Animal 411

‘This Was My Cue’: New Canaan Woman Adopts Two of Pregnant Stray’s Kittens

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After losing her beloved cat Mimi at nearly 15 years old last March, Marian Murphy knew her house needed cats. She’d had cats since moving to New Canaan more than 40 years ago, but planned to travel overseas in 2021 and wanted to wait to find her next one. Then the delta variant of COVID-19 virus emerged, making travel difficult.
Murphy read about a pregnant stray cat in New Canaan that gave birth to five healthy kittens—a feline named “Elsa,” since she was discovered on Cross Street at the time the tropical storm of that name that struck Connecticut—and “knew this was my cue.”

“Not only would I be able to get two kittens back to New Canaan where they were conceived but more importantly, my mother’s name had been Elsa also,” Murphy told NewCanaanite.com in an email. “She had passed away in April 2019 and I have not had a chance to see the family since then. Thus in my mind, Elsa’s kittens would create a bridge between my life here and what I had left behind.”

She contacted Warren-based Sophia L’Orange Kitten Rescue, which had taken in Elsa, and for several weeks kept track of the growing litter, eventually adopting a male (whom she named Tigger) and a female (Piccola).

Around Town

Top-10 Most-Read Articles of 2021

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The 10 most-read articles of 2021 cover a wide range of local news. The first full year of the COVID-19 pandemic saw traffic on New Canaanite exceed 2.2 million views, up more than 5.5% from 2020. 

Here they are, headlines and ledes:

10. Health Director: New Canaan Woman’s COVID-19 Complaint About Local Restaurant Unfounded (Jan. 3) “Municipal health officials said a New Canaan woman’s complaint last month that a restaurant downtown had been violating COVID-19-related rules was determined to be unfounded. According to a complaint that Tucker Murphy lodged with New Canaan’s highest elected official, the White Buffalo bar and restaurant  was ‘not following the Sector Rules’ on the night of Friday, Dec.

Animal 411

Police Cite Canoe Hill Road Woman After Two Dog-Biting Incidents

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Police last month cited a Canoe Hill Road woman for two counts of nuisance dog after her Australian cattle dogs bit a UPS deliveryman multiple times on the arms, sending him to an urgent care facility. One of the dogs, a two-year-old named “George” (the other one is “Lenny”) already had bitten a passing neighbor the month before, after his vaccination for rabies had expired, according to police reports obtained by NewCanaanite.com through public records requests. The dogs first came on the radar of police Sept. 2, when a Canoe Hill Road neighbor phoned police that she found a dog roaming her property and “acting aggressively toward her,” according to an incident report from Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm. The neighbor heard a someone calling out “George” and at that time the dog left, the report said.

Allyson Halm

‘Everyone Is Doing Very, Very Well’: Neglected Butler Lane Dogs, One Year Later [PHOTOS]

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One year after authorities seized 12 dogs from a New Canaan house, rescuing them from an animal cruelty situation where three puppies already had died, officials say the animals are thriving in new homes. 

The two Poodles, one Yorkie and nine Maltese puppies, as well as two Maltese adults, an intact male and female, were seized by town officials on Nov. 17, 2020, after they learned that a local woman, Catherine Palmer, had been operating an illegal pet store while keeping puppies in an unsanitary environment, lying to veterinarians about their health and denying the animals access to medical care, according to court documents. 

“They were very, very lucky to meet this fate and not the fate that was planned for them,” New Canaan Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm told NewCanaanite.com on occasion of the one-year anniversary of the seizure. “Very, very lucky.”

She thanked many of the individuals and organizations that assisted in caring for the dogs in the days, weeks and months following their seizure. Following months of hearings, a state Superior Court judge granted the town of New Canaan full legal custody of the animals in January, and they’ve been adopted out to loving homes in Connecticut and other parts of New England, Halm said. “I am so grateful for CERT [Community Emergency Response Team], Connecticut Westport Human Society and Stratford Animal Control and their STARS [Stratford Animal Rescue Society], who came to my rescue,” Halm said.

Animal 411

Police: Black Bear Breaks into Chicken Coop on Lantern Ridge Road

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A black bear broke into a chicken coop in northeastern New Canaan some time during the night Sunday and killed chickens inside it, officials said. The chicken coop on Lantern Ridge Road had been “well-fortified” but the bear got in anyway, according to a New Canaan Police Department report cited by Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm. Officers found bear scat at the scene and determined no other species of animal could have broken into the coop, Halm said. A second chicken coop on the same road showed evidence of damage to it that appeared also to be a bear attempting to get in at the birds, she said. The reports come about one month after a resident of Father Peters Lane, also located in the northeast part of town, photographed a mother bear and two young cubs on their property. 

Halm has said New Canaan is seeing an increasing number of black bears appear each spring.