This shelter renovation will include a fully renovated clinic space including a larger surgical suite, seperate recovery areas for both cats and dogs. It will also include a larger lobby, conference room, and community pet food pantry room. We are most excited for our dog spaces. This new and improved area will include a spacious indoor play yard when the weather isn't conducive to outdoor walks, kennel spaces that will not face each other and cause stress and anxiety amongst shelter dogs, as well as a seperate police quarantine kennel space with their own seperate entrance.  The only thing that virtually is not changing is our cat spaces which received new epoxy flooring earlier in 2022. 

Over the past two decades since our shelter was built, there have been many studies conducted in regards to the overall health and wellness of animals while in the care of an animal shelter. With the help of UW Shelter Medicine, we have continued to learn new ways to improve the mental health of our animals here in our care. We are currently, however, limited on the space we can fully conduct these suggestions .We are also unable to fully clean and sanitize particular spaces such as our dog kennels. Last year, we were fortunate enough to redo many of the common areas in our shelter including the cat rooms. This much needed renovation allowed us to put an epoxy coating on the floors which helps us keep the floors cleaner, more sanitized, and safer for our cats. We now must commit to our dogs. The drainage system in our dog kennel space is continually backing up and we are unable to clean the outdoor kennels during the frigid winter months. The inability to keep kennels continuously clean is an obvious concern. A new kennel space would include a new drainage system, heated floors, and an increase in space so our dogs can live here peacefully and comfortably while in our care. An indoor play area would allow our dogs the exercise they need during cold months and the redesign of the kennels themselves would ensure our shelter dogs are not facing each other, reducing stress and anxiety. Our new kennel space would include four dedicated kennels for police quarantine cases. Our two play yards would increase in size and include pea gravel to reduce the cross contamination of infectious diseases.

Because of the extensive construction involved, our current shelter will not be open during heavy construction months. We do hope to find a space within Watertown that we can conduct business such the intake of stray animals while we await the renovation to be complete. Our phone and email will also be monitored during this time.

In addition to the updated kennel space for our dogs and a better clinic space, we also look forward to adding on a small animal room which do not currently have. When we have taken in a small animal or bird, they previously would be housed in a common hallway. This space does not obviously provide the needed accommodations to allow these animals to live peacefully within the shelter before their adoption.

We look forward to added office space for our staff as well as a community room where we can host volunteer events as well as other community outreach events.

Our newly added spay/neuter clinic has been extremely successful and with how quickly it's grown, it's become extremely urgent that we dedicate more space in the shelter to better accommodate our community members their pets, and our clinic staff. A dedicated reception area will allow for better traffic flow strictly for clinic guests. A large recovery space for both dogs and cats will allow our clinic patients the quiet space they need to recover more stress-free and comfortably.

Because this is such a large renovation, we anticipate this project to reach roughly $2.5M.

Because we are a non-profit organization, we are relying on our community for support. We hope to finance as little as possible for this project and are asking those who are able to donate to our cause. No donation is too small as every dollar truly helps. Donors who either donate or raise $1,000 or more will have their name displayed on a paw print plaque in our new shelter space.