JAY – Animal Control Officer Larry Wright didn’t see it coming.

Wright, 44, of Jay has matched his wits and skills against wild and domestic animals for 18 years and come out on top with only one dog bite. He still bears the raised-scar on his palm to remind him about the dangers of the job.

So one would think when the Maine Animal Control Association honored him Saturday as the part-time Animal Control Officer of the Year, he wouldn’t be fazed.

But he was.

It was the biggest meeting of the year and about 100 people gathered.

“I was quite nervous to be honest,” Wright said. “I don’t do well in front of big, big crowds. I thanked them and I was kind of choking up. I wasn’t expecting it.”

The Jay native, who handles 500-plus complaints a year, thought he was going to Bangor to attend training.

He didn’t want to go because he had never been to Bangor and wasn’t sure how to get to the Ramada Inn there.

It was like pulling teeth to get him to go, Town Manager Ruth Marden said Monday. Finally, Town Clerk Ronda Palmer told him that Marden really wanted him to attend the training.

So he went.

He thought he caught a glimpse of Marden at the training but wasn’t sure.

Then awards were given out and a full-time animal control officer in Oakland won ACO of the Year.

When someone announced there was a special guest and called Marden up, he knew it was for him.

“I was overwhelmed. I wasn’t expecting to get it,” Wright said. “I didn’t even know they were going to be giving awards. I was also overwhelmed that Ruth would travel up to Bangor on a Saturday to do that.”

His job runs the gamut, from luring skunks into traps, and delivering rabid raccoons to Augusta to recently catching a pesky, red squirrel in a woman’s bedroom. He’s also brought more than 100 domestic cats to shelters and found help for an injured puppy.

He’s on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is also the town’s custodian and sexton for town cemeteries.

When Wright took the ACO job in 1988, his love of animals drove him, and still does.

“I like working with animals. I like helping animals,” he said. “I like taking care of them and trying to do what I can to help them.”

He had no training when he started.

“The first time I came across an aggressive pit bull, I wondered why I was doing this,” he said. “Jay Police Department has been a big help to me. They give me a lot of support.”

He stuck with it, learned on his own and through training, bought helpful equipment and honed his people skills.

“I try to work with the public and to reason with people,” he said.

Sometimes animal owners get mad but most of the time, they’re just happy to get their animals back, he said.

The first time he picks up a dog, he tries to find the owner through town dog license records and return the animal without taking it to the shelter.

“That’s why it’s important to license dogs,” he said.

Marden said she nominated Wright for the award because he has dealt with some extreme cases that, sometimes, with or without state support, he was able to rectify.

“He has exhibited such compassion for the animals he deals with that he was a prime candidate for the award,” Marden said.