One Tail at a Time West Texas

07/17/2025

Lookit Scooby Doo! Several weeks ago we posted a pic of Scooby in the Pecos Shelter. He was giant, thin, lumpy, and middle-aged, with worn out joints, covered in wounds festering from being confined way too long and way too rough.

Thanks to a loving foster (and a few days to master the threshold, seems this old bud had never been indoors), Scooby has found the perfect dog bed in the form of a giant sofa! It’s soft, he loves it, and he’ll only leave his foster couch until he finds his forever one!

Thanks next to the whose support for comprehensive care ensures that this once-mistreated gentle giant will be as comfy as possible despite all that came before. Beyond his successful neuter and scrotal ablation last week, this support means that we can exhaustively test and treat all the other things. This is a gift to our small rescue and also to his future family who will not only be getting resilient and loving companion, but also one who is healthy and has every chance of living a long and comfortable life.

For everyone who loves the super special occasion of a dog walking out of a horrific past, through a shelter, and into a beautiful future, swipe to Scooby’s freedom exit video!

Scooby is now adoptable and we are so excited for him and his new family! It’s going to be incredible!

07/15/2025

It was a happy birthday and a happy tail in the same fell swoop! We can’t think of any better gift to celebrate living than the hilarity, companionship, and deep satisfaction of having a dog. Pushkin now has his 2-legged and his guardian has her 4-legged, and down in an incredible little corner of West Texas, all is right with the world! Happy birthday and happy gotcha day! We are so thrilled to be part of bringing these two together! 🎉🎂🐶

07/13/2025

Look at these lovely ladies! These two are 4 months old and playful, fun-loving, happy gals. They’re learning the ropes in foster, both from their loving foster mom and the resident foster dogs (all rescues, repaying the favor!). They have full tails and perky ears and heeler smarts, so lookout! 😂 If you’re ready for the relationship of a lifetime, holler!!

07/12/2025

07/11/2025

We’ve moved into the summer season, and Frank has moved into his doggy pool. This dog-friendly buddy is still looking for a home! In addition to pool time, Frank loves treats, cuddles and time with his dog buds. Frank’s adoption comes with a doggy pool; we’ll make it big enough for two.

07/09/2025

Who runs the world? Is it girls, or is it kittens? (Just kidding, of course we know it’s girls!!) But we do have some rising queens ready to stake out new queendoms. These three sibs are almost adoptable and ready to rule your roost! Reach out to get ready for these true power players.

07/08/2025

Meet Grace… one of the hearts behind the healing at OTAT-WTX. Since rescuing her own pup here in West Texas, Grace and her partner David have fostered over 20 dogs, offering not just days or weeks, but sometimes months of safety, patience, and love.

From the playful to the timid, each dog has brought something special—and left a little more whole than they arrived.
As Grace puts it, “Each dog I’ve welcomed has brought unexpected healing and joy, filling spaces in my heart I didn’t know needed mending.”

Fostering changes lives on both ends of the leash.

Start your own foster tales at
otatwtx.org/foster

07/07/2025

Presidio Shelter is over capacity—12 dogs in 6 kennels, with one living full-time in the yard just to make space. This is where fostering steps in to truly save lives.

Yesterday we met Bumper and Fender—two pups found as strays in Presidio. They’ve been vaccinated, they’re at the vet, and now they just need a safe place to land.

We’re committed to making the Presidio Shelter a true place of hope. We even painted that message on both sides of the door to the euthanasia room. For the past six years, this rural shelter has been a launchpad—not a dead end—for more than 500 dogs.

But today, hope depends on you.

Fostering saves lives. OTAT-WTX provides everything you need. You provide the home, the love, and the pets—lots of pets.

Sign up to foster at otatwtx.org/foster
Current fosters, message us directly if you can help Bumper and Fender—or any of the many dogs and cats waiting across our over capacity West Texas Shelters.

Let’s keep hope alive.

