Four years later, the new Tri-City Animal Shelter is open in Cedar Hill, in a building nearly twice the size of the old one.

“It’s been non-stop. Stephanie [Shuster] got here at 5 a.m. because she couldn’t sleep,” said Prelis, referring to moving day July 24 when shelter staffers and volunteers spent all day transferring animals and other items from the cramped old headquarters next door to the sparkling new facility.

The Tri-City Animal Shelter is a shared operation between three cities: Cedar Hill, Duncanville and DeSoto. At the old shelter, visitors walked in the front door and were immediately confronted by a small lobby and some cages filled with cats.

Now, guests are greeted by an expansive, state-of-the-art lobby with plenty of working space for staffers and gleaming rows of glass enclosures for cats and kittens.

“It’s much more welcoming now,” said volunteer Linda Forsythe, who spent most of the day helping the shelter move. “There’s something about seeing cats and dogs through the glass that make them more adoptable.

And more comfortable, too. Most of the cats are paired up rather than kept in cages with multiple others, and dogs have large kennel spaces to themselves.

The new shelter offers 157 spaces for dogs and cats, compared to 106 at the old shelter, which was frequently overcrowded and many of the enclosures weren’t really designed for adoption, Prellis said.

At the new shelter, all incoming animals will be kept separate from animals that are up for adoption.

“Our No. 1 goal is to reunite lost pets with their owners,” said Prelis, adding that the state requires a minimum period of 72 hours to allow owners to recover their pets.

In many instances, the shelter will try to place animals in other rescue centers if Tri-City is full and no owners are found. The shelter still euthanizes, but the additional kennel space might give animals more time, depending on space.

“I’m happy to see this, because I think the people of the Best Southwest need something better than what was there,” volunteer Samantha Smith said.