GRAPEVINE, TX – When Grapevine’s new animal shelter opened in April, it was the culmination of years of planning and construction with funding approved by voters in the 2017 bond election.
Grapevine Chief of Police Mike Hamlin compared it to a barn raising, an event that brings an entire community together to work toward a common goal.
“The spirit that got us here today is tantamount to the spirit that raised those barns in the early parts of our country,” he said during the shelter’s April 17 ribbon-cutting. “We’re all on the same end of the rope, and figuratively we’re pulling that building up.”
The previous facility—built on the same site in 1992 and demolished in 2019—was a third of the size of the new shelter.
Grapevine Animal Services manager Kristina Valentine said that the indoor space is broken up into flexible pods, rather than having one large room for dogs and one for cats. Other features that make the facility more pleasant include skylights that let in natural light and a paint palette that uses colors animals can see, Valentine said.
