PAW ushers "residents' into new homes at shelter

NEARING COMPLETION

Truthfully, a lot of people didn’t think we’d see this in my lifetime. So God is good.”

Sandy Brown, PAW Director

FORT MADISON – The $6.5 million brand new PAW Animal Shelter has its first official residents.
Paid and volunteer staff were working over the weekend to move dogs and cats from the crumbling current shelter into the state-of-the-art 20,000 square foot new facility built just north of the current space.
Director Sandy Brown said the group is still raising funds to pay for the facility. Jordan’s Way, a national shelter fundraising campaign which has generated close to $150,000 in two events over the past two years, will be back in town again in October. Brown said she’s setting a goal this year of $130,000.
“Truthfully, a lot of people didn’t think we’d see this in my lifetime. So God is good,” she said.
Brown said most of the construction is done on the facility, but there are a few fixes that need to be addressed in a couple of the rooms.
But the facility was not built to expand services to allow more animals on site. Brown said it was built to make adoption easier for local residents, and more comfortable for potential owners and the animals themselves.
“We didn’t build this so we could take more animals. We’re full. Even with all the new facilities, we’re full,” she said. “What it does is allows people to come into a facility that was created to give people a chance to sit and interact with dogs and cats before they adopt them.
“We’ll even have some love seats and other furniture for meet-and-greets. The animal and owner can sit together without distractions and focus on one another.”
Current procedures involve bringing bigger dogs outside to mingle with people interested in adopting. Brown said in that environment, the dogs are distracted sniffing grass and by cars driving by, birds and other stuff, and they aren’t focused on those wanting to adopt.
Additional rooms were also created to keep a smaller number of cats in each room. Most of the rooms will be limited to 12 cats and they will have meet-and-greet rooms in between each cat room so people again can get a feel for the relationship.
The facility is complete with a large storage room with storage racks and an electric pallet jack donated by Independent Can. The storage area holds cleaning supplies, litter, food, and other large items. Brown said the facility uses about $5,000 a month in dog food alone. She said donations are welcome, but the shelter has access to discounts at area retailers, so gift cards are a better donation than bags of food.
Multiple food prep stations are strategically located throughout the facility. All the floors are concrete for easy cleaning. There are three separate laundry rooms, a meeting room, a staff locker and shower area.
One of the larger dog runs is called Stella’s Room. Stella was one of the largest dogs at the shelter who died about two months ago. Each of the dog encaptures has a doggie door that allows the dogs to go outside whenever they want, and allows them to be inside when weather is detrimental.
The new shelter, which has always been a no-kill shelter, has space for 96 dogs, The running areas are gravel with chain link fencing to allow more freedom for the animals. Brown said artificial turf was donated to the facility, but the $65,000 installation price tag was cost prohibitive.
The shelter is designed to keep bigger dogs away from medium dogs and then smaller dogs are separated, too. Puppies don’t have outside runs, but they will have windows so people can watch puppies playing in the room. Pregnant dogs and dogs that have just delivered a litter are segregated while the puppies nurse.
Staff will also carry radios with them due to the large footprint of the facility.