'Meant to be;' Community Animal Rescue Effort finds a home -- for itself in Mingus
Aug. 29—MINGUS — Every dog needs a home, and so do the groups who find homes for dogs and cats.
"All we have to do is renovate the interior," Community Animal Rescue Effort Treasurer Susan Wynne said last week of a building the nonprofit recently closed on.
Known locally as The Red Barn, Wynne said the 1,200-square-foot building at 517 N. Mingus Blvd. previously was an informal gathering place where friends would watch sports events and just hang out.
"It was never an established business or anything," she said of the prominent structure. It will soon be an established nonprofit animal rescue, once its leaders secure $7,000 needed to reach the estimated $20,000 renovation cost.
"The contractor came in and gave us a schematic that was remarkable," Wynne said, sitting with Animal Welfare Director and CARE founder Peggy McQueary in Mingus City Hall where CARE set up shop following a move from a rented building next door. "We were surprised. It's going to be very efficient and do everything that we've needed to do."
The building sits on a little less than one acre, about half of which is woods that will make a shady area for dogs to play and potential adopters to get to know their next best friend.
"We've always wanted this, but we weren't sure we could make it happen," McQueary said. "And this opportunity arose. It was just like it was meant to be. So we went for it, and everything is popping into place. So we really feel this is the right direction to go."
Having a home of its own can only help the 17-year-old rescue, which has grown from serving its immediate neighborhood into partnerships with shelters in Mineral Wells, Weatherford, Wichita Falls and a five-county pawprint.
"We do a lot of networking," Wynne said. "The only way this is going to work is if the groups work together."
And since CARE is a rescue, as opposed to a shelter, the new space will bring the luxury of time for animals that come into its hands.
All rescues and shelters aspire to be no-kill operations, and Wynne and McQueary said they only euthanize in two instances — when an animal is in such bad shape a veterinarian recommends it, and when the animal shows an entrenched violent nature.
"But we don't make that decision lightly," Wynne said. "See? That's the nice thing about having a facility, because we'll get to look at them, evaluate them and get them to a vet — check them out and all that. Having a facility facilitates it."
At the time of their Aug. 24 interview, the woman counted 13 dogs and cats in CARE's care. All were either in foster care or with one of five veterinary clinics that offer discounted services to the nonprofit.
Another 50 or so regular volunteers provide services according to their own abilities.
"But for our group to be sustainable, we need to get young people involved and have a paid staff," Wynne said, describing goals to have one employee in one year, pay off the Red Barn in three and engage two staffers in five years.
The number of animals being abandoned remains high while adoptions are low, they said.
"The economy is so bad that adoptions for all groups, all shelters, are way down," McQueary said. "I don't think the public has gotten the note, because they are out there breeding away.
"Everybody's full, and the public needs to be aware and needs to be reminded often to spay and neuter. Because there's not the space for them to go. We're steadily chipping away at it, but we're only chipping away at it."
There are three ways to donate to CARE: off its website, on PayPal or Venmo. For more information, call 254-631-6937.
"We're always just amazed, because we know it's God," McQueary said before that last gift arrived. "It renews our faith. We were told from the get-go that we wouldn't make it. We have defied the odds, and we're still making it."
