The problems sort of crept up on us, the way they do for any homeowner.

After a certain number of years, you know that there’s a little rust along some of the edges, a few cracks in the floor, that odd dimple in the ceiling. Maybe you call the plumber a bit more frequently than you used to.

But you just get used to it and keep cleaning around it or calling for help and thinking, “Well, we’ll get on it one of these days.”

But then the day came when we realized that the ceiling was a heck of a lot lower in one section than in the others. The rust had crept up the framing quite a few inches from the ground, and the cracks in the floor were making some of us realize that we’d never seen a real sinkhole before and this just might turn into our first opportunity.

And you just don’t mess with drainage problems – not when you’re cleaning the kind of stuff we’re cleaning off the floors at the Lawrence Humane Society.

The shifting earth beneath the shelter building, which is on that nice soft floodplain soil that much our city is built on, had finally shifted so much it was taking our back floor, and in turn the rest of that part of the building, with it. Moisture from daily washings in the kennels was feeding the corrosion of the metal, and to be honest, we were just running out of room. As the numbers of animals we serve each year increases, so does our need for spaces to put them.

And so the planning and the fundraising started.

Executive director Midge Grinstead gave a lot of thought to kennel size and run length, considered the most efficient plumbing and most convenient storage for the redesigned areas, and in the end helped in the planning of all of our new 1,465 square feet.

New to the puppy area are facilities in stainless steel, so no more rusting to worry about. Those dancing little paws now have 14 new 10 foot-by-4 foot runs that help enormously with potty training and provide room in general to burn off all that excess puppy energy. No more of those 3-by-4 boxes for our happy little yappers.

For the older dogs, we’ve expanded from 13 dog runs to 20. This also means we have extra space for housing the animals brought to us from the state or who come to us from disaster situations.

And it isn’t all about canines. Much to the relief of our feline friends, we’re now able to separate kittens from their noisier canine cousins, who partake in regular barking competitions. The new cat area has two visitor rooms; in two weeks we’ll start phase two of renovation by building a section of screened-in porch to let the sun shine in on them. This will be a welcome and much-needed healthy change for our many cats who don’t get out of their cages much.

Throughout our facility, we’re now able to enjoy better drainage systems that work to reduce the inevitable odors, and the new air recirculation system in the adopt building will help to keep down the incidence of disease, which is a common problem at shelters everywhere.

The construction part of the new unit didn’t come without its share of problems, of course, and each day seemed to bring new challenges to the shelter staff. For one stretch of time, a good number of the cat and kitten cages had to move to the conference room, subjecting the inhabitants to our regular board-meeting chatter but probably also entertaining them as they watched the spectacle of the newsletters being collated and the auction booklets being prepared.

Nor did the regular daily excitement take a hiatus: One day the toilet backed up, and of course the staff always has to get creative when a washing machine or dryer decides it had cycled through its last load of dirty towels.

The issue of funding, too, is a concern that never leaves. Despite the generosity of our supporters, we’re still looking for help with the final $200,000 or so.

But in the end, the wait, the worry and the inconvenience have been worth it. The new construction has now been pronounced finished. The last bits of construction dust have been wiped away, the animals are happier and healthier, they have more room, and all that remains is to name a few kennels and cages.

We invite you to celebrate all of this with us!

From 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, we are having a blow-out open house at the shelter to christen the new building, and we’d like all our friends to come out so we can show off our new digs.

We’ll have tours of the new areas, and of course all the cats and dogs who currently reside with us will be there to show off their best features and most charming poses. We have a new education/media room, which will be filled with books and pamphlets to answer all your questions about your pets. A donated computer will allow us to offer a “Breed All About It” software program that provides instant information about any breed of animal that interests you.

Come share refreshments with us, visit with the staff and board members, and check out our information boards that will keep you up to date on the many services we provide and programs in which we take part. We can’t wait to show you around, and it will be the perfect time for you to load up all those aluminum cans and extra towels and bring them on down for us.

As always, we’re at 1805 E. 19th St., right by the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds in the building with the big black paw prints. We look forward to seeing you.