been a terrible parent. I did okay with the pets. I don't regret the weird things I did. I probably should, but I don't.

There was one time that the people who volunteered to help, and they were good, one time I came home from work and there was snow on the ground. The first thing I would do was check on those cats in the chicken coop. We had a little propane heater in there. There was a wooden cage with two kittens in it, sitting on top of the heater. One of the aids had gone to sweep up and clean the floor and forgot to take them off. Those two were kittens panting and panting. Smoke was starting to come from the bottom of the cage. I grabbed the handles quick and ran out the door. I put the cage and the kittens and everything in the snow. They were okay after that. That was a close thing. I was furious.

 

Mom and Mooey, c. 1953

I did get paid. Not much. I'd go to work, do housework all day, come home and take care of the cats. But they never gave me one bit of credit for it. Anytime they mention it anywhere, ever, I never get mentioned. That ticked me off right from the start. It really did. I didn't want them falling all over me. A friend of my mother worked for the Gloucester Times. She wrote an article about the Animal Aid and how wonderful it was. It was taken care of by this great big black dog, which was my black dog. Come on. They stole all my thunder.
  

Eventually they got enough money to have their own building in downtown Gloucester.