LAWS Seeks Volunteers to Help Finish Almost Home Animal Shelter Project

Fresh concrete on the south side of a newly acquired Laramie building marks the turning point of the Almost Home project: the interior finishing phase that would give Albany County its first dedicated animal care facility outside the city shelter.

The Laramie Animal Welfare Society is recruiting volunteers now for post-concrete floor finishing, interior painting, and general build-out work. The organization is accepting both skilled and unskilled labor, alongside donated building supplies, paint, and flooring materials.

The stakes reach beyond renovation logistics. Albany County currently has no secondary animal facility to absorb a surge event: a large-scale hoarding case, a mass surrender following a natural disaster, or a wildfire evacuation pushing animals from outlying areas into the county. When any of those scenarios hit, the Laramie Animal Shelter absorbs the full intake burden alone, including bite-hold and quarantine animals that require separation from the general population. A completed Almost Home facility would create that buffer, adding dedicated space for veterinary triage, overflow foster intake, and quarantine cases that currently strain city shelter capacity.

The building carried a significant infrastructure deficit when LAWS acquired it. Electrical installation is now complete, the roof has been replaced, and two new heating units are in place. What remains is the interior work that determines whether animals, volunteers, and programs can actually operate inside the space.

LAWS already channels roughly $146,000 a year into the Laramie Animal Shelter through medical funding, covering spay/neuter surgeries, dental care, major procedures, and behavioral training for dogs awaiting adoption. All of that work currently runs without a permanent operational base. Almost Home would change that.

"Our volunteers are invaluable to our operations," the organization's volunteer materials state. The most immediate needs are concrete: labor for floor finishing and interior painting, donated building supplies and flooring materials, and monetary contributions to close remaining funding gaps. Sign-up forms and the full project schedule are available through the LAWS website at laramie-animals.org.