The Portage Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) is focusing on some upgrades that have been in the works for a while.   

Co-Cat Coordinator with PAWS Judy Hughes explains how much this new building means and where they are now with the project.    

"We're very, very excited about this new building because we have been operating for many years now out of the old city pound, and that building is in dire need of a lot of work." Hughes Continues. "So, our new building is directly behind 120 12th St Northeast, directly behind the old building, the outside structure is totally finished, it looks beautiful, grey and blue siding and the inside is being wired right now, and we're working on getting it insulated and the inside walls up eventually."   

Hughes outlines what the new building means for cats and dogs.  

"We will have facilities to take in some dogs to get them out of the pound; we will have three or four dog runs, just so we can get them out of town until we find a foster home for them." She adds how it will look for felines. "When we first take a cat in from the city pound, it needs to be in isolation for two weeks. We only have two isolation rooms in our old building, and we will have five in our new building, which will allow better movement for cats and then once they're out of their two-week isolation, they'll go into the main kennel room.   

The Cat Coordinator indicates that the society is still looking for some help from the community.    

"At the moment, right now we're trying to do massive fundraising, and we have a program available to buy a brick which will be put into our building bricks on the wall at the bronze brick Is for $250 up to $3999, the silver brick will be $4000 up to $9999, and the gold brick will be anything up over $10,000. So on that brick, you can place the name of whoever you want."   

Hughes says that the shelter doesn't have an exact figure on how much the project will end up costing, but her educated guess would be around $300,000-$400,000.   

All in all, Hughes notes that PAWS is excited to have this new facility, adding that it will hopefully be finished by the spring.