Kent County loves its critters and just proved it again with the opening of the Animal Care Shelter for Kent County on Worton Rd.

After five years of planning, fund-raising, and construction, the $6+ million shelter is a state-of-the-art facility designed to care for lost and surrendered animals until they are reclaimed or find a forever home.

Executive Director Richard Keaveney says that promoting the health and safety of the animals are their primary goals, and to that end have constructed spacious cat and dog galleries, unique adoption rooms for cats with access to outside areas on warm days, and outdoor play areas for dogs who are walked by staff and volunteers four times and day.

To maintain an optimum health environment, a controlled air system is in place to block any cross-contamination. This safety feature, along with separate areas for sick animals and a special medical room eventually for minor surgeries, dentistry, and neutering, are central to the health care of any animal at the facility.

A food prep kitchen to accommodate special diets and meds and an industrial laundry room help staff and volunteers work at an organized and comfortable pace. A separate break room is available for everyone during the day.

Additionally, Animal Control now maintains an office at the new shelter to bridge the lost and stray animals to the facility and on their way to healthier lives and forever homes.

And yes, there’s even a special “barn” for feral cats where they will learn to socialize and be introduced to the adoption galleries.

An official ribbon cutting will open the new facility to the community in May. The Spy will keep you posted.

Here, Executive Director Richard Keaveney walks the Spy through this extraordinary addition to Kent County.

This video is approximately 14 minutes in length. For more about the Animal Care Shelter for Kent County, please go here or call 410-778-3648.

If you’ve come to recognize radio personalities by their voice signature and wondered what their lives are like, Mary Saner’s book, “What Else You Got?: Freelancing in Radio” is a fun place to start. It’s a peek into her life as a radio journalist.

Saner has been in the broadcasting business for 40 years, first as a news anchor at WFDMD in Frederick, then as a freelance producer in search of the unique stories found only off the beaten path of broadcasting journalism.

In fact, it was an article about Echo Hill Camp that first brought her through Chestertown 25 years ago.  Later, when she and her husband, attorney Robert “Buzz” Saner, thought about moving out of Washington DC, Chestertown rose to the top of their list of potential locations. 

“What Else You Got?”—a common editor’s refrain—is a book of vignettes about her ongoing career in broadcasting.

Sparked first by an impromptu broadcast promoting women’s basketball at George Washington University, Saner soon landed in internship at WFMD under the tutelage of the highly respected Bernard Adams. Taking one of life’s left-hand turns, however, the new broadcaster was tasked with news rather than sports.

Her three-month internship at WFMD culminated with a four-part award-winning documentary about teen pregnancy and she was off to another station in Virginia, all the while hearing the call for independence and the freedom and risk of becoming a freelance documentarian.

Saner’s book is an entertaining glimpse into the world of freelance broadcast journalism and the twists and turns that occupation requires. And it’s packed with characters, some anonymous, others, like high-wire artist Philippe Petit or young congressman Bill Clinton, remarkable moments.

Oh, did I mention that she also rides motorcycles?

The Spy recently talked with Mary Saner about her career and what lies ahead.

This video is approximately 12 minutes in length. Her book may be purchased at the Bookplate in Chestertown.

What better place to study 19th-century English Romantic literature than to immerse oneself for a few summer weeks in England’s northwest Lake District, wake to a damp shawl of mist over glacial ribbon lakes and hike the rugged mountains while discussing Wordsworth and Coleridge?

Each summer for twenty years, Washington College Professor Emeritus Dr. Richard Gillin, his wife Barbara, and a dozen students from Washington College did just that as part of the Kiplin Hall program they co-founded and chaired.

The learning project’s mission was to connect “literature and landscape” using the our-hundred-year-old ancestral estate of Lord Calvert, whose son Cecil Calvert founded one of Maryland’s first settlements in the 1600s as a haven for persecuted Catholics. 

Each day, the Gillins and students explored the surrounding countryside of North Yorkshire and West Cork, Ireland, an experience he would later describe in his book A Guide to Hiking the Liberal Arts as “an explanation of what the liberal arts are and how learning history, art, philosophy, literature are so important It’s not a matter of collecting numbers or gathering simple facts. It demands experience, time, and contemplation.

Princeton Review selected A Guide to Hiking the Liberal Arts as one of its 2020 Best 300 books. Publisher Robert Frank wrote that the book is a tribute to the extraordinary dedication of America’s best undergraduate college professors “and the vitally important role they play in our culture, and our democracy.

The Spy chatted with Dr. Gillin to talk about how the Kiplin Hall project came about and his reflections on why experiences like the summer learning tours are fundamental to a liberal arts education. 

This video is approximately six minutes in length. The Bookplate bookstore’s ongoing Authors & Oysters series will feature Dr. Gillin at 6 pm. Wednesday, January 8 at the Retriever Bar at 337 ½ High Street. The event is free and open to the public.