New Home For Homeless Pueblo Pets

There is a brand new place for Pueblo?s homeless animals. PAWS celebrated the grand opening of its new building Saturday afternoon.

After a year of construction, PAWS opened its brand new facility Saturday afternoon off of Pueblo Boulevard.. Many showed up at the new building to celebrate and perhaps take home a new addition to the family.

Grace Encinias is just one of many who came to search for a new pet.

?We already have a pet from here,? said Encinias.

She vividly remembered what the old building looked like.

?It needed help, bad. I felt bad for the dogs,? said Encinias.

Marilyn Thompson, Secretary of the Board for PAWS, said some dog kennels didn?t even have indoor access.

?It takes the stress off of the animal to not be extremely hot and not be extremely cold. We actually boarded some of our dogs so they would not be outside,? said Thompson.

Construction for the new facility began about a year ago, but discussions on building a new home for the dogs started back in 2005. The new building is right next to the old one. Thompson said this is all thanks to the Pueblo community.

?We do not get any city, county, federal funds,? said Thompson.

PAWS runs solely on donations.

?We wanted them to be able to come and celebrate with us, this beautiful building and we wanted them to see what they have accomplished,? said Thompson.

A school teacher even left her inheritance of $3 million to PAWS. A lot of that money was used for the new facility.