NORWAY — Responsible Pet Care of Oxford Hills has a chance to move into a new building twice the size of its current one, but it’ll cost them.

The animal shelter needs to raise $350,000 by Dec. 1 to pay for the building and necessary repairs to move in.

The shelter Waterford Road has been over capacity since it started taking dogs last year. In addition to the dogs, there are about 100 cats at the shelter, according to Shirley Boyce, president of Responsible Pet Care. The shelter has cat crates stacked in every room, including the lobby and the medical treatment room.

Boyce said the shelter expected to find a new facility years from now, but an opportunity opened when the former Montessori school in Paris became available. “We just thought it was time and we should try,” she said.

The building is at 9 Lower Swallow Road and currently lists for $345,000.

They had been looking for a place to build a new facility, which she said would cost the shelter more than $1 million for the kind needed to house more than 100 animals. “We certainly can’t fund raise that quickly,” she said.

The old building is getting expensive to maintain. Heating the building costs more than $6,000 per year, and it needs a new oil tank before they can even start heating it this winter.

“The kitchen floor is rotted, and we need a partial new roof,” Boyce said. She said it seems like a waste to keep putting money into a building in such bad condition.

The $350,000 will pay for the building as well as some necessary modifications. “The insulation is up to snuff. It has a brand new heating system,” she said. “I never really thought that we would find something already built that wouldn’t need a lot of retrofitting.”

The 5,600-square-foot building would give them plenty of outside space to walk the dogs, and for an outdoor, covered kennel space for the summer. It will also give the animals some roaming space inside, so they don’t spend all their time at the shelter caged.

She said the current situation is unsafe for the dogs they get. There were six dogs at the shelter Monday, Boyce said, and over the summer the shelter held as many as 10. Many aren’t spayed or neutered, she said, and the combination of females in heat and intact males “is a recipe for disaster,” she said. “It’s not safe for employees.”

Responsible Pet Care began taking in dogs last year after the Allen Hill Animal Shelter in Oxford closed.

Responsible Pet Car seldom had more than a few dogs at a time the first year, Boyce said, but this summer the number of strays increased. At the same time, it was harder to find local shelters that could take their dogs.

The thrift store next to their location that raises funds for the shelter would stay in its current location, Boyce said, because the new shelter location would be too far out of the way for most people.

Boyce said the shelter will apply for grants, run fundraisers and try everything available to raise the money in the 11 weeks remaining before Dec. 1.

“We just don’t know. We’re hopeful, and we’re really positive that this will happen,” Boyce said.

The shelter is planning a mail campaign requesting donations. Anyone interested in helping may send donations to Responsible Pet Care, PO Box 82, Norway, ME, 04268.

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