The dogs bark in excitement as someone enters their temporary home. They have not seen a new face in a while, and they are excited to play with a new friend. As their cage doors open up to the sunny backyard, they greet each student with love.
The Lindale Impoundment Facility currently has dogs available for rehoming and is in need of donations and volunteers. The kennel is a temporary environment for stray dogs found in Lindale and aids in rehoming lost or abandoned dogs.
“The biggest difficulty is the amount of strays that are starting to come through the city of Lindale,” Kristi Freislinger, code enforcement and animal control officer, said. “As the city and county grows, we are having more stray dogs come through. A lot of these dogs don’t have proper identification to get these dogs back home.”
Officer Freislinger has been overseeing the dog kennel since 2013. Since then, she has worked to rescue and care for over 400 lost or abandoned dogs each year.
“Right now I have 13 dogs, everywhere from a year old to four years old,” Freislinger said. “They are all open for adoption, with no adoption fee. Most of the time the dogs come in and their personality is just fantastic and our job is to get them into a permanent home and get them off the streets.”
The dogs are cared for by Officer Freislinger, employees, and community volunteers. Currently, the facility is overcapacity. The biggest issue for these dogs is a lack of identification and trying to find a permanent home.
“All of our dogs come spayed or neutered, vaccinated,” Freislinger said. “We will treat certain illnesses to an extent. We also do everything we can to make sure that the dog that you’re interested in meets the needs of your family dynamic.”
The dogs are currently up to date on all vaccinations and have been fixed. The kennel is in good condition, and all care and animal treatment is funded by the city of Lindale.
“My first duty is when I get here at 8:00 a.m., [is] to come in, feed and clean the kennels, let the dogs out, let them run, give them play time, and provide them fresh food and water,” Freislinger said. “ It’s been something I’ve grown passionate about over the years.”
Donations and volunteers are needed to help the dogs, as well as to increase the quality of their care. Volunteer jobs include playing with the dogs, walking them, and providing additional enrichment activities.
“We would love to have someone just come walk the dogs. Just provide some enrichment that I can’t always provide throughout the day,” Freislinger said. “We would also accept and appreciate certain donations as far as blankets, towels, dog food, and treats. We enjoy that kind of appreciation from the community.”
The facility is a no-kill shelter. Dogs that cannot be rehomed locally are sent to other partnering shelters when there is availabity.
“My favorite part of my job is the dogs. Just playing with them, getting to know their personalities, watching them blossom,” Freislinger said. “We have a lot of dogs in there that it took a while to pick them up, and they’d been on the streets for a long time. When we finally got them into the facility, it was really heartwarming to watch their personalities finally start opening up, getting to know them, and letting them see that they’re okay.”
Recently, Lindale senior Dylan Coultas, a member of the internship class, was able to spend time at the facility. He spent a day there learning how to operate the kennel and take care of the dogs.
“I went and saw them on my internship and they are all super friendly and they all need a good home,” Coultas said. “Ever since COVID, dog acceptance rates have gone down. It’s really sad to see how everyone wants to buy a dog, not adopt. The dogs just sit there in their kennels all day and seeing that made me want to help them.”
To help raise awareness, students in the Eagle Eye Newspaper as well as the CTE senior internship classes are collaborating to gather volunteers and donations. The ultimate goal is to get all the dogs adopted and into a permanent home.
“Watching them go from scared, to excited to see you, wanting to be petted, wanting to be loved, that is very enriching to me personally,” Frislinger said. “We want to make sure that there’s a good fit there so this way the dog will be in your family for years to come.”
For more information, please contact the City Of Lindale at 903.882.6861.
For donations, send an email to Neda Morrow at [email protected] with the words ‘dog donations’ in the subject line. She will contact you with a drop off location for donations, and students from the internship class or the Eagle Eye newspaper will deliver donations to the shelter throughout the year.
