Fighting back tears, Live and Let Live Farm owner Teresa Paradis’s thoughts immediately turned to Ms. Elita, a Calico cat who had been found on the streets of Georgia weeks earlier with one eye smashed in and an ear missing.

“She’s not going to be in limbo anymore,” Paradis said moments after a Merrimack County Superior Court judge ruled that her animal rescue organization in Chichester could re-open amid a licensing dispute with the state’s Department of Agriculture.

Judge John Kissinger’s order on Monday followed a court hearing last week in which Paradis argued that the department had violated state law when it denied her application for a pet vendor license without first holding a hearing.

“This injunction permits [Live and Let Live] to pursue its appeal of the Department’s decision without fear of criminal liability or imposition of administrative fines,” Kissinger wrote.

Live and Let Live Farm, the largest pet importer in New Hampshire, had been barred from taking in or adopting out dogs and cats since June 30, when its license for the previous year expired. The department cited seven categories of violations in denying the organization’s application for a new license.

Now, for the first time in 43 days, Live and Let Live may resume operations –  at least until the department holds its adjudicatory hearing, which is scheduled for Sept. 6.

“Right now I’m just feeling amazed,” Paradis said. “I’m feeling relieved and I know that it’s not all done yet, but when you’re doing what is right and just, it’s amazing how the power beyond us helps work things out.”

Department commissioner Shawn Jasper declined to comment on the court’s ruling and Rory Miller, the department’s attorney in the state’s Office of the Attorney General, did not respond to a request for comment.

Paradis and the department have been locked in a contentious back-and-forth since 2019, when Paradis claims a veterinary technician demanded her farm take in horses that had been seized elsewhere and she refused. Jasper has said that he investigated the alleged incident and concluded it never happened at all. He has denied Paradis’s retaliation accusations.

Since 2019, the department has fined the farm at least $5,400, according to the documents provided by Jasper with the permission of Paradis, which were only a selection of the department’s file on the organization.

This summer’s license denial was the latest escalation in the dispute, which in recent years has focused on certain veterinary records that are required to transport animals from other states into New Hampshire. Jasper has characterized the decision as a measure of last resort taken only after all other options were exhausted.

Now that a judge has temporarily halted the department’s action, Paradis said her first order of business will be to get new health certificates for the 15 or so dogs and cats who have been housed at her facility for the past six weeks.

Some of those animals have already been claimed by families and may be heading to new homes within days.

“Those people are going to be so happy,” Paradis said.

Meanwhile, Paradis is working to coordinate a flight to New Hampshire for the many cats and dogs that Live and Let Live takes in from Georgia and Texas.

Ms. Elita “will be on the first transport,” Paradis said, crying. 

She may also already have a home. 

“There’s a woman in Gilmanton that has been begging to be able to be her adopter,” Paradis said. “She likes special animals like Ms. Elita.”

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.