Sunday, June 18, 2023–5:51 p.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

Floyd County Public Animals Welfare Services is getting ready for extended hours that will offer the public more time to come in and adopt a new pet.

PAWS director Katy Walters told the Floyd County Public Safety Committee on Thursday that starting July 5, the shelter will be open from 11:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

“That will give us an extra couple of hours every day,” she said. “We’re still planning to open Saturdays and Sundays, but I don’t have a date on that yet. We are still working with staff to get all those details worked out.”

Walters also had some good news regarding live outcomes at the shelter.

“For the month of May, we had a live outcome of 97.79 percent,” she said. “That puts us at 95.64 percent for the entire year, so we are keeping our no-kill status intact for this year, so far.”

Walters also told the committee that she hopes to soon have some new cat condos at PAWS.

“Our old ones are made from pressed plywood and they have started to completely fall apart on us,” she said. “So, we have started the bidding process to get some new ones put in. We are also bidding out some new Toughbooks [laptop computers] for the vehicles so our animal control officers can be more effective while out on the road.”

Walters said they were able to hire a new vet tech. Amber Taylor has been on the job for about a month.  PAWS has also filled a vacant animal control officer position.

Working with Warden Mike Long at the Floyd County Prison, new outside kennels have been built at PAWS and repairs have been made to the back fence line.