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Fort Smith's animal shelter is putting out the call for volunteers.

Robyn Brown, who was recently elected president of the shelter's society, put a notice out on July 7 asking the community for help.

"August is always a pretty tough month to get through," she told SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½. "We've already been struggling with volunteers and really relying on a core group of volunteers who have carried us through this year, and now they're all going on well-deserved vacations but we need to fill that void so they can take a break and we can keep providing care for the dogs.

"We have dogs 365 days in the year. It's a lot for a small group of volunteers to keep up with."

Brown said volunteers are stretched so thin right now she's had to handle up to three shifts a day for the past three weeks.

She said the shelter has a flexible volunteer schedule with an online sign-up sheet volunteers can choose what shifts they want.

Volunteers are needed for three shifts throughout the day SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½” feeding the shelter's guests during the morning, taking them out for a bathroom break and quick walk at noon and making dinner in the evenings.

At normal capacity, Brown said the shifts usually take an hour.

Currently, the shelter has four dogs, but Brown said the shelter was at its busiest during the 2023 wildfire evacuations. At that point, the shelter was housing 11 dogs and three cats, which Brown attributes as having burned out a lot of the volunteers at the time.

"We were pretty much at capacity," she said. "That was a lot of strain on our volunteers. When you're talking about 11 dogs, when one volunteer comes in to do their shift and let each dog out for a bathroom break, and each dog needs 10 minutes - you're running around trying to be efficient, feeding as you go.

"There was a lot of burnout from the chaos we had after the wildfire evacuations. I know a lot of our volunteers needed a good long break after that."

But things are back to a normal pace now, with the shelter hosting only a few animals as they work to find the critters loving homes. Last year, the shelter was able to find homes for 27 dogs and has found six homes for pets so far this year.

Brown said all the animals abandoned during the evacuations have found loving homes.

Other services the animal shelter provides for Fort Smith's furry residents includes bringing in a veterinarian every few months to provide medical services as well as spaying and neutering.

Brown said anyone who was interested in helping the shelter out should phone the shelter at (867) 872-5543 and leave a voice message. Interested volunteers can also reach out by way of the Fort Smith Animal Shelter's Facebook page and/or website.

Anyone interested in giving a loving home to one of her guests can visit to see who is up for adoption.