Hayley Hescock

“Hayley Hescock is twenty-one today. She’s the feline and small animal manager at The Windham County Humane Society on Rte. 30 just north of Brattleboro.But in a sense she has been at this work since she was eight. “I was living with my family in Wardsboro andI knew I wanted to do what my Mom does: work with small animals. She worked then and still does at The West River Valley Vet Clinic and we all still live in the same family home. Even as a girl of eight, I “shadowed” her at work.I watched her spay females or neuter male animals. I kept an eye on oxygen gauges, heart moniters, blood pressure gauges while she operated on anesthetized small animals. I watched eye removals, leg removals, amputations. I guess I have a strong stomach for these procedures.**

I graduated from Leland and Gray High School in Townshend taking the regular as well as Coop Vocational Classes. I also took a fascinating forensics class which taught me procedures that enabled me to solve problems of the animal body. I graduated in 2022 and immediately took at job here in the Human Society as a Feline Tech. I started cleaning cats people had left with us and then moved on to cleaning dogs as well. When the previous Feline Manager left, I took her place. I now focus primarily on cats but also look after rabbits, birds, ferrets but no reptiles. The Canine unit is separate from my work.

“When folks bring in cats for us to find homes for, I do what we call the “Intake Process.” I give the cat a temper vaccination, a rabies injection and an FIV test to pinpoint any diseases he or she might have. Then the goal is to look after the animal until someone comes in for a kitten. We get abandoned animals from animal control officers, the Police Department, from homeowners who can no longer afford to keep

“And there is definitely a “kitten season” – May to November – when adults are in heat. We can have up to 20-25 cats for adoption at any one time. When folks come in to adopt, they get to meet all the kittens we have prepared for adoption. I discuss the medical records with them, show them each kitten and that each has been either spayed (ovaries removed from females) or neutered (testicles removed from males) as well as microchipped for identification. That means they have an ID imbedded in them that enables any vet to determine its medical history and ID. To cover the cost of all this work on the part of the Humane Society, we have to charge $150. For that, a family adopting a kitten can be confident they are taking on a healthy animal.

Before handing over a kitten to a prospective new owners we ask a lot of questions: Are there any other pets in the home? Do you have kids and what ages are they? Do you live in a house or apartment? Do you have a fenced in yard? Do you walk and hike or are you a couch potato? We don’t judge people but we need to understand the world our kittens will enter. And when people come to us to surrender a cat or dog, we don’t ask prying questions. We’re here to support people who have to give up an animal for adoption.

(We don’t take puppies under a certain age due to the viruses they can carry, particularly the highly contagious Parvo Virus being one of them. To determine if a puppy is so infected, we give them a fecal test which means we have to dress in regulation protective gear: plastic booties, gown, mask, hairnets…..)

“I started working here in June, 2022, after high school graduation and in October of that year the Feline and Small Animal Manager left her position and I took on her role. My Mom was my model. She had spent twenty years as a ‘Vet Tech’ helping the veterinarian in Newfane handle animals as his second-in-command. I also grew up watching her foster kittens at the family home where we live in Wardsboro. She typically limits herself to four kittens or less at a time. Now in my position, I only take kittens home if they are severely ill or they can’t stay overnight in the shelter because there’s no room. I have a large dog crate at home fitted with a heat source and bottles for babies.

“In 2024, The Humane Society completed its new building. The whole north end of the building is brand new and the south end has been newly renovated for A LOT OF MONEY raised by caring individuals in the community. And every day Iwork with Mollee Waite, feline tech and adoption counselor, Chris Tobin – he’s the kennel manage – and Kyla his kennel tech along with Starr Kordana, shelter manager. And people looking for a new pet come from all over to this office: people from New York and Connecticut, New Hampshire, all over Vermont….

“This is a state-of-the-art facility. With between fifteen and twenty professionals. We have ultrasound equipment, we can scan heart, liver and gall bladders, we have anesthesia and dental machines and can monitor the heart, establish blood pressure…… the works.

“And we always caution people to not readily accept a kitten or puppy from a neighbor. The kittens or puppies have not been vaccinated, spayed or neutered, dewormed, have no records and certainly have not been ID microchipped so, if lost, they can’t be identified. Furthermore, kittens can go into heat at eight months of age. (Any female cat could possibly have four to five litters of one to eight young with each pregnancy.) Given cats can live from 14-18 years of age, that’s potentially a whole lot of young.”**

“I have four cats and two dogs at home. One is Lucy, my Dad’s Pit Bull mix, and I have Kevin, a Maine Coon cat, a bit of a nut and one year old, and two other cats: Aslan who is five and Carrots, a black and white cat 12 years old. We also have Dallas, a purebred German Shepherd who pretty much raised my kitten named “Kitten” and her three litter mates. The four of them sleep on him, drape all over him, curl up against his belly…. And every night when I get home from work, all six of them are behindthe glass front door waiting for me, looking for my arrival.

“And when my boyfriend get together, we play with the cats and kitten and dogs but we NEVER travel with them in the car. It just doesn’t work for them and therefore, for us. And I have to say, when my Dad gets home – he’s Robert Hescock, an electrician in the area – and he greets us all with his huge heart. I watched him as a dedicated community member, who, I guess like me now, can’t say no to anyone or any animal – just like my Mom.”