07/06/2025

This weekend, the state of Texas has witnessed devastating flash flooding in Central Texas. Our hearts are with all those grieving, searching, recovering, still riding out the rain, and with every pet displaced during this tragic time.

Our incredible partners at Austin Pets Alive! have been on the ground in Kerrville, working alongside Kerrville Pets Alive, Austin Animal Center, and Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter to rescue, treat, and shelter animals displaced by the floods. Over 50 pets have already been transported to safety, and many more are in need of help.

Here’s how you can support rescue efforts:
• Sign up to foster a displaced dog or cat: bit.ly/440knl4
• Donate supplies (plastic kennels, pet food, tarps, towels): drop off at APA!’s Cesar Chavez location in Austin (8am to 6pm, in front of their Foster Shed-green shed with the murals in the parking lot)
• Give directly to APA!: bit.ly/4IHEqU
• Visit kerrvillepetsalive.com for missing/found pet forms, search & rescue updates, and ways to report animals in need
• Donate to Kerrville Pets Alive via Venmo or deliver supplies to 2102 Memorial Blvd, Kerrville (more info at kerrvillepetsalive.com)

We are proud to support these organizations and the life-saving work they’re doing. To our friends in Central Texas: we are with you, now and always.

From West Texas with love.

07/04/2025

More than 700 pets a year pass through the 12 kennels that make up the Pecos Animal Shelter. Once an “all kill” shelter, this week we got the news that the Pecos Shelter is officially “no kill”!! Over the past 12 months more than 90% of its pets left the shelter for lives with loving families. The 9% who didn’t were mostly lost to illness or serious injury, and we tried for every single one. A very few were deemed unsafe for the community, and **not a single healthy, adoptable pet lost their life for lack of space**.

Huge kudos to Pecos’ lone ACO Kristi Wright, all the shelter staff over the years, OTAT’s Rescue Coordinators Trish Bradley (the OG) and Rose Virgil, now there 7 days a week), the Pecos Enterprise for sharing our news, our vet partners who perform medical miracles every day, and to every adopter, foster, dog-walker, member, donor, driver and cheerleader both local and across the country…. We have come together and we have hung together - week after week, month after month - to do what many thought was impossible: we have transformed the Pecos Shelter into a place of hope.

Like hundreds of pets over the last year, Dusty will walk out of the shelter Monday morning into a transport plan, a vet appointment, a waiting foster, and a team committed to getting him home. He is grateful, and the dog that comes in just as soon as he vacates his kennel is grateful too, because he will be offered the same.

Celebrate with us; this means so much more than we can say. And please join us in the work, as the Shelter in Pecos is still full of great dogs and cats who need our help.

07/01/2025

(This is long but good.) Every pet who gets a coveted spot on a flight with is SOOOOO lucky! We were so moved to be on the tarmac yesterday as their 40,000th pet (let *that* sink in!!) was loaded onto the Big Dog plane - leaving a desperate situation for safety and a forever home!

It was even more incredible because passenger #40,000 was our very own Pepper, a stray dog from the McCamey Animal Shelter, who spent most of her pregnancy (unknown to us) in a kennel with very limited enrichment, no volunteers, and no adopter interest.

OTAT West Texas covers the cost of vet care and provides support for dogs who are languishing in this shelter. The afternoon we got Pepper to the vet was in the nick o’ time. Four hours later, she gave birth to six puppies!! Over the next six weeks, in two foster homes, we supported this families’ care and last night she landed in the incredible care of

40,000 passengers means 40,000 stories, 40,000 miracles, and easily hundreds of thousands of people. Scroll through this album to take a backwards look at Pepper’s journey in West Texas as they enjoy their first day of their new journey in Washington. This is the road that leads home!

Watching the blinking red lights of the Big Dog as it headed for the PNW as the first rays of sunlight started a new day was a poignant finale to our role in her rescue journey. We now cheer for their next chapter and all the big lifesaving milestones- the pets saved and the people fulfilled. ❤️❤️