Grant opens door for increased pet adoptions
Len Hayward l April 12, 2026
Scrolling through photos on her desktop computer in her office, Caitlan Frazier pulls up a photo of Coriander, a mixed breed black-and-white dog.
It’s one of the first photos shot of the dog after Aransas County Animal Care Services took him in, and it is a little fuzzy and does little to show Coriander’s personality.
“Sending that to rescue, would you really think he was going to be adoptable from those two photos?” asked Frazier, who is the director of Aransas County Animal Care Services.
A few weeks after those initial photos were taken, local professional photographer Melissa Esquivel came to the animal care services building and took photos of Coriander in a studio setting and later at an adoption event. Frazier makes a few more clicks on her computer and professional photos appear of an energetic, happy dog enjoying play at an adoption event that they hope will help him find his forever home.
“He’s the giant goofball,” Frazier said with a smile. “He’s very curious, and he loves butt scratches. He went to a public event, and he’s not scared. He played with other dogs.
“Those photos see him in a different light. You can kind of see his demeanor of, ‘Oh, he looks fun.’ The photos have made the difference, and everybody didn’t know they could come here and adopt, which was shocking to me.”
The photographs, along with a targeted Facebook campaign using the pictures, have made a major difference in the adoption rate of animals at the Animal Care Services shelter in Rockport.
Through a $12,300 grant provided by Community Shop, a Rockport resale shop that uses proceeds from sales of donated clothes and furniture to give grants to local nonprofit entities in Aransas County, Frazier and her team are able not only to pay Esquivel, but also buy promotional items, canopies for events and other education and outreach materials that help educate the public about what they do.
During a recent presentation to the Aransas County Commissioners Court, Frazier said they placed 31 animals in February thanks to the campaign. There was a combination of adoptions, and some animals also went to places such as the Gulf Coast Humane Society.
Aransas County has a 180-day window from the time an animal enters the shelter to be placed. To show the success rate, after one March photo session, 32 dogs were photographed and only six remain in the shelter.
“It gets me excited and motivated,” said Esquivel, who owns the Portrait Barne photography business and has nine pets herself. “It lets me know I’m going in the right direction and doing the right thing. Pet photography is not a new thing in the shelter world, but it’s not utilized in this area. I always want people to understand there is a need for them at the shelters and a skill set that will save animals.”
Applying for the grant
Frazier said she sent the grant application in mid-January, and by Feb. 9 they were notified they received the grant.
Tess Sauthier, board president of Community Shop, said the group had to do some due diligence to make sure what Animal Care Services was requesting in the grant was not included in its regular budget from the county.
Sauthier said the organization has never turned down an organization for lack of money, adding that when organizations are denied grants it is usually because they are missing a key piece of paperwork or financial information on the application.
Community Shop has been around for nearly 40 years, and Sauthier said the organization had given out between $5 million and $6 million through 2024 to local nonprofits.
The grant is specific in what it can be used for and they must keep recepts, and Sauthier said they will have a mid-year review soon to let them know on progress. Frazier said the grant covers costs for children’s education, adoption accessories and equipment, off-site adoption events, promotions, unscheduled events and photography and marketing.
“We’ve been wanting to have a grant specifically for this, and with programs like adoption we paid a lot of that out of our own pocket,” Frazier said.
Making a difference
Along with the adoption rate, Frazier said they have seen a significant upward trend in views on the Animal Care Services Facebook page, citing an example in which notifying the public about a vaccine clinic yielded far more registrations than in previous years.
Frazier added the grant has opened the door to education programs across the county to help students learn about adoption, animal safety and rabies awareness.
The grant also provides the ability to put together those programs, along with adoption outreach efforts.
Frazier said she hopes to expand programs in the summer and work on outreach for a potential spay-and-neuter event while letting the public know resources are available for their pets.
Frazier knew the Facebook campaign would have an effect on the number of adoptions, but she did not expect to see the numbers recorded through the early months of 2026. The grant has opened the door not only to hiring a professional photographer, but also to expanding outreach efforts and giving adoptable animals a better chance of finding homes.
“They have been waiting for the opportunity to be able to go out with this plan that has been put together to try to get their animals out of the shelter,” Esquivel said.
Esquivel said she charges the county around $500 a month, which is well below her standard rate for a studio shoot, and comes to Animal Care Services whenever needed, sometimes several times a month. Esquivel said this is a “passion project” for her, as her love of animals is shared by everyone at Animal Care Services.
“I did not anticipate how fast it’s going,” Frazier said. “This was our slow time of year. This is when we get everything and we are trying to scramble. You’ve got kitten season, you’ve got puppy season and you’ve got abandoned animals left and right. I was prepared that we were going to be so full, but since we were able to get this done and get ahead of it, I have space, so we are not scrambling.”
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