Mary Jo Spring, executive director of the Hermitage Cat Shelter, holds a feline named Gypsy. Spring has won high praise as well as condemnation.

Photos by A.E. Araiza / arizona daily star

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Drop by the Hermitage Cat Shelter and you'll find hundreds of felines living the good life, cage-free.

Some will be napping on shelves and in perches; others will be sunning or playing; a few might nuzzle against your legs, pawing at your shoelaces.

In a sprawling desert city where thousands of unwanted cats are euthanized each year, the Hermitage is an oasis. It's a large ranch house with a number of enclosed patios, and it takes in feral and house cats, as well as those physically disabled or ravaged by illnesses.

But against this pastoral backdrop, the Hermitage has been rocked by infighting, dissent and staff turnover. A number of former longtime staff members and volunteers are outraged by changes at the shelter, most notably a push for more adoptions, the hiring of a cleaning crew and a partnership with the Humane Society of Southern Arizona's veterinary staff.

These changes, Hermitage Executive Director Mary Jo Spring and others have said, were overdue and were needed to professionalize the shelter and better care for the cats.

"I think it's very sad," Spring said. "I think the Hermitage is a very special place, and it's a few disgruntled employees who started this, and then they get people to join."

But the critics see the changes as isolating them from a place they love while moving away from the values and tenets of Arizona's first no-kill, cage-free cat shelter. They've started a group called Save the Hermitage Cat Shelter. And they've taken to the Internet, where a former staffer keeps a blog that regularly blasts the shelter and Spring, while also asking donors to withdraw support.

"There have been a number of problems starting since last September," said Katy Heck, a pet sitter and former employee, who runs the blog. "There are no staff members currently there who can identify all of these animals. Many of these animals receive medication, and we are concerned that if they cannot identify the animals, how can they give appropriate medication?"

Spring is the Hermitage's first executive director and has been in the position for about two years. Before her hiring, the shelter was run by a board of directors, whose members doubled as volunteers.

But with the hope of increasing adoptions and modernizing the shelter, an executive director was much needed, said Dot Jones, a longtime Hermitage board president who now runs the Spay/Neuter Intervention Project.

"I am 100 percent behind Mary Jo, and I have to say some of the other people who I respect in the animal world also are," Jones said. "I think Mary Jo has done amazing things. Look at the numbers. Adoptions are up. They are able to take animals in from Pima Animal Care," the county-run shelter.

Adoptions might be the stickiest point in the dispute. At times in the past, some say, the Hermitage has served more as a sanctuary than as an adoption shelter. Volunteers and staff members would develop tight bonds with cats, which Spring and Jones said sometimes stopped adoptions from happening.

"We had 500 cats at one time," Spring said. "That's not something to be proud of. We were overcrowded, and these cats were not taken care of properly. . . . We've had cats that are very adoptable that we've had for 10 years, and I think that's a crime."

So when she was hired, Spring began to adopt out those cats, eliminating home checks on prospective owners and instituting several new programs. The population is now about 270, and the shelter is taking cats from Pima Animal Care.

Spring acknowledged that adopting out someone's longtime "buddy" might have created ill will.

But other changes didn't help matters.

Until recently, staff members cleaned the shelter. But Spring decided to contract with a cleaning company, which she said did a better job and saved the shelter money.

Finally, she broke ties with a longtime veterinarian and began to contract vet care with the Humane Society, which practices euthanasia. That rubbed some at the Hermitage, a no-kill shelter, the wrong way.

"Their mission is different than the Hermitage Cat Shelter," Heck said. "Everyone knows that the Humane Society does practice euthanasia."

The result of these changes has been a change in staff, leaving many such as Heck out in the cold.

"Basically we wound up building a whole new staff," said Tom Tulowitzki, board president. "I believe it is a friendlier place than it ever was. I believe the cats are receiving better care than they ever did."

Former staffers such as Heck disagree, and many of Heck's blog posts relate to her concern that a staff unfamiliar with the cats cannot provide the proper care. But the blog, which sometimes takes an aggressive tone and has made several debatable claims, also suggests a certain frustration about not having any say in how things are being done at the shelter.

"I remember the 'old vision,' where there were regularly scheduled big group meetings where everyone — volunteers, sponsors, donors, staff, administration, board members, everyone — got to express their opinion. There was an opportunity for input, discussion and open exchange," one post says.

Those old days are most likely long gone. Tulowitzki and others say they are very happy with the changes to the shelter and with Spring's leadership, which probably means the Hermitage's cat fight will continue only on the Internet.

"It's just that people don't like change," Spring said. "People are angry because they feel they were empowered to make decisions, and they were not properly trained to make those decisions."