Animal Shelter to Lose Tireless Leader Suzie Sutton

In a tiny room in an out-of-the-way building in , Crestwood animal control officer Suzie Sutton, of Kirkwood, kept up a running banter with her charges as she filled water bowls and cleaned litter boxes.

She scratched Caesar the tabby under the chin, cuddled Ho Ho the black-and-white tuxedo cat, and waggled her fingers at a shy tortoiseshell named Daphne. Ho Ho was rescued Christmas Eve.

Then she opened a kennel so that the sole dog in residence that day, a regal German shepherd, could come out for a visit.

“Isn’t he beautiful?” she cooed as she sat on the floor and fed him bits of chicken, which he gingerly accepted.

“I think he’s gorgeous. I just love him,” she said.

The skittish shepherd was dumped in the parking lot at Whitecliff Park almost two weeks ago. Sutton speculated that whoever abandoned him knew she and her team of volunteers would take good care of him.

“I’m a softie,” she said, but she can’t abide anyone who would abandon an animal.

“I’ll take them to court if I can figure out who it was,” she said. “I think it’s horrible.”

Sutton, 69, has been the city’s full-time animal control officer since 1998. She recently announced she would retire March 31.

“It’s been a great job, but I’m tired,” said Sutton, who lives in Kirkwood in a home that she shares with two rescued dogs and two rescued cats. “I’m just exhausted when I go home.”

Dale Diesel, a veterinarian at Yorkshire Animal Hospital in Marlborough who has worked closely with Sutton, said she deserved some down time.

“She’s pretty much tireless. She worked at any hour of any day, whenever she was needed," Diesel said. “You couldn’t find anybody who’s more dedicated to what they do.”

Sutton earned a degree in animal behavior from Michigan State. She is the founder and former director of the Missouri Wildlife Rescue Center, which was a longtime fixture in Kirkwood.

She spent many years rescuing and treating sick and injured wildlife, starting when she was a stay-at-home mom with two little boys.

“It started with a squirrel I found in my backyard with a broken leg,” she said. “Pretty soon the basement became the wildlife center, and it kept growing and growing.”

By the early 1980s, the rescue center was housed in a warehouse in Kirkwood and handling hundreds of animals a year.

By the time Sutton left, the rescue center had moved to west St. Louis County and was handling as many as 7,000 sick and injured animals each year.

“It had gotten to the point where all I did was write grant requests,” she said. The late-night emergency calls in St. Louis County and surrounding counties also took their toll.

“It was a really rough life for me,” she said. “I had no life. It was just rigorous.”

“I took this job as a kind of a retirement job,” Sutton said, then laughed that she ever believed her work might slow down.

As Crestwood’s animal control officer, Sutton rounds up strays, rescues injured and sick animals, brings in feral cats, manages the pet tag program and enforces other animal laws, and tries to find homes for abandoned pets like the handsome German shepherd.

Crestwood is one of the few cities in St. Louis County that still has its own animal control division and shelter. In fact, Crestwood’s shelter has been in jeopardy a number of times through the years as officials argue over the best use of city money.

A dedicated group of about 30 volunteers has helped to keep it afloat, earning it the nickname of the Little Shelter That Could. They clean cages and feed, bathe, walk and help socialize the animals. They also help bring in donations.

The shelter has kennels for just three dogs and three cats but on a recent day housed an additional five cats in crates. An attached room is being remodeled by volunteers in hopes of doubling the space.

But Sutton will be retired by the time that task is complete. She plans to visit her two grandchildren, garden and enjoy time with friends.

But one of the first things on her agenda is to spend more time with her own pets.

“I always feel sorry for them because I’m always so busy with the animals here,” Sutton said. “ I see all these people walking their dogs in the park and I don’t have the energy when I get home. So we’re going to do a lot of that when I retire.”

Her colleague Diesel, the veterinarian, will miss her work.

“I hate seeing her go, but she deserves to take a break, if she can take a break,” Diesel said.