Who We Are
Grand Companions was established in 1989.
Our Mission is to help people save, honor, and connect with pets.
Our Commitment is to provide personalized client care for pet adoption and support for the bond between people and their pets.
Our Success has been having a consistent, gradual increase in pet rescue and adoptions with a success rate of 95% or more every year for more than 25 years.
Our Purpose is to provide a feasible solution for the health, economic, and moral problems communities face in dealing with homeless pets.
Our Contribution is a repeatable homeless pet sheltering system Grand Companions has developed. This Sweet Suite Shelter© system uses the business model of a centrally located distribution center supplying multiple satellite adoption outlets that will support putting an end to the needless euthanasia of pets.
Our History
Grand Companions was established in 1989 in response to the growing need for an acceptable means of dealing with stray animals. Since then we’ve grown from three volunteers serving a few people and pets in our county, to an organization with 18 staff members serving the Texas Trans-Pecos region, expanding our mission to help people save, honor, and connect with pets.
Our purpose is to provide a feasible solution for the health, economic, and moral problems communities face in dealing with stray pets. That solution is a scalable system (a reproducible business model with costs of operations decreasing as reproductions increase) for the successful adoption of shelter pets. This Sweet Suite Shelter© system uses the business model of a centrally located distribution center, our Home Base, supplying a chain of retail outlets, our Adoption Satellites. The adoption satellites will provide an adoption resource for local government agencies, private shelters, and rescue groups, alleviating the burden of responsibility they carry for adoption and allowing them to focus on their missions of animal control and pet rescue.
Laura Langham, now Grand Companions' Executive Director, found Charlie in 1989. He was our first rescued and rehomed stray. It could be said that Charlie, that sweet Spaniel mix, was responsible for building a future for shelter pets that, at the time, could not have been imagined. From 1989 to 1991, Laura began rescuing stray pets in the Fort Davis area while working for Dr. Ginger Elliott, owner of Fort Davis Veterinary Services.
In 1991, Drs. Janet Greathouse and Dave Taylor purchased Fort Davis Veterinary Services. At that time, Laura had become a registered veterinary technician. later becoming the practice manager for FDVS. The doctors generously allowed a small number of strays to be housed at the vet clinic, and our small rescue group began to grow. Our Humane Society was formally established in 1993 in response to the community's growing need for an acceptable means of dealing with stray animals. Although most city, town, and county governments have animal control services, Jeff Davis County does not. So our population quickly came to expect that service from our humane society.
During the next ten years, we built a strong foundation based on a reputation for excellent customer service and outstanding care provided for homeless pets. By early 2004, the increase in the number of homeless animals in Jeff Davis County and the needs of the community made housing the animals at the vet clinic no longer feasible. Laura resigned her position at the vet clinic to become the humane society's first paid staff member, and in 2004 we renovated a small building located on private property north of Fort Davis for use as a temporary shelter.
During the six years of operations in that location, Laura began recognizing some unique sheltering and program opportunities resulting from the creative ideas needed in order to successfully operate a shelter and adoption center in that not-quite-optimal environment. From that was born Grand Companions' Sweet Suite Shelter©. In 2007, we formally announced our plans to design and build the first Sweet Suite Shelter© and we began laying plans for our repeatable sheltering system and expansion. In 2010 we opened the new facility for operation, continued developing our new sheltering systems and began planning for our first Satellite Adoption Center.
With the closing of the Midland SPCA and their generosity of offering for us to take over operations, although it was sooner than planned, we chose to take that opportunity to reopen that facility as our first Satellite Adoption Center.
Our Mission is to help people save, honor, and connect with pets.
Our Commitment is to provide personalized client care for pet adoption and support for the bond between people and their pets.
Our Success has been having a consistent, gradual increase in pet rescue and adoptions with a success rate of 95% or more every year for more than 25 years.
Our Purpose is to provide a feasible solution for the health, economic, and moral problems communities face in dealing with homeless pets.
Our Contribution is a repeatable homeless pet sheltering system Grand Companions has developed. This Sweet Suite Shelter© system uses the business model of a centrally located distribution center supplying multiple satellite adoption outlets that will support putting an end to the needless euthanasia of pets.
Our History
Grand Companions was established in 1989 in response to the growing need for an acceptable means of dealing with stray animals. Since then we’ve grown from three volunteers serving a few people and pets in our county, to an organization with 18 staff members serving the Texas Trans-Pecos region, expanding our mission to help people save, honor, and connect with pets.
Our purpose is to provide a feasible solution for the health, economic, and moral problems communities face in dealing with stray pets. That solution is a scalable system (a reproducible business model with costs of operations decreasing as reproductions increase) for the successful adoption of shelter pets. This Sweet Suite Shelter© system uses the business model of a centrally located distribution center, our Home Base, supplying a chain of retail outlets, our Adoption Satellites. The adoption satellites will provide an adoption resource for local government agencies, private shelters, and rescue groups, alleviating the burden of responsibility they carry for adoption and allowing them to focus on their missions of animal control and pet rescue.
Laura Langham, now Grand Companions' Executive Director, found Charlie in 1989. He was our first rescued and rehomed stray. It could be said that Charlie, that sweet Spaniel mix, was responsible for building a future for shelter pets that, at the time, could not have been imagined. From 1989 to 1991, Laura began rescuing stray pets in the Fort Davis area while working for Dr. Ginger Elliott, owner of Fort Davis Veterinary Services.
In 1991, Drs. Janet Greathouse and Dave Taylor purchased Fort Davis Veterinary Services. At that time, Laura had become a registered veterinary technician. later becoming the practice manager for FDVS. The doctors generously allowed a small number of strays to be housed at the vet clinic, and our small rescue group began to grow. Our Humane Society was formally established in 1993 in response to the community's growing need for an acceptable means of dealing with stray animals. Although most city, town, and county governments have animal control services, Jeff Davis County does not. So our population quickly came to expect that service from our humane society.
During the next ten years, we built a strong foundation based on a reputation for excellent customer service and outstanding care provided for homeless pets. By early 2004, the increase in the number of homeless animals in Jeff Davis County and the needs of the community made housing the animals at the vet clinic no longer feasible. Laura resigned her position at the vet clinic to become the humane society's first paid staff member, and in 2004 we renovated a small building located on private property north of Fort Davis for use as a temporary shelter.
During the six years of operations in that location, Laura began recognizing some unique sheltering and program opportunities resulting from the creative ideas needed in order to successfully operate a shelter and adoption center in that not-quite-optimal environment. From that was born Grand Companions' Sweet Suite Shelter©. In 2007, we formally announced our plans to design and build the first Sweet Suite Shelter© and we began laying plans for our repeatable sheltering system and expansion. In 2010 we opened the new facility for operation, continued developing our new sheltering systems and began planning for our first Satellite Adoption Center.
With the closing of the Midland SPCA and their generosity of offering for us to take over operations, although it was sooner than planned, we chose to take that opportunity to reopen that facility as our first Satellite Adoption Center.