Nate's Honor Animal Rescue on a roll with its expansion

Nate’s Honor Animal Rescue’s Journey Home Capital Campaign has been quite the journey for Rob Oglesby, the development director for the nonprofit. 

The campaign, which is an expansion of the nonprofit’s facilities to include a new training center, welcome and adoption center and cottages, broke ground in December 2019. 

Now almost five years later after the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, supply chain issues and more caused delays and the cost of the project doubled from $8 million to $16 million, Oglesby said they are rolling toward the finish. 

He stood on the roof of the 23,000-square-foot welcome and adoption center after walking through the building, which finally has its drywall installed and is beginning to take shape inside. 

Inside, construction workers with Benderson Development were hard at work in the lobby. 

Photo by Liz Ramos

Oglesby said all the materials needed to complete the project are on property, so now it’s just a matter of doing the work. 

The welcome and adoption center will house a veterinary clinic, education center, maternity ward, parvo ward, event space, a restaurant, an apartment for students on a veterinary externship and catios. The seven catios are screened-in areas so cats can be inside or outside. 

The rescue is working on hiring a medical director and filling staffing positions. 

In September, Oglesby said the walls in the welcome and adoption center will be painted, the drop ceilings will be installed as well as lights, fire sprinklers, air conditioning ducts and more. Then the cabinets will be installed as well as flooring. 

Oglesby said the project is expected to be completed by January. 

Once the veterinary clinic is complete, Oglesby said staff will begin using it immediately to conduct in-house surgeries before officially opening it to the public. 

The rooms for cats and dogs have unique features such as a solar tube to allow natural light to make its way into the building via the roof. 

From the roof, a view of the entire Nate’s Honor grounds can be seen. On a sunny morning Sept. 6, a dog was ready to jump into the bone-shaped pool, a volunteer was grabbing another dog for a walk and another volunteer was working with a dog in the meet-and-greet pavilion. 

“It’s coming out nicely,” Oglesby said of the entire project. “It’s a far cry from where we were.”

He could see the second meet-and-greet pavilion, which leads into an entrance of the welcome and adoption center, being constructed so people can socialize their dogs with dogs at the rescue. The first meet-and-green pavilion is dedicated for people to meet and spend time with the dog they potentially could adopt. 

Oglesby said the pavilion will be used as soon as it’s completed, which is expected in the next two months. 

The new cottages are almost complete and once they are, Oglesby said renovations will be done to the eight older cottages because dogs were gnawing at the trim pieces. 

Photo by Liz Ramos

The rescue also is becoming more high-tech. 

There is Wi-Fi throughout the property so an adoption can be done from a tablet virtually anywhere on the campus. 

There is wiring for speakers along the path throughout the property so dog walkers can have music playing outdoors. 

Inside the catios, there are touchscreen monitors for the cats to play games. For example, Oglesby said the monitors can have fish and birds showing or there’s one in which a cockroach runs across the screen and if a cat touches it, the cockroach will multiply. 

The cottages now have a screen displaying information about the dog staying in that particular cottage. The technology allows volunteers and staff to easily share where the dog is, what they are doing and more. For example, a volunteer can use the system to notify everyone the volunteer is taking the dog in cottage four for a walk. 

Inside the event space is a large screen for people to use if they want to host webinars, classes and more. The room also will have nano microphones and speakers throughout so people can be heard throughout the room. 

The roof of the welcome and adoption center will be covered with at least 200 solar panels that will help keep energy costs low. Oglesby said the nonprofit added solar panels to its cottages 15 years ago. Using solar panels allows the nonprofit to receive federal grants that are tax deductible to assist with covering energy costs, he said.