How a journey home to Alabama saved dogs and cats

You Can’t Go Home Again, Thomas Wolfe’s celebrated 1940 novel, is an American classic. Yet even Wolfe himself would be hard-pressed to apply the book’s title to Lisa Barrett, who not only returned to her hometown of Dothan, Alabama, but is helping to make it better — especially for dogs and cats.

Born and raised in Dothan, Lisa then spent many years in Georgia county government, including six years as shelter and animal control director for Carroll County (Georgia) before joining Best Friends Animal Society in 2018. She’s part of a team of Best Friends employees around the country who work together with animal shelter staff to help them save more lives. Best Friends’ goal is for all shelters to reach no-kill, and that means supporting them with programs and partnerships that help pets and their people.

Lisa travels to work with animal shelters throughout Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and when she took the job in 2018, one of the first things she did was begin to develop a relationship with people at the Dothan Animal Shelter.

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Early on, she could see there were ways the shelter could be saving more dogs and cats. Best Friends could help, but despite a number of attempts, she was unable to get a meeting. Unwilling to give up, Lisa decided to take another approach: pay visits to the shelter over time. Going forward, building trust would be the most important thing.

“The possibility of helping my hometown meant a lot to me,” says Lisa. “I went to grade school and high school there. And I know that there are enough people in Dothan who are able to adopt, foster, volunteer, and donate money.”

From 2018 onward, she paid many visits to the shelter so that she could develop a relationship with the staff. Sometimes, she’d walk a dog or play with the cats. Often, she’d leave behind a Best Friends magazine or some other animal welfare resource for the shelter team to peruse. And, of course, she got doughnuts for the staff. It’s the Southern way. To make the best impression, you have to bring a box of Krispy Kremes.

“I just kept doing this over and over again,” says Lisa. Finally, the big breakthrough came in 2024 when Renee Skipper became Dothan’s lead animal services officer after 28 years holding other shelter positions. Lisa called Renee, who was delighted to speak with someone who’d dealt with the same challenges she faced: a small staff, a limited budget, increasing the number of adoptions, and getting the shelter to a save rate of 90% (the threshold for no-kill).

But the biggest challenge was spay/neuter for cats in the shelter and community cats (aka cats who live outdoors). “We didn’t have the money, so we had to think outside the box,” Renee says. “We went out and recruited a group of people to have a big yard sale at the local flea market. We did very well and used the money to start our spay/neuter program.”

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The program was off the ground, but it still needed a boost. So Best Friends provided a $10,000 grant for cat spay/neuter surgeries and to create a trap-neuter-vaccinate-return (TNVR) program for community cats. TNVR, the most effective way of controlling community cat populations, includes humanely trapping cats, getting them spayed or neutered and vaccinated, and then returning them to their outdoor homes.

The cat spay/neuter effort has brought Dothan’s overall save rate above the no-kill threshold — from 79% in October to 98% in February.

Regular communication between Lisa and Renee has enabled them to collaborate on getting the Dothan shelter more involved with the community. They're holding off-site adoption events at various community locations, communicating through an updated website that includes photos and information on all the adoptable animals, and operating a community pet pantry that provides food and other items to make it easier for families to care for and retain their pets.

“With Lisa’s help, I think we are getting to the next level,” Renee says. “To increase our overall knowledge, our staff has been taking Best Friends classes on the subjects of community cat care, website and social media engagement, adoption events, and how to speak with the public.”

Renee also credits local Dothan animal welfare groups with helping the shelter put animals in the best position to be adopted. “We have a great team here in Dothan, but there’s one group — Save a Pet Rescue, Adoption and Transport — that helps us a great deal in getting our animals into homes. It’s so important to have good relationships with other organizations because they push you to be better and help you succeed.”

Lisa says she’s so proud of what the Dothan Animal Shelter has accomplished. “All the hard work and dedication shown by the Dothan staff to make changes and improvements is astonishing, inspiring, and means so much to the community,” she says. “They are showing that the animals of Dothan are important and will be taken care of in a professional and loving manner. I pray it will invigorate our community even more to keep pets out of the shelter and in loving homes.”

On the agenda for the coming months is continued progress in all areas and maintaining no-kill. And Lisa and Renee will stay in touch. The city is building a new animal shelter that is expected to open by fall. “We’ll be around and ready to help in any way we can,” says Lisa.

There will be more visits from Lisa to her hometown shelter. And when she does, she’ll still insist on making the best possible impression. That can only mean one thing: Krispy Kremes for all.

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill in 2025. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.