MIDLAND, Texas — If you're a pet owner you know they are more than just an animal, they're family.
Karen Patterson has had a love for dogs her entire life.
During her 5 years in Midland, Patterson noticed too many animals being shipped off without the chance of a furrever home.
"Perfectly healthy adoptable animals, but they need homes and we just don't have enough homes for the overpopulation here in Midland," Patterson said.
So she got to work brainstorming an idea to put a stop to a heartbreaking fate for these animals.
"My husband was actually having his knee operated on and so I started emailing people in Dallas, that's where we were having the surgery)\, asking him how do we help," Patterson asked. "How do we stop euthanizing so many of our animals at our animal shelter and I got quite a few responses, but one was from this vet and said oh, y'all need to start spaying and neutering. Low cost or no cost."
As an accountant, Karen began crunching the numbers and saw spay and neuter procedures could cost nearly $450.
That's when Karen met the good people of Pet Vet Relief and invited them to Midland with their mobile surgical trailer.
The Dallas vet said yes and plan to send four vet techs along with Doctor Linwood Starks III.
Four local vet techs will also join them.
As for spreading the work, Karen found it wasn't hard.
"What's been incredible is once I posted on Facebook here's what we'd like to do and here's the help that I need, we've had a tremendous amount of people contact and say, hey I'd like to volunteer, hey I can be a vet tech, let me donate some kennels. So it's really been a community effort," Patterson said.
Patterson says the amount of support and need has been overwhelming.
"Within the first day, it was over 60 people - had already signed up in 24 hours. Within the first week it was over 200 people had signed up," Patterson said.
That number is now pushing 300.
People from out of the area are now calling wanting to sign up.
"Now, they see 'oh we have a huge need,' and so I'm hoping that once they come here and they realize how appreciative we are that they'll make it a monthly relationship," Patterson said.
As we embark on a new year, Karen hopes this could be the beginning of renewed hope for animals in our community.
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Additional Info:
To sign up, pet owners can go to petvetrelief.com, request an appointment, note the Midland location and write in detail about their dog, cat or feral cat.
Owners can also apply for a $70 voucher from the city or county.
For the county, they need to provide proof of residence, sign up for the clinic, have their animal already vaccinated and with a microchip.
For the city, owners need to apply for the voucher on the city's website, pick it up from the animal shelter and bring it to the clinic.
But like the county procedure, their animal needs to be current on shots and have a microchip.
City owners also need to make an appointment within 2 weeks of the appointment date.
The most expensive spay is for a large female at about $100.
But with the voucher covering $70, they would only be paying $30.
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