2019
It all started with a rescue named Roscoe. He found the Pattersons at a desolate gas station in Roscoe, Texas in 2018. He had been hit by a car a few days before and was just hanging out by the gas pumps waiting for help. It quickly opened their eyes to how many stray dogs roam the streets of West Texas, how all of the rescues in our area are bursting at the seams and how turning an animal into Animal Control is essentially a death sentence.
That’s when Karen started researching how other communities were tackling the issue. We found that community high volume, low cost spay and neutering programs were the number one factor in reducing strays, reducing the number of animals needing to be rescued, reducing the number of animals entering the shelters, and thereby lowering the euthanasia rate at the local Animal Control.
In October 2019, Karen started brainstorming how to bring high volume, low cost spay and neuter to the Midland area and found a not-for-profit mobile vet called Pet Vet Relief (Dr. Linwood Starks). He agreed to come to Midland for a two day clinic on January 11-13, 2020 with the potential of coming back quarterly. All we needed to do was provide a free climate controlled location, 4 vet techs, 20 volunteers, 50 cages, 3 nights of free lodging for his staff and get 400 people interested in making appointments.
In November Karen started calling the project "Fix Midland." Lori VanHoozer joined the team and as word spread, they created a logo, a flier, established a Facebook page, and printed business cards and car magnets. Within the first 12 hours of posting the flier on Facebook, over 80 animals made appointments for the January clinic.
In December, we established a Board of Directors, changed our name to Fix West Texas, and applied for not-for-profit tax status.
2020
In January 2020, we held our first MASH style clinic at the Christmas in Action warehouse. People lined up for blocks to check-in their pets for surgery. The days were long, the nights were short but we would have worked around the clock if we had to because the excitement about our new clinic was HUGE!! We had so many volunteers who were fantastic. They would show up and jump right in helping any way they could.
After our first clinic, we decided that we needed to find a software to automate check-in and streamline check-out. Paper forms were not efficient or effective. Luckily we found Clinic HQ and we were able to quickly implement the software, which saved us a ton of time once we got it all figured out.
In February 2020, we held our second clinic at Midland's Horseshoe and it SNOWED!! But clients braved the streets and still brought their pets. And thanks to Clinic HQ, we were able to provide a mass email to all clients that we would start 2 hours late to give the street crews time to work their magic. Being able to send out mass texts made us feel like we had hit the big time (although one lady threatened to sue because she had not consented to text- so we quickly added that to our consent). And speaking of bad apples... this is the moment we decided that we would not serve anyone who threatened us with lawsuits or made negative social media posts about Fix West Texas. We feel those clients are better served elsewhere. Afterall, we are striving to build relationships with those we serve and we cannot do that with clients such as these.
In March 2020, we held our third clinic at Odessa's Police Department SWAT Building. Our trailer with all of our kennels and other equipment was stolen, while in Odessa. The community rallied together for us and not only replaced all of the stolen goods, but also replaced the stolen trailer with a NEW TRAILER!!! This was also the weekend that COVID shut down the world. Our clinic continued on. We just kept our nose to the grindstone and focused on serving the 100s of pets presented to us each day. By the time the clinic was over on Sunday night, there were hardly any groceries left in the stores.
COVID was a great time for us to pause and regroup. We had grown tremendously in the past 3 months. However, the veterinarian was keeping all profits and leaving us with all of the expenses. We knew this was not sustainable long-term so we set about negotiating a better position for Fix West Texas.
We settled on the idea of purchasing all of our own equipment, hiring our own vet techs and contracting with a Relief Vet to provide the vet services, while still relying on volunteers for all other positions. We were lucky to find and contract with Dr. Kelli Taylor (who is still our Medical Director). She helped us establish our policies and procedures and helped us make a master list of all equipment we would need to get started. We then took out a loan to make the initial purchases . To help pay off the loan, we held drive-thru vaccination clinics anywhere we were allowed to be. Tons of people came because many of the local veterinarians were closed due to COVID.
By May 2020, we started having 3-4 day MASH style clinics again, with the focus being on high quality. Many times, we had two clinics a month. We stayed booked. We would fix anywhere from 100-140 pets a day.
