The furry friends at the Chippewa County Animal Shelter have a new place they can call home.....at least until they get adopted by a loving family.
The shelter officially opened up their new addition earlier this week after construction was complete and all the animals and items were moved out of the old building and into the new one.
It was just last week when Coast Guard members from Sector Northern Great Lakes in Sault Ste. Marie teamed up with shelter workers to move all animals, furniture and supplies over.
Construction of the new addition started last fall with Arbic Construction heading the project.
The old section is being gutted and redone to accommodate a surgery room for spay and neutering along with more storage space.
Holly Henderson, who has been the Chippewa County Animal Shelter Director for two decades now, says the community has really come through in recent years supporting this big project.
"We have needed this for several years. It's just a testament to how much the community supports this building and it's heartwarming. It kinda brings a tear to your eye to think that they care this much. I can't say enough about how strong and wonderful our community is, " Henderson said.
This whole expansion project started a few years ago when a person donated $450,000, in memory of his wife, to the shelter to get the plans started. Other donations since then have covered the cost of the $1.2 million project.
"He asked what we needed and what was most important to us. We said we needed more room. This new addition is not really to house more animals, it's to house them more properly," Henderson said.
There are different rooms for different purposes including a sick room to isolate those animals from the others.
But the biggest need for the expansion was just more space.
"The top thing was more room. Especially for the cats. We had so many cats that come in on a yearly basis. We had one adoption area and one intake room. It's best for their mental and physical well-being that they are not shoved into such small spaces," Henderson explained.
On average, there are 60-70 cats and around 15 dogs in the shelter each day.
The entire project is expected to be completed in late fall.
"Arbic anticipates it will be done by October. It'll be beautiful," Henderson added.
If you would like to see what furry friends are up for adoption, click here.
