By Mariana Minaya and William Wan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 17, 2007

It was a promise so old, many had forgotten or moved on by the time it was fulfilled.

But Mary Jane Carder, who died three years ago at 88, kept her word and left a fortune to the animals she loved.

Written into her will was a $1 million donation to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Anne Arundel County, an amount nearly equal to the chapter's annual operating budget of $1.4 million.

"We were just very, very ecstatic and grateful for this incredible donation," said Susan Beatty, executive director of the Anne Arundel chapter of the SPCA.

Officials there learned of the donation last year when they were contacted by the executor tasked with liquidating Carder's assets and settling her will.

It came at the right time.

Even before they had learned of their windfall, the SPCA's board members were discussing how to replace their main building near Spa Creek in Annapolis.

The building is almost 20 years old, its walls are worn and the paint is chipping from years of daily scrubbing with high-pressure hoses and disinfectant. Housed in this and three neighboring buildings are the homeless -- 300 cats, 100 dogs, 15 rabbits and an assortment of gerbils, hamsters and other small animals -- all waiting for adoption.

Donations fund most of the chapter's annual operating expenses. Plans are in place for a capital fund-raising campaign next year to replace the main building with a shelter equipped with high-tech plumbing and ventilation for the kennels, officials said.

The donation will not be used for the capital campaign, as Carder specified in her will that her money must go directly to the care of animals. But SPCA officials said the money will go a long way toward easing the costs of feeding and caring for the 4,000 animals that come through the shelter each year.

As SPCA officials tell it, many at the shelter did not even recognize Carder's name. They tossed it around with past volunteers and former board members until one remembered a phone conversation two decades ago.

"It was during a phone-a-thon, I think, in the 1980s," said Fred Graul, the board chairman. "She told someone from SPCA that she was going to leave us something. No one knew it would be something like this."

SPCA officials said Carder had donated smaller amounts to the organization in past years.

For all the hoopla over the windfall, things were relatively calm at the shelter yesterday. Cats stretched and settled down for their afternoon naps, oblivious to their unexpected fortune. Dogs, finishing up their noon lunch, wagged their tails, barked and circled their mats.

Helping animals was what Carder wanted most, said Diane Catania Burian, 52, who used to live across the street from her.

Burian said Carder had no immediate family or survivors, and she lavished her affections on animals. She rarely cooked for herself but prepared meals for her frequent visitors from the wild, which included a raccoon, an opossum and a couple of ducks. Every day she set out goodies on plates, metal tins and pie pans. There was always cantaloupe and cabbage for the groundhog and fresh feed for the birds and squirrels.

"If one of them didn't come to eat, she would wonder what happened to them," Burian said.

Carder, originally from Iowa, moved to Annapolis in the early 1960s. She retired as an editor who reviewed classified documents at the CIA.

Her mind stayed sharp in old age, friends said, adding that she was quick with her wit and well-read.

She had kept several cats and at least one dog in her home in the Cape St. John neighborhood in Annapolis, some of them adopted from the SPCA.

By the time she died, however, only one was left: a Russian Blue cat named George.

Linda Webb, a neighbor who now cares for George, said Carder's friends were not surprised by her donation.

"That's the big thing about Janie," Webb said. "She was very fond of animals."