News

A woman and her English setter, together forever

By Ethan Forman
Staff writer
Published: May 5, 2008

Everyone's life has a story. In "Lives," we tell some of those stories about North Shore people who have died recently. "Lives" runs Mondays in The Salem News.

DANVERS — Ruth Nys, a native of Marblehead, died at home on April 26 at age 90 surrounded by her family.

However, there was someone special who could not be with her at the end. Michael, her much loved English setter, died of cancer nearly two months earlier while Nys was recuperating at the Shaughnessy-Kaplan Rehabilitation Hospital in Salem.

Her funeral is planned for today, and her nieces and nephews plan to mingle her ashes with Michael's in the same urn, bringing together two kindred spirits.

Nys had no children, but she led a full life as an avid gardener, genealogist, gifted painter, and, of course, an owner of English setters.

"Some people say she took care of the dogs better than some people take care of their children," said her niece Charlotte Kippin.

What really set Nys apart were the 23 English setters she and her late husband, William, bred, cared for and showed up and down the East Coast and in Canada, traveling to dog shows in a mobile home.

They owned up to eight dogs at a time. She had a sense of humor about them, too, her family said. At one time, she owned a dog named Sonny, while another was named Cher. The dogs often won best in show or best in breed, the family said.

Nephew Robert Kippin of Plaistow, N.H., said she only ever owned English setters.

"I think she liked their personality more than anything else," said Robert Kippin, the husband of Charlotte Kippin.

"She just adored her dogs," said her niece Joyce Kippin of Ipswich, one of Nys' main caregivers. "She was just a fascinating woman."

Nys had a room built onto her modest home that became the dogs' room, but this is no ordinary dog house.

It has couches, chairs and other furniture. Nys even lined the walls with her paintings of flowers and her setters. There are photographs of her and her late husband at various dog shows. Seedlings that Nys started still sit in the front window.

Six months ago, Nys decided to undergo an operation to prolong her life to care for Michael, who had cancer.

"The only reason she went through with the open heart surgery was for him," Joyce Kippin said. "She wanted to be home and take care of him."

Nys got Michael a decade ago, and the dog was incorrigible. Then Nys took him under her wing.

"He was an absolutely darling dog," Joyce Kippin said.

Nys underwent surgery in December, but stayed in the hospital until March 22.

The veterinarian had suggested Michael be put down, but the dog kept rallying. "We took him to the hospital all the time to see her," Joyce Kippin said.

On March 9, Michael died while Nys was still in the hospital, having just gotten off a ventilator. Joyce Kippin got a sense the dog had hung around as long as it could.

Nys had no children and her sister, Eleanor, had seven of them. "We used to laugh," Charlotte Kippin said, "because she had the dogs and her sister had the children." But Nys had a lot of children in her life as a former Danvers teacher and guidance counselor for 20 years.

Nys, whose maiden name was Chandler and hailed from a long line of famous sea captains, wrote last year she was still having a wonderful life, Joyce Kippin said.

"There is so much to fill the days," Kippin said Nys wrote.