RPC getting new home thanks to secret donor

Photo: Kayla Collins

9 Lower Swallow Road, Paris.

OXFORD HILLS — Responsible Pet Care is celebrating this week. After months of fundraising, it has the money to purchase a new home.

Thanks to a donation of $105,000 from a family that wishes to remain anonymous, RPC can buy the $295,000 building at 9 Lower Swallow Road in Paris.

However, RPC President Shirley Boyce pointed out, there is a way to go before RPC can move in.

The 5,600-square-foot building must be renovated to accommodate its new cat and dog tenants. Consequently, said Boyce, the fundraising is still crucial.

Over the past year, Responsible Pet Care has seen an influx of pets – particularly dogs – and, according to Boyce, it's become a crisis. 

Over the past year, according to RPC, 413 cats have been taken in and 400 adopted, and 137 dogs taken in with only 30 adopted.

An overcrowding of pets, said Boyce, means more space is needed to accommodate their needs, as well as the overall needs of the shelter. 

"We are overcrowded with cats every summer," she said, "and it gets a little better through the winter, but ... starting this past May or June, we started getting twice as many dogs as we usually do."

A larger space means fewer of the 85 to 100 cats it houses will be caged, allowing them to roam about the space, said Boyce. 

Dog kennels, which are currently not large enough for five dogs, will be two to three times bigger and the animals will have more room to play outside, she said.

With the new building, Boyce said, it will be able to house 12-15 dogs. She said RPC also plans to provide the first public dog park in the Oxford Hills.

RPC operates on donations for things such as food and heat. Heat alone is costing upwards of $6,000 in the current drafty quarters on Waterford Road in Norway. Further, there are repairs that require immediate attention at its current site, such as a partial new roof, renovating the kitchen and replacing the rotted floor.

The new building renovations are far more simple involving adding ventilation, lowering the ceiling, putting up partitions and redesigning the space, she said.

Boyce noted that RPC is waiting and hopeful on a $50,000 rural development grant that will go toward the purchase and has a guaranteed $20,000 interest-free loan as well which will be paid off when its current property is sold.

Boyce said the real estate agent anticipates closing on the new site within two to three weeks.

"And the fundraising goes on!" said Boyce.

To make a tax-deductible donation to help with the new building renovations, send a check marked "Building Fund" to Responsible Pet Care of Oxford Hills, P.O. Box 82, Norway, ME 04268 or donate through PayPal on RPC's website, www.petfinder.com/shelters/rpc.html.