Thursday, July 21, 2005 | 10:42 a.m.
In the corner of a kennel at the Animal Foundation's new, expanded bungalow shelters, Miss, a 2-year-old, long-haired Chihuahua, sat shaking in fear.
Her owners last week came into the shelter that serves as the pound for Clark County, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas and told officials there they could no longer keep her, said Diane Orgill, the foundation's president.
"This is unfamiliar territory for her and she is scared," Orgill said Wednesday, noting that last year 23,800 animals were brought to the facility by their owners or animal control officers. Of that number, 7,106 were adopted and 9,406 were euthanized -- 5,059 for behavioral or medical reasons, Orgill said.
Just 2,068 of the animals -- less than 9 percent of those brought in -- were returned to their original owners. The rest remained at the facility at 655 N. Mojave Road as part of an ever-growing -- and often overcrowding -- stock of living inventory.
Several cages over from Miss sat Sophia, a 4-month-old pit bull puppy, whose owners earlier this week told shelter officials their landlord would not allow Sophia as a pet.
Thin and obviously depressed, the tan dog ignored two bowls of food as she watched people pass by her kennel, seemingly ignoring her.
But, for the unwanted, the new $16 million facility that will accommodate up to 1,000 additional dogs, is a breath of fresh air from the old warehouse pound, which will remain in use as the lost dog shelter. Unclaimed animals eventually will be moved to the 44 bungalows, several of which remain under construction.
The Animal Foundation last week began moving dogs to the finished state-of-the-art bungalows to relieve overcrowding.
They also hope the move will create a more enticing atmosphere -- less smell of waste because of the filtering tower design and a quieter room with glass-front cages replacing bars -- for people to adopt animals like Miss and Sophia.
The pound needs to spread its wings because it is on pace to surpass many of last year's marks. Through the first five months of this year, 9,484 animals have been impounded, 2,940 have been adopted, 3,280 have been euthanized and just 768 -- about 8 percent -- have been returned to their original owners.
On Wednesday, shelter officials, in an effort to get 150 animals moved this week into the new bungalows, began asking for volunteers to come to the shelter to wash dogs and walk them to the new bungalows.
"They've been cooped up for too long," said Animal Foundation spokesman Mark Fierro. "We want to get them ready for their big move."
Miss and Sophia made that big move earlier this week.
On Wednesday Las Vegans Michele and Victor Dotson were passing through one of the bungalows, hoping to fill the void created by the recent death of their 3-year-old Chihuahua Mandy.
While the couple passed by Sophia without taking a second look, they stopped when they saw Miss cowering in a corner. They asked Orgill if she could remove Miss from her cage so they could briefly interact with the red-haired pooch.
Although Miss shivered as Orgill took her out of the kennel and held her in her arms, the dog responded to Michele by briefly rubbing the tip of her snout to Michele's nose. Seconds later, Michele told Orgill she would be in Thursday to fill out the paperwork that will give Miss a new home.
"This place (the new bungalows) is amazing," Michele, a Las Vegas resident of six years, said of the 14,000-foot expansion project. "They can house so many different types of animals without being overwhelming like at the old building. This place is a great service to the public."
Sophia may not be so lucky in finding a new home. Unlike Miss she has two big strikes against her: She one day will be a large dog -- small dogs generally are more desirable for adoption, officials say -- and she is part pit bull.
The pound long has been plagued by pit bulls and pit-mixes -- types of dogs that are outlawed from numerous apartment complexes and neighborhoods amid heavily reported incidents of maulings. About 60 percent of the dogs impounded at the Animal Foundation shelter are pit bulls or pit-mixes, Fierro said.
"You never read about when poodles attack anyone, but you do read about pit bull attacks," Fierro said, explaining how difficult it is to adopt docile pit bulls because of the reputation a few bad dogs have given the entire breed.
"The problem is there are too many backyard breeders out there creating countless pups in hopes of making a quick buck, and many of those young animals wind up here."
Orgill, however, is hopeful that Sophia will find a new home.
"She is a puppy and, regardless of the breed, puppies are more likely to be adopted out than an older dog," Orgill said. "Still, there have been pit bulls in here for up to a year."
After Orgill said that, Sophia plopped on her stomach. Her sad eyes looked up at a Sun reporter as she rested her chin on her two front paws, as if to say she had resigned herself to the possibility she might be there a while.
"We have to keep adoptions up because we have to continually rotate animals out of here," Orgill said. "Although we can get four dogs (to a kennel in the bungalows), we want to limit it to one or two dogs and keep things comfortable for the animals and for those who are looking to give them new homes."
To volunteer to wash Animal Foundation pound dogs for their move to the new bungalow shelters call (702) 384-3333.
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