By Sam Howard
Posted Oct 14, 2019 at 4:59 PM
After holding a groundbreaking ceremony last October, Furry Friends Adoption, Clinic & Ranch hopes to move into its new 15,000-square-feet facility in the coming weeks. The facility, which increases the organization’s space, is meant to be a community gathering place.
JUPITER — At the corner of Capital Street and Jupiter Park Drive, contractors are swarming a construction site.
They’re painting walls, installing electrical wiring and putting in flooring. “It’s all full steam ahead here,” said Pat Deshong, president of Furry Friends Adoption, Clinic & Ranch, the no-kill animal shelter and hospital that hopes to move into the new 15,000-square-foot facility by month’s end.
The two-floor building has been in the works for about three years, said Herb Baum, chairman of Furry Friends’ board of directors. Baum, now retired after a career at the Dial Corporation and Campbell Soup, donated the Capital Street property to the animal shelter.
Boasting five turfed play areas outside, with a two-story cat enclosure among the interior features, Baum said he’s particularly charged up about how the new building caters to the needs of Furry Friends’ animals.
There are three separate kennel rooms for dogs of varying sizes, plus distinct rooms for kittens and puppies. The new clinic includes four exam rooms, a lab, X-Ray space and two recovery rooms.
Deshong also noted that there are five walking trails nearby, an upgrade over Furry Friends’ previous space in a Maplewood Drive shopping plaza just south of Indiantown Road.
“We have a facility that works best for our animals and that’s our mantra ... ‘For the love of animals.’ Animals come first in my mind, so we built this for them,” Baum said.
Baum describes the new facility as something of a dream come true.
He was among those who rebooted the animal shelter and clinic previously known as Safe Harbor, which Baum called a “failed organization,” in 2013 under the new Furry Friends banner. They’ve built up the shelter’s reputation in the years since, he said.
At the end of Furry Friends’ fiscal year, Baum said, he plans to step down. “I wanted to see this built,” he said.
Furry Friends has raised about $1.5 to $2 million in donations to support its construction effort, Deshong said.
She and programs director Karen Counts want area residents to feel invested in the success of their organization, also known as The Humane Society of Greater Jupiter/Tequesta. Counts envisions the building as a “community destination.”
The facility’s second floor is focused on that effort. There are two community rooms on the floor that Counts said could be used for children’s birthday parties, paint and sip events and other community gatherings.
Another second-floor room will be laid out as a sort of cafe lounge, where visitors can get a cup of coffee and sit in a comfortable chair while looking out at the cat enclosure.
“We don’t want people to think of this as an animal shelter,” Deshong said. “We want people to come and be a part of this.”