Come down to Dearborn on Saturday, May 19, and take a leisurely stroll with your best friend – the one who drools on your couch. The second annual Mutt Strut is just one way the Friends For the Dearborn Animal Shelter supports its furry constituents.

The Dearborn site has come a long way since the volunteer Friends group formed in 1993. Back then, there were just two litter boxes for 40 cats, and nothing to prevent animals from breeding or spreading diseases, says group co-founder Stevie Cote. There was also no screening process for adopting animals. “If you came in with $5, you could walk out with an animal,” Cote says.

Thanks to Cote and Friends co-founder veterinarian Cheryl Good, (now medical director of the shelter), in 1996 the city of Dearborn awarded the Friends control over shelter operations. The shelter is now in its seventh year of saving 100% of adoptable animals (animals who are too injured, ill or ill-tempered cannot be adopted and have to be put down), according to Executive Director Elaine Greene. Not only is every shelter animal spayed or neutered, fitted with an identification microchip, and vaccinated, but every potential pet owner is screened before being taking a new friend home.

Cote remembers one dog, Fancy, who was brought in with barbed wire stuck in her neck, nearly decapitating her. Thanks in part to the Friends, Fancy now has a wonderful home in Ypsilanti.

The next big step is building a bigger facility. Dearborn has already donated the land, next to the Henry Ford Centennial Library complex, and an architectural plan has been completed. The new shelter will be approximately four to five times the current structure’s 4,000 square feet, allowing for more comfortable living conditions and for more animals to be rescued. A doggie day care is also part of the plan. But another $2 million must be raised before work can begin.

It’s a long way to go, but the Friends say it’s all worth the effort. “We don’t care about ourselves,” says Good. “Everybody is so focused on trying to make life easier for these animals, and hopefully we can find that special person to take them home.”