"Almost any specialization you have in humanmedicine, we probably have here," Bassett says.

Eventually, however, the similarity betweenAngell and a human hospital begins to break down.

Across the hall from the intensive care unitand its familiar tangle of oxygen tanks andintravenous tubing is the wildlife ward, wheresick and injured wildlife is cared for until itcan be transported to the New England WildlifeCenter.

And Angell doesn't look like a human hospital.The long, drab corridors of the hospital stillresemble the seminary and Catholic boys' schoolthat occupied the building until Angell moved inin 1976.

Examining rooms are former dormitories, Bassettsays, and the shelter for homeless animals is,appropriately enough, the former chapel.

Angell, like the other six MSPCA shelters, seesfar more homeless animals than it can find homesfor.

Kathy Gorham, the shelter's animal careprovider, says she tries her best to keep theanimals happy, but they often get anxious in theshelter's close quarters.

"This is something I tell people never to do,"says Gorham, batting a kitten's paw through thebars of the cage.

"Playing finger games with a cat, you're justinviting a scratch," she says, displaying a handcross-hatched with red lines