According to Joyce

Bolles, February was a great

month for the Altus Animal

Control and the Friends of

Saving the PAWS of Altus.

Friends of Saving the PAWS

of Altus is a group of seven

people, Susan Davidson

of Altus, Elif Castillo in

California, Lisa Wrone

in Illinois, Lori Hadley in

Arkansas, Amy Knipp in

Kentucky, Deb Burt in the

UK, myself, (Joyce) and the

help of hundreds of other

friends across the United

States and other countries

who have one huge thing

in common…saving the precious

animals that are in the

Altus shelter. We work day

in and day out on Facebook

and emails, finding people

to adopt and rescues to

take these animals in. Big

changes have taken place at

the Altus Animal Control.

Thanks to all the help of

wonderful friends and the

technology of the computer

and Facebook, the shelter

almost never has to turn to

euthanizing and hopefully

never will again.

Not only does Friends of

Saving the Paws of Altus

find rescues to save these

lives, we also have a team

that figures out transport

to these rescues. Paws on

Wheels has been transporting

weekly, thanks to Sara

Gomer in Missouri who

takes on the challenge of

mapping out and setting up

each transport and many,

many people who volunteer

and give their time driving

these animals to safety.

We’ve had dogs transported

as far as Oregon, Florida,

and Massachusetts.

In February we had the

biggest cat transport since

the Friends group has

started. There were 15

cats taken in by a rescue

in Austin, Texas. The 15

cats began their journey at

6 a.m. February 26, leaving

Altus Animal Control before

the break of dawn, thanks to

Wicy Avilla, Altus Animal

Shelter Coordinator, for

giving up her sleep and

opening the shelter so early

so the cats could leave.

From Altus, they began

their almost eight hour trip,

thanks to many volunteers

who drove them to Austin.

The Paws on Wheels

group celebrated transporting

over 100 animals from

Altus Animal Control since

the beginning of the year.

Thank you to each and

every one of you for making

this achievement in less

than two months time.

The Friends of Saving the

PAWS of Altus group will

also be helping out with a

low cost spay/neuter event,

hopefully to happen during

the month of April. Be sure

to watch for more information

on that, or you can

email Caitlin at prairie@

dswebnet.com.

If you’d like to find our

more about Friends of

Saving the PAWS of Altus,

visit us on Facebook. If you

have any free time, please

visit your animal shelter

and become a volunteer.