One Tail at a Time – West Texas (OTAT-WTX) is a foster-based, all-breed, no kill pet rescue that supports the Alpine, Marfa, McCamey, Pecos, Presidio, Terrell County, and Van Horn Shelters, as well as pets in shelterless communities across 8 counties in West Texas.
HOW WE HELP
In 2024, we helped 750+ homeless or unwanted pets in shelters and shelterless communities. By joining the OTAT Collective, we significantly increased our impact. We help in the following ways:
Providing veterinary testing and medical care. Most animal shelters in West Texas have no budget for medical care, not even for lifesaving vaccinations, legally mandated protection from rabies, spay/neuter surgery, diagnostic testing, or to assess and treat a range of other maladies.
Supporting a foster program. Moving pets off the streets or out of shelters begins the process of behavioral and medical rehabilitation that makes rescue possible.
Adopting pets into loving, supported homes. We promote and facilitate a responsible process for direct adoption, both locally and throughout the country. We provide lifetime support for our pets and their guardians.
Coordinating a national transport program. Until we have more manageable numbers of homeless or unwanted pets, we will continue to transport dogs out of Texas to states that aren’t facing crisis levels of dog homelessness. We work with more than two dozen rescue partners, transporters and advocates across the country, with particular support from the OTAT Collective.
Offering community support to reduce the need for rescue. We are dedicated to keeping loved pets in homes (by alleviating logistical, environmental, financial and behavioral support barriers) and supporting spay/neuter services across the region.
Building capacity to improve animal welfare.. Through data collection, training, and collaborative projects, we work to increase (or create!) municipal support for animal welfare programs in our region.
The 2025 Impact.
In 2025, the network of animal care in West Texas grew stronger and more connected as we helped 7 Shelters become or remain no-kill facilities, some of them transforming from 90%+ euthanasia to 90%+ live outcomes.
We provided local training resources for our community alongside monthly spay-neuter support and two clinics.
Additionally, we increased our capacity to facilitate direct adoptions, support fosters and diversify donor revenue by opening Pet Marfa, our Adoption Center & Pet Supply located in Marfa, TX.
Prior Annual Reports
2024, when we became OTAT-West Texas, was a year of dramatic growth. We doubled the number of pets brought into our foster program, nearly quadrupled our direct adoptions, and tripled the total number of pets helped. We engaged three new shelters (McCamey, Monahans and Van Horn), hired 9 team members, started a community spay-neuter program, and expanded our receiving rescue partner network.
Between 2019 and 2023, OTAT-West Texas operated under the name The Underground Dog.