OPINIONS: ‘In memory of one who loved animals’

Kelley, creator and found of Critter Magazine, was also a visionary and a tireless advocate for the creatures he loved, in this area and far beyond.

He wouldn’t have described himself this way at all, and would have been embarrassed to have others describe him thus. He was a humble man who quietly used the talents he had to do good for homeless animals.

And Bill certainly wouldn’t have known what to do with all the well-deserved accolades heaped on him in a small wooden church this past weekend, where friends, family and fellow animal lovers gathered to honor his memory.

Bill passed away earlier this month at the age of just 60, after a long illness.

Even the name of the church, “The Sanctuary,” seemed appropriate – because that was what he strove to give every animal in need of love and care.

A newspaperman with publishing experience, Bill created Critter in 1997, before there were other outlets such as the Internet and Facebook, in an effort to show the faces of dogs and cats, puppies and kittens, awaiting euthanasia in our area for no other reason that they were born, and unwanted. Before Critter, the plight of these animals was largely “out of sight and out of mind.”

Bill made them harder to ignore — not only giving a face to the faceless, but a voice to the voiceless through the magazine’s educational articles about animals. The one line you could always find in every edition of Critter I ever saw read, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated,” a quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi.

You could pick up this free publication in grocery check out lines, convenience stores, restaurants and other places. As someone said at his memorial service, Critter could alternately break your heart and make you chuckle as you pored through its pages. It could make you wish you had ten more rooms on your house, if you had any heart at all.

But the one thing it did do, above all else, was make you aware – aware of pet overpopulation, aware of the need to spay and neuter, aware of the need for donations, aware of the lives of innocent creatures being lost every day.

Through Critter, at least 40,000 animals have been adopted in the Athens area since 1997, and Bill oversaw Critter’s expansion to six other areas of the Southeast. His business partner, Elaine Lite, who publishes Critter out of Asheville, N.C., says that figure is far too low – she estimates it at more likely over 100,000.

Another person who spoke at Bill’s service told of a fountain at Shockoe Slip in Richmond VA that has the inscription, “In memory of one who loved animals.” The fountain was originally made to supply water to teams of horses that hauled materials through the area by someone who loved these and other creatures.

This inscription would be a fitting tribute to Kelley as well and one I’d like to see placed on a marker somewhere, perhaps at our animal shelter, in his memory. After all, Bill lent his support there too. Long before the shelter and spay/neuter clinic opened its doors in December 2002, Bill kept the public informed of its progress and once open, he quickly incorporated pictures of its animal residents into his magazine.

But now to the thing I know Bill would most like you all to know about.

His dog “Goose,” a Lab/Great Dane cross, is in need of a home.

Bill was a Madison County resident and lived on the river with Goose, and his other dog, Frog. Frog has been adopted since Bill’s death, but Goose is still waiting.

Bill adopted Goose from MOAS seven years ago. The shelter has featured Goose as this week’s “Pet of the Week,” in The Journal and hopes to honor Bill’s memory by finding his beloved dog a new home. Goose can play fetch and is leash and housebroken. Most of all, Goose needs to know there is still someone in this world who will give him the love he still deserves.

Besides Goose, there are many other pets at MOAS, and at other shelters in this area that need that same assurance.

Continuing to be their voice is the best way to honor Bill’s legacy, while providing a home to a homeless animal is the ultimate gift to this man’s memory.

Bill’s work here is done, his release from a sick body complete. But I can’t help but think that somewhere in heaven there’s a group of animals gathered around a soft-spoken man with gentle hands, who is home at last with his “critters” and with his Creator.

“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him,” – James D. Miles.

Margie Richards is a reporter and office manager for The Madison County Journal.