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12:26am

Would love to have that!!!!!

When our shelter signed up for Zootoo, I was very excited. A shelter makeover is a dream come true. Everybody has dreams of what they could do with a million dollars for their shelter.

I have been reading journals and reviews on shelters to see what other shelters would do with the money. I have checked out their websites to learn more about each of your shelters.

Some shelters want a nice new area for cats. Some want to be able to have a space for a vet to come and check out their animals instead of transporting to the vet office or to the vet at their other site. Some want to be able to house more dog and cats. Some would just love a restroom in their shelter. Everybody wants more. Everybody deserves more.

I think every shelter on Zootoo is in some kind of need to improve their current situation.

However, now that I have sat back and look at over 60 plus shelters, most in the top 40 now, I have to say, I would take just about anybody's shelter over ours. Mind you, I am going by the pictures I see on Zootoo and on the internet.

No offense to the Midwest Rabbits, but it is not designed for dogs or cats and no restroom. (know that feeling as we had a port a pot up until 6 years ago.)

And I am not sure the City of Ellensburg. Based on their description, I think I have more space for animals. But they are all in one building.

Let me tell you about our shelter. It sits at the bottom of the driveway. So all the rain water runs straight down and into the front door. Therefore every year before winter, we have to have the door replace because it will rust out at the bottom and not shut proper.

The cedar block building had 2 large dog warden runs. These are left empty just incase the dog warden or the sheriff brings in a dog. They don't have to look for an open kennel. There is 15 large dogs kennels and 16 small stainless steel kennels beagle size. There is only 2 floor drains, one in each room in the middle of the floor. Outside there is 12 large kennels and 2 small kennels. All of these kennels have dog houses and are tarped to the best ability. We fight with major windy storms as the shelter in a field area.

So that is 27 large size kennels and 18 small kennels. Now we do not use the outside kennels in winter at all. So then you have to cut our kennel space back down.

We have a modular that has the office, a breakroom for the employees to eat lunch which doubles as our only meet and greet room for animals. We have the healthy cat room which has 12 cat cages and a play pen area with only 8 cats. So we can house 20 in that room. There is the sick cat room which doubles as our medical room for right now. We have 12 sick cat kennels. There is 2 stainless steel beagle size kennels for a small dog or scary puppy. We also have a bathroom.

We have a new modular that we are working on getting more cat space. We also want to move the medical stuff down to it. It is a work in progress. With progress meaning more time and money is needed. There is 5 rooms that are not that big. There is no bathroom either.

We have a semi trailer body for our food storage. We have a metal shed to hold our transport carriers. Another shed to hold the other supplies.

We have one van which is nice to transport most of the animals. We have a mini van which everybody is scaried to drive now because it will not always start and it blows smoke.

We drive over 35 minutes to a vet who is willing to work with us on a discount as our local vets will not. We drive 1 hour one way to a low cost spay/neuter clinic every single week. You see we have 100% spay/neuter. Yes, puppies at 2 months and kittens at 2 pounds. Everybody is done.

We do off site adoptions at PetSmart and other places. We use the internet to list animals and we love working with approved rescues and shelters.

Our one saving grace, the one thing I would never want to give up is our Fresh Start Canine Program with the local prison.

We have up to 40 dogs in the prison program. We have a puppy unit with 3 cells which will take in bottle babies, a nursing mommy dog with pups, or any pups under 2 months.

We also have an Orphan Kitten Program with 6 cells of inmates willing to bottle feed and foster kittens under 2 pounds. At that weight, they come back to the shelter for spay/neuter and then adopted. I would never give up our prison programs.

We have some of the kindest and hardest working volunteers you will ever meet. They give of themselves so much. We have some folks who foster, some who help with adoption events, some who help with PR, some who will do anything and everything you ask.

So maybe I was the green eyed monster looking at others shelter. To see all the pretty buildings, to see all the animals and kennels under one roof along with their medical area, yes, I wanted your shelter.

But to have a program like the prison program, to have volunteers like we have in our very small, rural area, to have a board who respects what the employees have to do each day and some of these same board members will work on Christmas and New Years to give the employee the day of to be with family, to have all of that, I have to say I love our humane society.

And one more thing. I have been the shelter director since Nov. 9, 2000. I heard from some other shelters that is a long time as must quit after 4 or 5 years. I love what I do.I work over 40 to 50 hours a week between scheduling prison stuff, vet stuff, internet, making sure the shelter has their daily assignments. I also volunteer all my time. I take no money for being shelter director.

So do I want to win this shelter make over, yes. I am just like everybody else on Zootoo. I think my shelter is worth it and needs it. But now maybe you understand why.