Alleged ‘kitten-napping’ nets trespass charge

CALAIS – What began as an alleged “kitten-napping” from an animal shelter ended with a woman being charged several hours later with criminal trespass after she was found inside a Pembroke couple’s home.

Susan Conboy, 61, of Lubec had gone there looking for her dog, which had been taken from her late last month by an animal control officer after it appeared to have been abandoned. Animal control had also removed her cat.

Conboy appeared in 4th District Court in Machias Monday and entered an innocent plea to the trespass charge. She could not be reached for comment Monday night.

It began around 11 p.m. Friday after a Pembroke homeowner, who had adopted Conboy’s dog from the PAWS Animal Shelter in Calais, found Conboy in her home and notified police, Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy Adam Davis said Monday.

The deputy said it appeared Conboy had not forced her way into the house. “But she spent at least a couple of hours hiding in the house,” Davis said.

The deputy, who had been tipped earlier by the Calais Police Department about the purloined kittens from Calais, looked inside Conboy’s locked car and found them. “We knew we had to get them out. It was around 35 degrees,” the deputy said.

Calais police Sgt. David Randall said the incident of the missing kittens remains under investigation. Asked if police suspected Conboy had taken the kittens from PAWS, Randall said, “It does appear that way.”

According to PAWS volunteers Kelly Lindquist and Gloria Jean Argraves, Conboy had gone to the South Street shelter earlier on Friday looking for her cat, Andre.

Argraves said she told Conboy that her cat had been placed in quarantine. New animals brought into the shelter are automatically quarantined to avoid the possible spread of disease.

Conboy hung around for a while until shelter volunteers finally asked her to leave. “She went back in [to the room where the cats are housed] hollering ‘Andre, Andre,'” Argraves said. “She asked again, ‘Where is my cat?’ I told her he was in segregation right now.”

It was only later after Conboy had left around 3 p.m. that volunteers discovered that two kittens were missing. “I check the cats before I leave,” Lindquist said. “I was checking the kittens and there were two instead of four.”

Lindquist said the cats still were nursing and on antibiotics and were not ready to leave. “They had runny noses, [they were] kind of croupy, wheezy, just didn’t look well at all, and coughing,” she said.

Lindquist said after the young felines were returned they again were placed on antibiotics. She said they had shown some improvement Monday. “Their eyes are half-closed, we have to use wet washcloths to keep them open,” she said. “I think they are a little bit better. “