By November 2020, Karen and Lori were worn out. All of the loading and unloading and setting up and tearing down had become overwhelming. Our loan was paid off and we felt we needed to be open more frequently. So Karen and Lori started searching for a place to lease. We found a place at 5025 Princeton. It was about 2000 sq ft and the rent was what we could afford so we signed the lease and started moving in!! We also hired our first employee, Adam. We quickly formed the original A-Team which was Karen, Lori, Adam, Kristen, Michael, Nubia and Shelley,
In December 2020, we started looking for additional veterinarians to contract with since we now had a space and could be open anytime. We added Dr. Willie Taylor and Dr. Isabelle Withrock to our line-up.
Karen and Lori were ecstatic to finally have an office and not have to do check-out in the midst of all the other work.
2021
We started the year off with a bang by being open 4 days a week. We quickly transitioned from using volunteers to using paid staff- both part-time and full-time. We felt this was an important step to self-sustainability and increasing the overall quality of care. However, we continued to use volunteers for tasks such as washing tools, laundry, beach care and etc.
Not only did we start attending community events to get the word out that we are here to help, we also started working to establish relationships with leaders in Midland and Odessa and other outlying cities (Stanton, Rankin, Pecos, Seminole) who wanted us to host drive-thru vaccination clinics once or twice a year.
The Pets in Need program was established in 2021. Those unable to afford the full cost of their bill could Pay What You Can Afford. We also started distributing dog and cat food to those in need through our Chewy.com donations and started providing winter dog and cat homes to those who had outdoor pets.
We continued to stay booked throughout the year. As our staff size increased, we quickly outgrew our space. Luckily there was a double-wide unit available a few doors down that we were able to move to in November.
2022
By 2022, we were fully moved into our 5000 sq ft double wide unit and were open 20-22 days per month. Our Pets in Need program was in full swing and we were quickly becoming the go-to for all things related to Pets.
In May 2022, Beth Meeks was hired to help Karen manage the clinic day-to-day. In July 2022, Karen and Beth attended a Best Friends conference and started asking themselves what else could Fix West Texas do to help our local animal shelter reduce intakes, which would reduce euthanasia. That is when they came up with the Home to Home Adoptions Program.
The Home to Home Adoptions Program was established as an alternative to surrendering your pet or stray at the shelter. FWT would spay/neuter, vaccinate and microchip your pet prior to adoption. By agreeing to foster your own pet, while FWT markets your pet, you would be avoiding the emotional trauma (for the human and the pet) associated with surrendering a pet to the shelter. We also made an agreement with the local shelter director, Ty Coleman, that we would take shelter pets to our adoption events. This program proved to be a great success and we were quickly diverting from intake and adopting out over 50 pets a month!!
The Home to Home Adoption Program continued to flourish throughout 2023. Word spread that there was now a responsible way to rehome the pet you found or your own pet. By the end of 2023, Fix West Texas adopted out over 1800 pets and got their very own Mercedes Adoption Van!!
2023
Throughout 2022 and 2023, Fix West Texas was performing at peak surgical capacity with no more room for immediate growth. Karen and Beth started brainstorming ways to increase capacity within the community as a whole. This is how establishing surgery at the Midland Animal Services Shelter became a key priority.
Fix West Texas stepped up to help order, unload ,and set-up the equipment and supplies. We also supplied the veterinarian and a vet tech to help the City of Midland get this program started.
The program resulted in the City being able to lend a hand in fixing their own animals before adoption and also going back through the backlog of unfixed animals they had already adopted out.
Unfortunately after 8 surgery days, the City of Midland stepped in and discontinued the project due to internal dysfunction that later resulted in the firing of Ty Coleman, Shelter Director. The firing then led to no-shelter oversight which caused the horrific deaths of multiple dogs in their care. Luckily with an outcry from Fix West Texas and the public, the City appointed Chief Blumenauer to oversee the shelter.
In the Spring of 2023, Fix West Texas began offering Low-Cost Parvo Treatments. Benchmarking off another successful program in Colorado, we began offering treatments that were about 90% effective. We feel this is an area where we are really able to reduce suffering.
In July 2023, Fix West Texas had 4 employees certified to humanely euthanize animals without a veterinarian present. We feel this is an important service we can provide our community. Ending the suffering is sometimes the best thing you can do.
In the Fall of 2023, Fix West Texas became a Greater Good Ambassador for the West Texas area. Greater Good sends 18 wheeler loads of dog and cat food not only for our Pets in Need program but for us to distribute to other local groups helping feed pets in our community.
