FeaturesJune 4, 2017
A sheltering soul: Charlotte Craig remains committed to mission of finding homes for animals in need
After running over to have someone at a neighboring business sign permission for a request to burn debris on property where a new building for the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri will be built and before going off to bottle feed a couple of orphan kittens as a fill-in for an foster parent, Charlotte Craig found a seat...
After running over to have someone at a neighboring business sign permission for a request to burn debris on property where a new building for the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri will be built and before going off to bottle feed a couple of orphan kittens as a fill-in for an foster parent, Charlotte Craig found a seat.
The semi-retiree looked at home on the wooden bench, which in turn sat in the shade of the porch a few feet away from the front door to the building, the longtime point of entry for dogs and cats in need of a home.
It was a laid-back setting to oblige a request by a reporter for an interview with one of the founders of the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri, which became incorporated in 1977, and who currently is the president of the organization's board of directors.
"I'm on a little bit of a short leash," said Craig, apologizing for her window of time for conversation, which often manages to include metaphors and words blended from her lifelong exposure and devotion to animals.
Then the bustle began.
Up pulled a car, and out popped a man whom Craig knew by name. He had an injured dog in the backseat that already had been taken to a veterinarian. He was accompanied by a woman, and they were surrendering the dog for the owner.
"They haven't been taking care of him," the woman said.
"Poor thing," Craig said. "Pretty dog. Darling dog."
The woman led the leashed, brown and white dog toward the front door. "He'd be pretty once he's clean," she said as they passed.
Minutes later, a woman arrives with two kittens in her arms.
When asked if the kittens were being dropped off, Craig smiled and said, "Probably. It's kitten season."
More cars pull up, and Craig greets a couple women by name as they drop off donations.
It becomes increasingly obvious where Craig is seated. She's at the busy intersection of Need and Kindness.
She's spent most of her life on this corner.
She was a nurse when she and husband Bill moved to Cape Girardeau in the early 1970s, eventually becoming a regional pioneer in public health as the executive director of the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center, a position she would hold until 2012, when she retired from a program that grew extensively under her leadership.
While there, she started Christmas for the Elderly, which gathered and delivered gifts for needy senior citizens, and served on the Regional Homeland Oversight Committee, which prepared Southeast Missouri for possible disasters. The Girl Scouts honored her with the Women's Impact Award for serving as a positive role model for women and children in 2007, and she was named a Spirit of America nominee in 2015 by the Southeast Missourian.
"I don't think I ever had a choice about being involved in the Cape Girardeau community," Craig said, noting that animal control and animal health impact public health.
As for looking out for animals, she recalls no inspiration for her high level of involvement.
"It's just that I've always had animals in my life, and I'm a nurse, professional life as a nurse, very nurturing, and they're helpless," she said.
As if on cue, Linda Tilsen, who serves as one of the chief foster home volunteers for the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri, arrived with a portable kennel in hand.
"She is the most giving, caring person I know," Tilsen said. "I mean she is just always there, for animals and people. Without her this place would not be half of what is."
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Craig smiled at the words, but refuted the latter part.
"Nobody can do anything by themselves," Craig said. "You do need to have people around you and the team pulling for you. Two other reasons this place is still standing, and one is Requi Salter and the other is Tracy Poston (director). I'm just on the board and volunteering, and they've been here day in, day out."
Craig's contributions have been year in and year out since around 1977, when a flash flood enveloped Arena Park, home to a small dog pound where area strays were kept. She credits former Southeast Missouri State University professor Dr. Frank Nickell with helping rescue the dogs.
"Two teenagers had found a rowboat somewhere, they were in the park having fun, and Dr. Nickell said 'I need that boat,'" Craig said. "So those two kids helped him rescue those dogs, and I think there were five or six and they took them to Frank and Gynel's basement, and that was it. That was the beginning of the shelter. It was operated out of their home for several years."
The Nickells, Betsy Dinkins, Diane and Larry Tidd, Susan Elrod, Dr. Gwenn Freitag, Karen Fox and Craig started the not-for-profit organization, which eventually found a more permanent home at its current location, 3526 Boutin Drive, in the early 1980s.
Craig has remained involved in some capacity over the years, her love of animals entrenched since her youth in Sikeston, where her dad was a International Harvester dealer. She always owned dogs, cats and horses on the outskirts of town.
"He'd get horses traded in on combines and cotton pickers, and that's how I would get my horses," Craig said about her dad. "I've just always been a person drawn to animals and have probably appreciated them more than the average bear. I think they talk to us. I think they communicate, if we listen or if we read their body language. I'm in tune with all of mine, and some of them out here."
Her "mine" are five dogs, three horses and "a few cats."
Her newest dog showed up at the intersection where she hangs out.
She was a foster failure tossed into a dumpster.
"I fostered her until she got on her feet, and I fell for her, and I'm 72 years old and I don't need a puppy," Craig said.
The puppy is a survivor, like many of the animals at the facility, which tended to more than 3,100 animals last year. Craig said when the facility first opened it took pride in a 29 percent adoption rate when the national average was 22 percent.
"Because of the internet, because of Facebook and being able to reach out to rescues and publicize your animals, we've taken that 29 percent adoption rate to 90 percent for dogs," Craig said. "Cats we're working on. Cats just simply outnumber themselves. We've gone from 30 percent in 2014 to 52 percent by the end of 2016."
Between reduced rates from veterinarians and a generous donor -- payment on the balance for spays and neuters -- the plight of cats has improved.
Craig lost Bill, her husband of 42 years, in 2012 at the age of 70. Like her, he had been heavily involved as a community volunteer. She had assumed the role of the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri board president just months before his death with a main mission of getting a new facility built, and she retired with the health department shortly after he died to devote herself to the goal, which has been elusive.
"In 18 months time I lost Bill, my sister and my brother-in-law," Craig said. "It hit me that I couldn't be at the health department five days a week and help this place into a new building because everybody that you need to talk to kept the same hours I kept. I couldn't talk to people on Saturday and Sunday because they were home, they were off, so that's why I retired. It hit me in the face that I just might die one day."
She laughed after those last words. She has a bucket list just in case that scenario does play out.
She said the current building, formerly a grooming facility, was never intended for boarding. It has failing infrastructure but remains part of the plan after a new building is built. She believes the funding finally is in place -- "It's been a difficult, difficult financial climb" -- and the plan is along far enough for ground to be broken within the next year.
However, funds are still needed for kennels and equipment, which could be as expensive as the building.
"It's on several bucket lists," Craig said. "There are some old warhorses still around who were involved in the early years who are waiting for this building to be built. It's been that long coming, and we're really on the cusp of it."
And when the move does happen, Craig still will be residing at the corner of Need and Kindness.
jbreer@semissourian.com
(573) 388-3629
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