Every Jan. 1, I hold down the manager-on-duty role in the shelter. I have done so for as long as I can remember. I realize that it is just a day like any other, but there is something about the fresh start, a clean calendar, a year just begun, that I find energizing, and I love being in the shelter on the first day of the new year. New Year’s Day always feels full of possibilities to me.

One of the realities of animal sheltering is that we are never done. Even if we were in a position to do so, I would find resting on our laurels incredibly boring and demotivating. There is always something new, interesting and innovative to learn about happening in our sector and in intersecting fields across the country, not to mention ways we can grow and expand our services for our community. We can, and should, always be striving to do better.

I like to dream big; without dreams, the vastness of the issues in animal sheltering can seem like bailing the ocean with a thimble. I talk about a place called “Happy Jess Shelterland” all the time. It’s where everything goes exactly the way we want it to — the HVAC system is never on the fritz, we can always find everyone’s lost pets, the perfect home is quickly and easily found for everyone on the adoption floor, and whenever we are asked for help by other animal welfare groups or the pet owners in our community, we magically have the time, money and staff to do so. It’s a lovely place to envision! We may not ever get to Happy Jess Shelterland, but that isn’t the point of envisioning it. Each step of the journey, each thing we do to improve gets us a little closer.

So, what does the next year hold in store for Midcoast Humane? There are so many options! We always have the goal of increasing adoptions and reducing surrenders entering our shelters; those goals are perennial. Adoptions are always a bit of an unknown as species-communicable diseases have been a huge bottle neck in the last couple years for many of our pets, especially cats, in making it to the adoption floor. Many have been stuck for weeks in treatment instead of flying out the door to new homes. Then there’s the economy, the impact of which on animal shelters is a whole article in and of itself. Regardless, increasing adoptions remains a goal in spite of the hurdles.

Reducing surrenders is an ongoing goal. We work on this by offering low-cost wellness clinics, spay and neuter surgeries for low-income households, wellness clinics, a veterinary cost assistance program, and a pet food pantry in both our shelters, as well as supplying pet food to area human food pantries.

We have the driving goal of increasing spay/neuter surgeries in our region and across Maine to reduce the number of pets entering the shelter as well as those living outdoors. This will help with both decreasing shelter surrenders as well as reducing communicable diseases in our community.

We want to pay off the mortgage on our Brunswick facility. It’s not an exciting ask for supporters and sounds a bit mundane, but being free of debt is a major goal for the organization. We got out of the falling-apart old building on Range Road and into a new one that meets the needs of the pets in our care, and it took a mortgage to do it. Now we would like to make that mortgage go away.

We are evaluating possibilities for the future of our Edgecomb campus and talking to the Lincoln County community about options for its replacement. Relocating that campus to a safe, modern facility is a huge and hugely important goal.

How do we do those things? The how is always the kicker, isn’t it? This article is an initial step — telling our community what we are hoping to do and asking for support. We always need funding, which will be the decider in what the options will be for the Lincoln County shelter as well as to what degree we can increase our spay/neuter availability. Our veterinarian is a wonderful, talented individual, but she is just that, an individual. She only has so many hours in a day and we have to get creative in how we can increase our public low-cost, low-income veterinary health options. Another veterinarian would be amazingly helpful, but we have to be able to fund that salary, along with the increase in costs that come with an increase in services.

As for the Edgecomb campus, when I picture my year, I am spending a large part of it talking to community members in Lincoln County and Midcoast Humane supporters everywhere to gain insight, support and, hopefully, funding to begin that project.

Many years from now, I hope to look back and see 2025 as the year of substantial progress at Midcoast Humane. I hope it is the year that, instead of playing catch up, we get ahead and start reaching for the stars. I hope I can say that 2025 was the year that changed it all, the year we DID it all! Is that realistic? I’m not sure yet, but, as always, I am optimistic.

Jess Townsend is executive director at Midcoast Humane.