I come from a long line of cops from around the Boston area. My family believed in duty and service. I was set to follow in their footsteps, but two weeks before I was supposed to enter the police academy, I made a different choice. I started a career in animal sheltering 35 years ago, and I never looked back.

What I didn’t realize then was that “serving and protecting” in this role would sometimes mean doing something that felt like the exact opposite. I had come from a world where protecting life was the job, and now I was being asked to end it.

Back then, we spent more time determining the most humane way to end an animal’s life than we did figuring out how to save them. Each morning, we were told how many had to die to make room for the next ones coming in. “Five cats today,” my supe

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