Eco the cat keeps cops company
Published: January 11, 2006
Once inside the Hamilton Police Department, he walks up the stairs into an office next to the Emergency Center Operations dispatch area and gets in his spot for a long morning nap.
So begins another day for the department’s longtime “employee” — one who enjoys the taste of mice and other rodents just as much as a doughnut or takeout.
He’s Eco, a black cat who has called the public safety building on Bay Road home for eight years, and he won’t be forgotten once it comes time for the Police and Fire departments to move into their new home some time next year.
It’s hard to forget about a cat that is a loyal companion to the police chief, an excellent co-worker for a dispatcher working the midnight shift or a good friend to either an assault victim or a disorderly drunk locked in the jail cell.
“He’s been a great cat; he gets along with everybody,” Chief Walter Cullen said.
Eco was named after the acronym for Emergency Center Operations, which is located in the public safety building. He came to call it home after he was found injured by police about eight years ago.
“When we found him, he had a collar but no name on it and his paw got caught in his collar,” the chief said.
The cat, separated from his former owner when the family moved to Florida, needed surgery to repair damaged tendons. The furry patient was brought to the public safety building to recuperate.
It wasn’t long before Eco was adopted by the town’s men and women in blue. He sleeps on a folded blanket in the office next to the dispatch center in the mornings and in the afternoons can be found in the first-floor office on his favorite chair.
And the friendly feline has seen a lot of police action during his years on the force.
He once crawled under the door of a cell where a disorderly drunken man was being held. An officer feared the man would hurt the cat or at least threaten to do so, but Eco worked his magic on the suspect: Within a short time, the intoxicated man was petting Eco in all the right spots.
As much as he loves people, it’s the children Eco really loves, Cullen said.
“He used to go to the library across the street,” the chief said. “He loves kids. He used to go to the Winthrop School.”
The library staff used to kick the cat out — until they learned he was owned by the police. Then he was allowed to stay.
Just because he walks on all fours and doesn’t mind drinking out of the toilet doesn’t mean Eco isn’t a part of the department.
“He attends all of the meetings,” said Anne Marie Cullen, the police chief’s wife and chief dispatcher.
He also enjoys the cruiser.
“(Eco) was asleep in the back of the cruiser. Someone left the window open, and he jumped in,” the chief said.
The cat was in the middle of a nap when he woke up with the car in motion and made his presence known when he jumped on the officer’s shoulder while he was driving. The officer wasn’t amused.
“(Eco) walked back home that night,” Cullen said with a chuckle.
Cullen and his wife buy the cat food. That means Eco’s companionship comes at no cost to taxpayers.
When the ground is broken on the new station and construction begins in March, Eco will make sure to sniff and rub against every possible corner.
Kristen Allbee, a veterinarian technician at Hamilton-Wenham Animal Hospital, said transitions to new homes are sometimes hard on cats. She said it will go easier if items that make Eco feel comfortable are moved to the new location.
Eco shouldn’t worry.
Cullen said they’ll bring over his favorite chair and blanket for him to nap on when the new facility, which will be located behind the current station, is complete.
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