It's after 11 p.m., and Sgt. Pat Merida is working alone. So she dogs it. An hour later she's still dogging it. But her job is safe because she's doing what she's paid to do — pick up stray dogs, cats and other animals.

        Sgt. Merida, 47, is an animal control officer for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

        She takes the stray and injured animals she picks up to the SPCA shelter on Colerain Avenue in Northside.

        “We get the injured first,” she says on a recent week night just after beginning the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift.

        As she drives her van out of the SPCA parking lot, Sgt. Merida is alone. She's usually the only one on duty on the third shift, but she has no apprehensions about her safety as she travels all over Hamilton County. She keeps in contact with police dispatchers in Cincinnati and the county.

        “As long as I've been on the night shift, I've never run into any trouble,” she

        says.

        Then why the gun?

        “I carry .38-caliber Smith & Wesson,” the 18-year SPCA veteran says. “I've never had to shoot anything other than a deer (who had been injured.). If there's no other way to capture an animal and he keeps charging ...”

        It's not easy for Sgt. Merida to kill an animal, even when it's necessary.

        “If I have to shoot a (injured) deer before I go home, it bothers me although I know I'm doing it a favor.”

        On this particular night, Sgt. Merida's first job is to pick up a stray dog at the Montgomery police station.

        “We just found him running around,” Montgomery Police Sgt. Mike Plaatje says of his prisoner. “He's a good dog, friendly.”

        The next stop is at the Blue Ash police department to pick up a 90-pound Husky Malamute. One look at the dog and Sgt. Merida can tell it's somebody's pet.

        Her next pickup is waiting for her in the parking lot of the Reading police station. The small mixed beagle is tied to a pole with a water dish nearby.

        Over the years, Sgt. Merida has been asked to trap beavers, bats, racoons, a ferret, possums and owls.

        “Every night is different,” she says. “The only thing I won't do at night is snakes. I'm terrified of them.”

        And she only removes bats from homes if the request comes from a senior citizen.

        By 12:10 a.m., Sgt. Merida is back at the SPCA shelter to drop off her passengers. Before placing the three dogs in enclosures, she scans the neck of each dog to see if there's an identification chip under the skin. Then she assigns each one a number that she will later enter into the computer system. Along with the identification number will be a description of the particular dog, and when and where the animal was found.

        On this morning, the enclosures where the dogs are kept are crowded and it takes awhile to find a suitable spot for each dog. A chorus of barks and yelps greet Sgt. Merida as she walks past each enclosure. Vicious or quarantined dogs must be isolated from other dogs.

        The domestic animals are kept at the shelter, says Sgt. Merida, “until they're adopted out, or they become ill or their temperament changes and then they're put to sleep.”

        Wild animals are returned to the wild or sent to a wildlife refuge.

        Sgt. Merida, who has two dogs, a cat and four birds at home, has come to like the night shift.

        “It's more convenient,” she says. “I can go home and get my kids off to school and then I can lay down.”

        If you have suggestion for Night Watch, call William A. Weathers at 768-8390; fax 768-8340.

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