EPHRATA — It was Muffy who prompted the founding of the Animal Rescue Friends Society of Grant County.

The group, ARFS for short, celebrates the first anniversary this month. It’s one of a number of animal rescue groups in north central Washington that work together to help stray animals find new homes.

Co-founder Bonnie Helvey said Muffy was spotted wandering around near Quincy and came to Helvey’s attention in July 2019.

Muffy had been out on her own for a while, and she looked like it.

“She was a ragamuffin,” Helvey said, hence her name.

Helvey and a friend, Annette Hernandez, after some effort managed to catch Muffy, but that was just the first step. Muffy needed some help after being on her own. Helvey and Hernandez contacted Tom and Jan Short, founders of OkanDogs in Cashmere.

OkanDogs is one of the groups that keep in contact with each other, looking for ways to capture stray dogs and cats, get them healthy and help them find new homes. Helvey said she and her friends had been doing some of that on a case-by-case basis. Muffy prompted Helvey, Hernandez and their friend Tracy Williams to start thinking about doing animal rescue on a more formal basis.

“First we came up with ARFS,” Helvey said, then they came up with a name to fit the acronym.

Tom and Jan Short provided ARFS with a blueprint for setting up and have provided a lot of help along the way, Helvey said. Helvey’s husband, Dave, helped ARFS set up a website, with the founding documents and 501(c)(3) applications and links to pet adoption websites. Oh yeah, and he has helped rescue a few animals.

“We didn’t expect to get into kitties,” Helvey said. But there were cats out there too.

The animals sometimes come in sick or injured, sometimes dirty, sometimes scared or aggressive. The ARFS group and others like it rely on a network of local veterinarians and volunteers to help give the dogs and cats the care they need and a place to live while they’re being prepared for adoption.

The veterinarians at Pioneer Veterinary Clinic and Broadway Animal Hospital in Moses Lake, Quincy Veterinary Clinic and Ephrata Veterinary Clinic, along with others in the area, help treat sick and injured animals. Animal rescue groups like ARFS pay for the care, funded by adoption fees and donations.

The network of animal foster homes extends far and wide, including the Puget Sound. A cousin of ARFS board member Julianne Klein saw what Klein was doing and wanted to get involved. That connection has helped a lot with finding homes for cats, Helvey said.

Cats are very popular as pets in the Puget Sound region, and Helvey said she has been transporting cats on a regular basis.

“Last month, my record was 28 cats and kittens” in one trip, she said.

The volunteer caretakers not only feed and house ARFS animals, they sit with animals who are frightened (sometimes in the middle of the night) and try to work with dogs and cats to minimize aggressive behavior.

Not all stories have happy endings. Some cats and dogs don’t work out with a family and have to be returned.

But that can, Helvey said, open up another opportunity. That was how Goldie ended up with her new family. The family’s first choice, before Goldie, just didn’t work. But Goldie was perfect for the family, Helvey said.

Part of ARFS’ mission is to encourage owners to spay or neuter their pets as a way to reduce dog and cat populations. Milly belongs to a man who really needs her, but who couldn’t pay to have her spayed. She was treated through the “Mom’s last litter” program, through which ARFS helps pay for the surgery and returns the momma dog or cat to the owner. The babies are then adopted. Milly’s puppies drew plenty of interest.

“We had 130 applications for those six puppies,” Helvey said.

People can volunteer for ARFS or get more information at the group’s social media page, Animal Rescue Friends Society of Grant County.