The Border Paws Animal Shelter is looking to occupy its new building by Nov. 1, according to president Chelsie Green.
The non-profit hosted a progress tour of its new facility on Wednesday evening at 5206-63 Street.
Green says like any construction, they have faced challenges as well as COVID delays, but funding remains a big issue.
“We are aiming at approximately $750,000. So we have been getting a lot of questions about why that is so large. The majority of the reason is we did have savings for this construction project that’s been sitting. It has been saved for quite some time now. Unfortunately, costs go up and things get more expensive,” she says.
Several community members came to have a look at the vision for the new animal shelter,
The new building is over 6,600 square feet and Green details some of the options they are looking forward to utilizing.
“Our new facility will have three cat rooms and an exam room up front, where we will have adoptable cats, as well as an area for vaccines, those sorts of things and it’s completely separate from the dog area. Right now in our current shelter, everybody is kind of mixed in at the same spot. So it’s a little chaotic. When you come through the back doors, you’ll see a fully-accessible public washroom, a dog multi-purpose space and a cat multi-purpose space.”
Green adds those areas will be used for public events, community involvement and volunteering as they coordinate input from community partners like the Bea Fisher and Thorpe Recovery centres.
The animal shelter will have a dog adoption unit, along with separate isolation and observation areas for both cats and dogs, each having separate ventilation systems to reduce the spread of infections, says Green.
Green says anyone wishing to assist can get in touch with the Border Paws Animal Shelter. The group is still available at its old location, the Lloydminster SPCA.