BETHEL — To Kay McMillin, everyone is “dear,” “darling” or “sweetheart,” said sweetly soft and lilting.    

Canine or feline. Two-legged or four-legged. At the Bethel Animal Hospital, everyone is part of her family.

“I love them all,” she said. “All creatures great and small.”

McMillin has volunteered at the animal hospital every day for the past 13 years. Nearly 91 years old, she still arrives each afternoon to wash the windows, take out the trash, soothe worried owners and calm frightened pets with soft words and light touches.

“Hello, my darling puggy. You’re going home this weekend, sweet face. You’ll go home this weekend,” McMillin said, cooing to a pug being boarded at the hospital. She paused a moment at each kennel, offering treats and updates to the roomful of pugs, spaniels and mixed-breeds. “Hi, darling. Hi, baby. Yes, darling, yes. Hunter, maybe Saturday, dearie. Maybe Saturday.”

McMillin’s relationship with the vet’s office began in 1999 after her 19-year-old cat, Lacey, got sick. When Lacey was hospitalized, McMillin stayed close by.   

“I said to the girls, ‘Isn’t there something I can do down here?’ (They said) ‘Oh, yes!'” McMillin recalled. “So I’ve been doing it ever since, dear.”

Even after Lacey died, McMillin, a retired mill worker and forest service employee, went to the vet’s office every afternoon to help with basic chores. She soon found herself comforting scared animals and sitting with grieving owners as they said goodbye to dying pets.

To McMillin, who never married or had children, the people and pets at the Bethel Animal Hospital began to feel like family. Over the years she started referring to them as her kids. They started calling her Grammie.

“She is our grandmother. She is part of our lives,” Office Manager Donna Parent said. “It’s not the same when she’s not here.”

Although McMillin has always had dogs or cats, she never got another pet after Lacey. The office cat, Yowser, who had been found as a sick, half-drowned kitten, fills the void nicely, presenting herself for brushing and attention when McMillin arrives each afternoon. When McMillin wants a canine fix, there’s a recovering Lab to sit with or boarding pug to fawn over.

“Oh, puggies. I love my puggy dogs,” she said.

Although she’ll turn 91 this month, McMillin hasn’t slowed down much. She’s still active at Our Lady of the Snows, a local Catholic church she’s attended for decades. She still lives in her own Bethel house, and until this summer mowed her own lawn. Her sister made her stop.

“I enjoyed that riding mower,” McMillin said. “But she was afraid I’d get hurt, dear.”

But while McMillin gave up lawn mowing, she can’t imagine ever giving up her afternoons at the Bethel Animal Hospital. 

“This is my home,” she said.

Have an idea for Animal Tales? Contact Lindsay Tice at 689-2854 or [email protected]