For Joe Saulnier, 78, being known as “Catman” around Yarmouth and “Cat dad” at home is a point of pride. At the Nova Scotia SPCA Yarmouth Shelter, staff have another name for him – the cat whisperer.
“He’s helped many animals find homes over the years,” says shelter senior support staff member Celine Fevens. “Joe often brings catnip and treats, and he has a special gift with very skittish or scared cats.”
Joe had cats as a kid, and one in his 20’s. When he moved to Yarmouth, he visited the SPCA shelter and adopted Misty in 1997. It was years later, 2010, that Joe became a dedicated volunteer at the Yarmouth Shelter. He didn’t set out to volunteer, but then one day a special cat came into his life.
“I was working as a park attendant at Ellenwood Lake, and early in the season I thought I saw a stray cat,” said Joe. “I saw it more over the summer. Never came near you.” Joe would leave cat food out before he went home for the day, convinced the cat had given birth to some kittens.
Back then, the park would end the season after Labour Day Monday. The Thursday before, Joe saw the cat in the park’s maintenance shed. Joe put out some food like he normally did, but this time he sat on a nearby log and waited. The cat came up, circled him three times, then gave his hand a bump with his head. Head bunting is a common, affectionate feline behaviour that has a cat marking an object or person with their scent pheromones.
“I worked 15 years as a park attendant, the best day at work, no, the best moment, was when Ms. Ellie marked me with a bump of her head on my hand,” Joe remembered vividly. With this new trust, Joe says he rigged a makeshift shelter in the shed for comfort and safety, left some food and came back a week later. He found the cat, whom he called Ms. Ellie, inside with three kittens.
When he was able to get them into the Yarmouth Shelter, he said to the staff, “I’m not just going to drop them off and leave. I am going to help.” Since then, he has been a fixture at the shelter, chatting with staff, volunteers, visitors and, of course, the cats. And over time, a few of them have been adopted by Joe.
There was the time he let the cats pick him because he couldn’t decide who to adopt. Another time, he came in to volunteer on his birthday, and the staff gave him a flat of canned cat food. “I said, is this good on toast?” Turns out the staff knew that for his birthday, Joe would want a new companion, and there was a cat who wouldn’t take his eyes off Joe every time he was in to volunteer. So, he adopted the long-haired cat that he thought was so beautiful; he would name him Beau. And of course, the cat had a sibling, so she had to come too, and he named her Arrow.
Over the past few years, Joe has had to say goodbye to both cats as they crossed the rainbow bridge. His roommate also had to say goodbye to hers, so they were cat-free, and that was the plan. But then a special event at the shelter enticed Joe. Hill’s Adoption Weekend saw the company put $200 towards the adoption fee of senior pets. There, Joe met a special cat who had FIV. Joe looked at the staff and said, “It’s not his fault! Let’s get him packed up to come home with me.”
“Unlike most tuxedo cats, he didn’t have a white-tipped tail, but a ring of white lower down,” says Joe. “I was going to call him Ringo, but then I realized that every time I talked to him, I would do it in a Newfoundland accent. And I remembered on one of my trips, I was asking for directions and this fellow, in a thick Newfoundland accent, said, ‘follow me boody’ so I named him Boody.”
Newfoundland has a special place in Joe’s heart. After reading the book When the World Came to Town about Gander and September 11, 2001, and learning about how the Gander SPCA – and Bonnie Harris in particular – helped the animals that were on the grounded planes, he had to go meet her. He went back for the 10th anniversary in 2021 and will spend his 79th birthday there this year.
His first port of call on the rock? The Gander SPCA to pet the cats and talk with Bonnie. When he asked Bonnie why the town helped people, animals, and continues to do so, she said, ‘It’s what you do.’
For Joe, coming into the Yarmouth Shelter to volunteer regularly – sometimes in a sweatshirt with Boddy’s picture on it and the words “BEST CAT DAD EVER” – there is no question about why he helps. It’s what you do.