By Taylor Boyd and Debbie Hall
Murphy Brown is on a quest to make the world a better place for animals.
She has devoted her life to serving animals, including more than 50 years in which she was affiliated with one organization or another — or three.
Why?
Simply put, “because I love animals. When I was a kid, I remember that I would go around the neighborhood and untie all the dogs that were chained to posts in the ground because I thought it was mean,” Brown said.
She also rescued animals while a youngster, raising “bunny rabbits, deer, racoons, opossums, many birds. It’s just, if there was an orphan of the wild, it came it me, but I’ve been in rescue constantly since 1966. I’ve done it seriously since the 1960s and 1970s,” Brown said.
Even those who don’t know somehow know enough to seek her out, which prompts many frantic calls and conversations like this:
Caller, “Hi Murphy, I scooped up a baby bird that fell from its nest and can’t reach the nest to return it.”
Brown, “what kind of bird is it?”
Caller, “I don’t know. The ugly and loud kind?”
A knowing chuckle from Brown may be followed by, “sounds like a grackle. Where can I meet you?”
While she is as adept at raising birds – even grackles — as she is at raising other wildlife, Brown also works to reduce the euthanasia numbers in shelters.
A newspaper clipping about Brown and her work appeared in the January 26, 1966 edition of The Virginian-Pilot and The Portsmouth Star. It was titled, “Local Teenage Miss Is Animal’s Best Friend.”
The story details some of her efforts while a 17-year-old Wilson High School senior. Afternoons, Brown “comes by the shelter and takes one or two pets out and finds them homes,” the story stated.
“Murphy runs an adoption agency, keeping a list of the humans who desire pets and descriptions of what they want. She matches the descriptions with the homeless waifs in the shelter, and faster than you can eat a dog biscuit, a family has a new pet,” the story stated.
But even then, her work still was not confined to homeless animals in shelters – most, she said were “just wildlife and people dumping things on me, dogs, cats, critters.”
After settling in Patrick County, Brown recalled that “while I worked at the PARC Workshop, I drove a van picking up and taking home the clients. As I was driving, I saw an opossum dead on the side of the road, and I was sure I saw four eyes peeping over her dead body. I turned into a church parking lot, surprising all the clients.”
The bus riders were excited when they saw the two babies Brown picked up by their tails, she said.
“I rolled up the front of my shirt to make a pouch in my lap as I drove. They weren’t old enough to wean, so they traveled to work with me every day so they could have their frequent feedings,” she said, adding she turned the opossums loose in the woods by PARC Workshop “where I could make sure they were thriving.”
She also rescued a four-week-old baby raccoon that was brought to her after being found with her dead mother on the side of the road.
“I called her Hattie the Mad Hatter, because when she was hungry, she would throw a fit that you couldn’t ignore,” Brown said.
She kept Hattie in a large crate in her bedroom until the animal was big enough to move to the gazebo in Brown’s yard.
“When she had a litter of kits, she brought them to the house and showed them how to use the dog door,” Brown said. “When I would lock the dog door at night, she would have a fit and dig all my plants out of their pots and not leave a speck of dirt in the pots.”
She said she called the effort ‘Orphans of the Wild,’ because she raised orphaned wildlife she found or orphans that were given to her.
Brown has worked with national animal groups, like the humane society and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).
Brown has worked with the Patrick Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) since 2007, serving as president for the first 12 years of her tenure with the organization. She currently is vice-president of the organization.
Initially, Brown fostered dogs and cats for Lynn Regan, who was president of PAWS at the time.
“I had my invalid father at home, so I really couldn’t be but so active,” Brown said, adding “but I could go out and feed dogs and stuff.”
After many years, Regan “was suffering burn-out and just had to break away,” said Brown, who was first elected president around that time.
While both Brown and several PAWS members have moved away from fostering “because we’re all in our 70s and suffering burn out,” the organization has “a spay/neuter voucher program where we pay 100 percent the cost of surgery” for pets.
She said the voucher program was able to spay/neuter 169 dogs in 2020, and the organization “hopes to break 100 vouchers this year.”
It is well on the way, with 26 vouchers distributed in January, Brown said. She added the annual tally will be added to the 937 personal pets spayed/neutered since she joined the organization.
Brown also plans to continue her life’s work in service to animals – domestic, wild or in need of rehabbing.
“I mean, I’ve always had a house full of critters,” Brown said. “I have 10 dogs now, and most of them were rejects.”
Those interested in a voucher may apply by calling (276) 694-2379 or email paws_pres@yahoo.com.
Contact Clover Cat Rescue about feline spay/neuter at (276) 694-3598 or email clovercatrescue@yahoo.com.
