With the opening of a new facility on Center Creek Road, PAWS of Nome is expanding its offerings for petcare in western Alaska. The nonprofit helps rescue, treat, and rehome dogs from the Bering Strait region at its headquarters known simply as the "Good Place".
PAWS of Nome has worked with the City of Nome for nearly a decade to provide healthcare for impounded animals. The relationship transformed in 2019 when the city’s animal control officer resigned, leaving the impounded animals without someone to care for them.
So PAWS of Nome President, Emily Stotts, stepped up.
“I think I had like a camper or something in the back and like pens out back, and then inside my house I had multiple extra large dog kennels,” Stotts said. “All of them got along with my dogs and my cat for like, a whole year.”
But PAWS – and Stott’s camper – weren’t set up to house the animals for the long-term.
“When there's nowhere else to turn, you're gonna reach to what's an animal-related thing in town, even though PAWS of Nome has no realm in animal control, we were the only support for the impounded animals,” Stotts explained.
Stotts sought to evolve the organization to meet the sudden need, but ran into challenges earning funding for PAWS due to its status as a nonprofit corporation. She created an LLC called Rural Alaska Animal Resources, affectionately abbreviated to sound like a lion’s roar when said aloud.
“I can do that, RAAR can do that. PAWS can't depend on who we've been depending on to grow to this level of service,” Stotts said.
Six years later, she’s added even more to her plate. Through RAAR, Stotts provides boarding and grooming services on top of free vaccinations for the region.
Stotts said her biggest challenge is rehoming rescues. Just last month she received 23 rehome requests, meanwhile PAWS received just one adoption request. She said the requests come from the entire Bering Strait region, with many of the dogs flying in from surrounding villages.
“It is our biggest resource sucker, and it's our biggest challenge, because Nome is just the hub out here,” Stotts said.
Doing the work is expensive, but Stotts said supporting her community makes it worth it.
“That's the fun part about PAWS, an animal doesn't call me and ask me to rescue it. It's people that I'm helping,” Stotts said. “Those are all people that live here, are from here, they're descendants of the shareholders and the tribes.”
Stotts is partnering with neighboring property owner Arctic Gold Mining to develop an outdoor dog park, with dreams for a massive indoor dog park in the future. She said the parks have been on her wishlist since she started serving as a volunteer a decade ago.
To contact Emily Stotts about adopting a pet, email her at pawsofnome@gmail.com or visit their website.
