GCAO cat room open again after outbreak
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 months AGO
Employees at Grant County Animal Outreach treat a cat for medical problems. The cat room, which was closed due to a ringworm outbreak, is back open and the kitties available for adoption are healthy again.
FILE PHOTO
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | May 5, 2026 2:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — The cat room is reopened at Grant County Animal Outreach, and the shelter could use a little help.
“We had a cat come in with ringworm, and unfortunately, a few of our other cats developed ringworm, so we were closed for the safety of our cats and other people,” said Cat Room Lead Lupe Chavarría.
The cat facility had to close March 20, Chavarría said, so that all the cats in their care could be treated.
“We had to quarantine our cats, blacklight every single cat in our care and then begin treatment on them,” Chavarría said.
Blacklighting is a method of detecting ringworm in animals by putting the animal under an ultraviolet light, Chavarría explained. The affected areas show up in a bright neon green color.
Despite the name, ringworm isn’t actually a parasite, according to the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. Rather, it’s a fungus that sometimes – but not always – appears on the animal’s skin in a circular pattern. It can cause fur to fall out and the bare patches of skin to become infected. In addition, ringworm is zoonotic, which means it can spread not only to other cats but to humans as well.
With healthy cats, the treatment takes about six weeks, according to Cornell. But the cats that come into an animal shelter are seldom completely healthy.
“We do sometimes get those kitties (whose) immune systems are not the best,” Chavarría said.
The cats have received treatment and most of them are good and healthy, Chavarría said, and ready to be adopted. There are 10 of those, she said, all spayed or neutered, vaccinated and microchipped.
But GCAO isn’t out of the woods yet, Chavarría said.
“We’re out of the dark part of the woods,” she said. “We’ve still got a little way to go until we’re fully clear … So we are currently not taking in any cats because we don’t want to compromise our cats and the cats (that might) come in.”
The few that were still infected were in quarantine Friday. The treatment requires a bottle of medication every two weeks, and the medication costs more than $80 per bottle, which means the shelter needs to ask for some help from the public. The shelter also maintains an Amazon wish list for the other supplies it needs. Anyone who would like to help can visit www.grantcountyanimaloutreach.org/donate. Assistance can also be given directly via PayPal at https://bit.ly/GCAO-PayPal or via Venmo at account.venmo.com/u/GCAO1. Or they can always adopt a feline companion.
“Every single one of our kitties is looking for a home,” Chavarría said.
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.