Bingo! The animals win some comfort

Animal control officer Sue Thiebedeau with a recently adopted client, Wiley. (Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)

Catricia the kitten will get fresh kitty litter - and maybe a new home - thanks to the digestive talents of Blueberry the cow.

It was no typical game of chance that drew dozens of determined gamblers to the Wrentham Town Common on a recent Saturday afternoon. The lure was Cow Chip Bingo, a variation on the traditional game that was organized to raise money to help two area animal-control officers care for homeless cats, dogs, and other small creatures.

There were no bingo cards or markers for this game. Just a large, lumbering bovine, her big breakfast, and an eventual call from nature deposited onto a well-defined grid of white stripes on the grass. It took just one chip on the right spot to win.

"It's simply a game of digestion," said Norfolk's animal control officer, Hilary Cohen, who organized the fund-raiser with Sue Thiebedeau, her counterpart in Wrentham and Plainville.

The annual ritual raises funds, and sometimes eyebrows, but is a crowd-pleaser. It seems to fit well with the charming, rural community, where humor is a staple. Hours earlier, the annual 5K Wroad Wrace was run as part of the Wrentham Day festivities.

Bingo squares sold for $10, raising about $1,500. Of the total, one-third went to the game's winner, the Kelley family of Wrentham, and the balance was split between the two officers to spend on vet bills for lost or abandoned animals.

The money also supplements their tiny town budgets, which are already stretched to cover day-to-day expenses, never mind medical bills and an unending need for food and kitty litter.

None of the three towns have an official shelter, and the animal-control officers keep their charges as long as they can at their own properties until adoptive families are found.

The game began at the stroke of 2, when Thiebedeau draped a bright green lead around Blueberry's neck and led her into a makeshift pen on the common. A band in the nearby gazebo playing hits from the 1970s offered an energetic version of "Spirit in the Sky," and the crowd turned its back on the dozen or so craft and food venders to watch Blueberry at work.

Some tried to slip stealthy handfuls of hay in Blueberry's path as an incentive. They were quickly rebuffed by Cohen.

Others, like resident Jim Lucas and his three sons, tried to sweet-talk the sturdy, tan Oake Knoll Ayrshire, who makes her home at a raw milk farm in Foxborough: "Over here, Blueberry! We have a story to tell you."

That didn't work. So Lucas planned his next move aloud. "We have an excellent location. Number 91. We just have to get her down here."

Cindy Thompson, who assists the town's Board of Selectmen, clapped and wheedled cheerfully as the cow stared her down: "Blueberry! Come down here, baby. To 143."

Last year's winner was determined right out of the gate. Not so this year. Blueberry, who will become a mother in three weeks, had her own timetable.

"It could take one minute or 20 hours," Thiebedeau warned.

At 2:16, onlookers were still enthused. At 2:26, it started to rain, and much of the crowd dispersed. Then the skies cleared, and some came back. At 2:43 . . . still nothing to report. At 2:44, Lucas and company left. Finally, at 3:24, the deed was done.

Cohen and Thiebedeau are close friends who work together when the situation warrants. Like in 2006, when Cohen got locked in a bathroom with an alligator. Out came the cellphone and a call to her good friend: "Can you hurry and possibly bring some duct tape?"

But there's nothing funny about the abandoned or abused animals that have recently turned up in Norfolk, Cohen says. Or the rabbits left to die on the grounds of MCI-Norfolk, 3-week-old kittens tossed in a DPW dumpster, or a dog found covered in paint after it escaped from its owner.

Although most rescued dogs go to kennels, Cohen has gathered enough donations to convert part of a barn at her farm as a haven for homeless cats, dogs, and other small animals. Several special-needs horses have also found a temporary home, and another is available for adoption.

"Before it was just random cages, but now we have all four walls and a door and windows," she said.

Being creative in financing is key, said Thiebedeau. Like taking advantage of cow chip bingo, and any generous contributions that come in. "We're still thought of as the old-fashioned dog-catcher," she said. "And we're working hard to right some of those misconceptions."

Cohen, for example, is a certified tree climber who can rescue stranded cats and save firefighters from a call. A recent day's agenda including cleaning five horse stalls, 17 litter boxes, and being called to fetch a runaway rooster, which she caught and safeguarded in the back of her cruiser. Then a dog used her as a fire hydrant.

"Just another day in paradise," she smiled.

Michele Morgan Bolton can be reached at mmbolton1@verizon.net