I should have posted here
I, also, live in Eastern MA, and had the same problem. It occurs to me that i have a random apple rootstock i bought years ago, decided i didn’t have any use for, and potted up. It lives in the shade, and has never gotten very large. But this afternoon I’m going to see if it’s large enough to use as a bridge graft here. I’ll also look around and see if i can find any volunteer apple seedlings. That’s what both the scion and the root were on my damaged tree. Maybe there’s one i can dig up on my property. Or on the priority of a neighbor who wouldn’t mind my removing a junk seedling in their lawn.
For what it’s worth, i didn’t protect this tree. The ones I’ve protected look fine. I’m a big fan of aluminum window screen. I used to be able to get it free from a hardware storm that fixed screened doors and windows, but it closed. 
I still have some, though. I’ve also used hardware cloth. Both work, in my experience. But i can cut the window screen with kitchen shears and affix it with an ordinary office stapler. The hardware cloth needs to be cut with tin snips, bit by bit. I need to protect my hands from getting cut while i do that. And then i tie it in place with either baling wire or zip ties. It ends up looking nicer, but it’s a ton more work.