TRACS gives old building new life

Thanks to the generosity of a local business, Thompson River Animal Shelter (TRACS) now has a new healthy cat adoption center.

On Monday, AVISTA donated an old office trailer to TRACS, which will retro-fit the building to fit their needs.

Not only will the building allow TRACS to house more animals, but it will also improve the quality of care cats receive as the new building will be used exclusively for healthy cats, eliminating the potential spreading of disease among the animals sheltered on location.

“It will increase the number we’re able to adopt out as well, because, we have to have that period of time when the sick cats have to get over that illness before we adopt them out,” Wanda Thorpe TRACS president and co-founder said.

Although the building won’t be ready to house any cats for several months, until the carpet is replaced with a hard floor, Thorpe speculates that it will expand TRACS capacity from approximately 70 cats to over 100.

According to Tim Swant, AVISTA’s Clark Fork License Manager, the trailer was intended to be a temporary office building, but has been in use since 1994. After plans to replace the trailer with a permanent office building, TRACS board member Howard Bacchi, approached Swant about the future of the trailer.

“They had a need for it and it made more sense for us to give it to someone who would use it and so it just was a win, win all the way around,” Swant said.

Swant feels there are many positive aspects to the outcome. One, it’s an opportunity to give back to the community, and two, the building can be recycled into further use rather than being destroyed.