Missoula Animal Services invites the public to an open house and adoption event on Sunday, Dec. 7, from 1 to 4 p.m. to celebrate their newly remodeled building at 6700 Butler Creek Road. Attendees will get to tour the new space, meet adorable, adoptable cats and dogs, enjoy free food, play games, and enter for a chance to win pet-related prizes.
“We are so excited about the shelter expansion. Dogs and cats have bigger kennels, small animals have their own room, and the public has more access to adoptable animals. We invite everyone to come to the open house, and celebrate our new space,,” said Holli Hargrove, animal shelter manager.
Visitors will notice a larger front desk and lobby area with two rooms for adopters to meet new pets, a new animal intake room, dog kennels with indoor and outdoor access, three additional cat rooms with an attached cattery, a room for small animals, and two large play yards for dogs. The expansion includes a laundry room with a new washer and dryer, a surgery room with adequate space for animals to recover, in addition to a better workspace for shelter staff, including a room for animal control officers, and a combined meeting and break room.
Construction crews broke ground on the $3.5 million project in September 2024 and completed the expansion in September of this year. The project was funded through a combination of public funding, grants and donations. The shelter is still fundraising for the project. The Missoula Friends of the Shelter group is currently matching donation amounts. You can donate to the project at http://missoula.co/animalshelterdonation.
Missoula Animal Services houses more than 1,100 pets a year with a 97% lifesaving rate between county adoptions and reuniting pets with their owners. The shelter is open Monday through Friday from 12 to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 12 to 4 p.m. You can see all adoptable pets at http://missoula.co/adopt.