Urgent Freeze Fosters Needed
Feb 18, 2025 Austin, it’s happening again! The temps are dipping into freezing and below starting today and lasting the remainder of the week. With the pending extreme winter temps headed our way we’re working to move 57 animals — 50 dogs and the current 7 Barn Cats to sleepover, foster or adoptive homes! While we do have working heaters in every kennel building, these are “open-air” kennels, meaning they can be drafty and being made out of concrete, not an ideal place to spend a night in these extreme...
Austin Pets Alive! Transport Program Saves 10,000 Lives
Jan 30, 2025 In early 2021, when Texas faced one of the most severe winter storms in its history, the Austin Pets Alive! Transport Program emerged out of desperation to save shelter animals across the state. What began as an urgent effort to move as many pets out of harm’s way as quickly as possible has since evolved into a full-scale program. Now, just four years later, we celebrate an incredible milestone: 10,000 lives saved! When our teams reflected on the work accomplished in February 2021, it became clear that this was more than...
The Trickiness of TLAC
Jan 28, 2025 Our main shelter, named Town Lake Animal Center and located in the heart of Austin, has provided a space for us to save so many lives. We’re grateful for this space though due to its age, it does present some challenges. We’ve been scrappy over the years with how we address those challenges, but there are limitations to what and how we solve them. Watch this video to learn more! [embedded content] Source: Austin Pets...
New year, Same Pets.
Jan 07, 2025 The term “long stay” is one that has many different interpretations within the sheltering system, but when examined closely, each interpretation can be whittled down to this: a pet that has found itself in the shelter for an undesired period of time. Over the last decade, thanks to some deep data keeping by a particularly involved volunteer, we’ve gleaned that January happens to be a month of promise for long stay pets. While we don’t know the “why,” historically at APA!, January typically sees...
50 Homes For Dogs By New Year’s Eve To Begin Emergency Shelter Renovations
Dec 27, 2024 Austin Pets Alive! has received permission from the City of Austin to make urgent repairs to our kennels and long-overdue renovations to our 70-year-old shelter that will ensure better care, comfort and safety for our animals and staff. We’d like to begin the work as soon as possible, but several steps must be taken before we can begin. First, we need to move as many dogs as possible into foster or adoptive homes so that we’re operating with just 100 open kennels. We’ve been working towards our 100 kennels goal...
A holiday message from APA! CEO Dr. Ellen Jefferson
Dec 24, 2024 APA! Supporters, I’m ending this year thinking about miracle workers like you — and the difference you make for pets like Furby, a 6-pound puppy who recently came through our doors at Austin Pets Alive!. We took this golden doodle puppy in from Austin Animal Center, because of his urgent medical state. He arrived with bruising on his abdomen and serious neurological issues, possibly caused by blunt force trauma. The tiny dog couldn’t even sit up on his own, though he kept trying — Furby’s...
Freeze Warning Issued For Austin, Keep Pets Safe
Dec 10, 2024 Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) and the Hays County Pet Resource Center are here with tips to help you keep your pets comfortable as we move into freezing temperatures overnight.Follow these tips to ensure your pets stay cozy: Bring your pet inside: If you keep your dogs outside, let them inside your home. Drastic temperature changes are challenging for pets and humans, so helping them stay warm in your home is helpful. Make an enclosure for community cats: You can help keep community cats safe by using boxes or plastic bins to...
10 Reasons Why You Should Adopt A Shelter Pet Before Buying From A Breeder
Email Address * First Name * Last Name * Zip Code * Adopted from APA! before? * Interested in Dogs or Cats * * indicates required Submit Source: Austin Pets...
Testing
Email Address * First Name * Last Name * Zip Code * Adopted from APA! before? * Interested in Dogs or Cats * * indicates required Submit Source: Austin Pets...
OPINION: Solutions to strays must be found, adopted on a global scale
Nov 07, 2024 In Huancayo, Peru, a city of 122,000 nestled in the Andes, stray dogs roam freely. This scene, common throughout much of Latin America, stands in stark contrast to the pristine streets of many American cities. But the absence of visible strays in the U.S. doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist — it’s just hidden behind shelter walls. My recent visit to my grandmother’s home in Huancayo after years away was a reminder of this reality. The streets teemed with dogs of all breeds and sizes, from German...















