Aug 23, 2008 - 04:30 AM

By Kristen Calis

PICKERING -- Three rooms were not enough to seat the hundreds of people who came to honour a well-respected community member and mother to hundreds of animals Friday.

More than 300 people, and even some dogs, attended Joyce Smith’s funeral at McEachnie Funeral Home after she died from heart failure Monday afternoon.

Known by many throughout Durham Region for taking in animals of all shapes, sizes, breeds and physical states, she turned none away. She began her legacy by allowing animals into her home in south Pickering, her nephew, Jim Hanwell, said in the eulogy, where her doggy door was open for all animals such as dogs, cats and squirrels. She was finally given land by Cherry Downs Golf and Country Club in 1996 to open the Second Chance Wildlife Sanctuary and eventually took in so many abandoned, abused or stray animals that the number of critters at the sanctuary grew to 500.

“She went out as the captain of the ship and I don’t think she ever wanted to leave it,” Jim Hanwell said after the ceremony.

In the eulogy, he said besides remembering his aunt’s midnight runs to factories to feed stray cats and her crow named Crow, he also recalls the great joy Ms. Smith brought into his family’s Toronto home when he was a young boy.

“There was many a fun time when Joyce lived with us,” he said, adding she loved a party and was always the last to leave.

“She had a great sense of humour - a distinctive laugh,” he said.

Although Ms. Smith’s health was ailing over the past year, she continued her daily gruelling schedule of waking up before 6 a.m. to care for the animals all day until she finally went to bed at around 1 a.m. But she was able to visit her brother, Garry Hanwell, and his family in Oxtongue Lake a couple of weeks ago, where she got an unusual break from her duties.

“One movie would be over, and she’d already have another one ready to go,” her brother said, adding Ms. Smith rarely had time to watch films.

“She always loved my cooking,” Garry Hanwell’s wife, Dorothy, recalled, adding she knew the leftovers her sister-in-law took home would go to the animals.

And the animals will no doubt miss their caregiver, Second Chance board member M.J. Galaski said at the funeral.

“I know the animals are missing her now because animals sense loss,” she said.

Long-time Second Chance volunteer Sarah Baliski can attest to that. She was doing her regular duties for the cats that the sanctuary adopts out at PetSmart Wednesday night when she noticed the cats were whining and clawing at cages, something she’s never seen in her almost 10 years of volunteering.

“From the moment I got there through to the moment I left they were all crying - unusually crying,” she said.

But although Ms. Smith has left her sanctuary, her friends and members of the board hope to continue her biggest passion: caring for animals.

“We can keep Joyce’s dream alive but we’re going to have to work hard together because that’s what Joyce would have wanted,” Ms. Galaski said.

The board of directors is currently planning an adoption blitz since the animals desperately need homes, and it continues to accept donations for those who never leave the sanctuary and those who find a home there. Donations can be made online at www.second-chance.ws, by calling 905-839-2575, ext. 150 (the office of Michael Head) or by mail to Second Chance at 2060 Concession Rd. 7, Pickering, ON, L1Y 1A2. Animal profiles are also available on the website.

Ms. Smith’s ashes will be spread in Washago, Ont., as she wished. She’s survived by her son, Steven Gary Smith, and brother, Garry Hanwell.