Dogs and Cats and Cement, Oh My!

On Wednesday, July 15, people arrived at the Claiborne Animal Shelter property with their dogs and cats in tow. They came to to take advantage of the PAL Mobile, a low-cost spay/neuter clinic that comes to our county each month.



While they were there, they were treated to an awesome sight - the cement pad for the animal shelter was being poured!



You may not know this but the floor of an animal shelter is really, really expensive. Here's why: It's not just a slab of concrete, it's a system that connects and protects a network of intricate drains, water intake lines, sewage output pipes, and underfloor heating coils for the dog runs.

The prep work for the slab took hundreds of hours. Most of the labor was donated, saving us tens of thousands of dollars.

Even so, by Wednesday night our bank account hollered, "Ouch!" Up until the cement was poured, we had 1/3 of the money needed to complete the building but, hooo-ey, after that...!

If you get a chance, take a drive past the shelter property and see how much progress we've made. It's at the end of Ritchie and Lewis Drive (behind Volunteer Knitting on Old Knox Hwy.) Click here to see a map of the area.

And while you're at it, please think about making a tax-deductible donation to our shelter. It'll help make this community a safer, happier place for people and animals to live.

Pancake Breakfast a Hit!

The Claiborne Animal Shelter's second annual pancake breakfast was a resounding success! Special thanks to the Good Dog Training Club for their generous donation toward the purchase of the fixin's, and to Reverand Charles Mattson of the New Tazewell United Methodist Church for his support and for the use of the Fellowhip Hall.

We saw many of our old friends, met lots of new ones, and sent carry out breakfasts to a whole slew of folks who weren't able to attend. Mayor Joe Tyler Duncan stopped by to pick up a carry out, thanks for your support, Mayor Duncan! There was a special guest appearance by a recently rescued stray puppy named Jack, who acted as the 2009 Canine Ambassador of Goodwill and as a reminder of what this is all about.



Breakfast ticket sales plus revenue from selling t-shirts and raffle tickets (to a one-day pontoon rental donated by Cedar Grove Marina), will cover more than a third of cost of the fence installation at the shelter property!

Congratulations to Carol Dunafer, the lucky winner of the pontoon rental.

Click here for more pictures.

The generosity of this community is as spectacular as it is heartwarming; together we WILL make a difference!