CENTRAL SPRINGS, Colo. (KOAA) — When a hard freeze warning hits Colorado Springs, the stakes get especially high for unhoused residents — and for the pets they say keep them alive.
Every other Wednesday, a bright blue van parks alongside a row of tents outside the People's Church in downtown Colorado Springs. It's a free mobile vet clinic and resource pickup run by The Pet Cross, built specifically for low-income and unhoused pet owners who have few other places to turn.
I went inside the clinic to meet the people who rely on it — and the volunteers who keep it running.
Learn More about the Clinic in the Video Below
For those who show up, their animals are family.
"Everything in the world. She's my best friend," Craig Doty said.
Doty has a seven-year-old dog named Rose. He brought her in to the clinic because he was worried she had ring worm/
"If anything happened to her, I don't know what happened to me. I'd lose it," Corey Haight said.
Haight got his dog, Aurora, spayed. Her recovery has been quick, and he said it is a blessing.
Lisa Thompson, The Pet Cross founder, said those bonds are exactly what the organization was built to support.
"They have this pet and that's their family and they want to take care of them and, you know, there's just, like I said, not a lot of options. So, I do what I can for them," Thompson said.
The Pet Cross partners with Pay It Fur-Ward for the clinic, and they provide dog beds, blankets, food, and vaccines — all free of charge. Kimberly Bolding, The Pet Cross director of operations, said her team goes out of their way to gather supplies for both animals and their owners.
"We have people on our team that go out and spend time trying to rile up and get what we can get to get warm clothing for the dogs, cats, and the owners. We've even found that our pet beds have become so valuable because the unhoused could sleep on a pet bed," Bolding said.
The depth of that need, she said, can't be overstated.
"People come and are begging for food for them or they'll feed their animals their food before they would have their pet go without. The same thing with keeping them warm, getting the meds that they can, and they don't have money, so it's pretty tough, but these people look at their animals as the thing that's kept them alive," Bolding said.
Bolding has experience herself. Her son was an animal lover himself before he passed away.
"I had a son that was unhoused on the streets and he was killed 12 days living on the streets. He was an animal lover like big time. I can look at all the people here now and see my son's face, my son's life in there," Bolding said, "They're not just clients, they're people with stories, real struggles, a real life, and I think they deserve to be supported just as much as anyone else. You learn to love these people."
For Doty, traditional vet costs are simply out of reach.
"I'm scared to death of what the vet's ever going to charge. So yes, it's a resource that I can actually use," Doty said.
He said he originally didn't know if what his dog had was contagious. But he said he would rather put his safety at risk than let her be alone and scared.
It's a similar feeling for Haight. He lived on the trails for more than 4 years. He knows what it means to be outside when temperatures drop.
"At night we're looking at close to 30 or below at night when it gets to winter, and that's freezing temperature and if you don't have the right equipment you will freeze to death and die," Haight said.
He credits his pet and the organization, Pay It Fur-Ward, with helping him survive.
"If I didn't have them, I didn't know what I was going to do the next day, to be honest," Haight said.
Now Haight volunteers with Pay It Fur-Ward, heading back out along the trails to hand out supplies to those still living outside.
"We have kennels, we have crates, we have dog food, we have cat food, we have toys, we have a few coats for animals but not much at the moment but during this time of year we kind of hand out most of our inventory because there's dogs and cats out here that need to be warm," Haight said.
Both organizations are always looking for volunteers, donations, and more people to serve.
