Paws-N-Claws Adoption Center Opens to Fanfare

After more than a year of fundraising and renovations, Paws-N-Claws opened the doors to its adoption center Oct. 23.

Paws-N-Claws will be familiar to anyone who is a fan of both cute animals in need and social media. The non-profit officially started last Summer as a foster-based animal shelter. But the groups new adoption center was always a big goal the founders were working towards.

According to Paws-N-Claws founder and president Rachel Long, initial plans for the center, located at 108 First St. S., were conceived in the March of 2020 but with COVID, being volunteer-based and the rising cost of building materials slowed down building renovations to a trickle.

“The flooring was the most expensive part of the whole project, the original floor was orange shag carpet and the walls were covered in fake wood paneling. The whole place had a very 70s vibe going on. Our volunteers had to rip everything out to make building look like it was from this century,” Long said.

Long wanted to emphasize that the adoption center will not function as an animal shelter.

“No animals will be kept here full time. Every animal that we have available for adoption live with foster families. The adoption center is a place where people can drop off donations, hold adoption events, fundraisers and a neutral place for potential adopters to meet our animals,” Long said.

According to Long, many people can’t know whether or not they’ll love a dog until they meet the dog. Over the weekends different dogs that are available for adoption will spend time at the center for people to drop in and meet.

“We hope that with weekend visits people will come to meet animals that they might not expect to love, like our special needs dogs,” Long said.

Paws-N-Claws specializes in special needs animals. Dogs with birth defects, broken bones, require surgery or are just not thriving in a traditional shelter environments.

“Our goal is to help animals who have severe medical needs and no where else to go. Right now we have two dogs in Des Moines who are recovering from severe carbon monoxide poisoning. We think they’ll pull through but a lot of shelters don’t have the resources to manage multiple special needs animals at once,” Long said.

And while the organization is currently focused on dogs they are starting to see more and more cats come in.

With the weather changing many cats that have spent the past few months outside will need to be brought to them in order to survive the, usually, brutal Iowa winter.

“We’ve been seeing a lot more cats, mostly kittens, come in the past few weeks. The nearly freezing rain and cats don’t mix,” Long said.

Now that the center is open Long and her team of volunteers are turning their attention to increasing the number of foster homes available to take in animals.

They receive around 20 foster applications a month, but many of those are for specific animals and specific circumstances.

“We’re working to be as accessible as possible. The more places we have available, the more animals we can take in and save,” Long said.

The center will only be opened on weekends, and hopefully soon, some select week nights. Select animals will be at the center every weekend and will be available for meet and greets.

Contact Abby Knipfel at 641-792-4687 ext. 6531 or aknipfel@shawmedia.com