Rhiannon Rowe is the manager of the Eagle County Animal Shelter & Services (ECAS) in Eagle. Her daily work embraces this kinship between humans and animals. She is passionate about “showing love to all creatures, big and small,” while also reinforcing “how animals can enrich our lives if we work together and support each other.” In August 2025, she celebrated 14 years at the shelter, starting as a part-time kennel tech when she moved to the Vail Valley.
“I love every day here,” Rowe reflects. “It’s an emotional job, but very rewarding. I have a great staff and support system. In Colorado, we’re lucky. We have an incredible number of shelters where we don’t limit space or time for rescued or surrendered animals. ECAS works with rescues around the state and surrounding states, like Best Friends Animal Society, to help network and re-home animals.”
From Rescue to Forever Home
ECAS accepts dogs, cats and pocket pets, but not livestock. In the past, they have taken in chickens during a wildfire and four kittens from the Rangely Animal Shelter during the Meeker fire in 2025.
“Sometimes another shelter comes to us, or vice-versa,” Rowe explains. “We routinely transfer in animals from larger shelters to allow them a better chance to find their forever home. We’ve had success placing many awesome pets. If we have a cat or dog that has been with us for a while, we may work with another shelter to transfer them out to gain fresh eyes. We also work with breed-specific rescues or foster-based rescues if we feel an animal might do better in that environment instead of at our shelter.”
“There are so many different opportunities and you can’t do it alone,” she adds. “We call ourselves ‘a socially conscious shelter.’ We search for every answer to give each animal a suitable outcome. Still, if one suffers from serious medical or behavior issues, we’re not going to needlessly hold onto it. It must also be safe to adopt out into the community. Luckily, we don’t need to make those difficult decisions often, because it’s the hardest part of the job.”
For Rowe, the best part is to see an animal arrive in dire straits, to help them get better and feel good, to learn to trust people, to find their new home and send them off on their next journey.
“Along with our sheltering department, we have amazing animal control officers working in the community,” she says. “If anyone finds a stray, the officers respond to a call and come out to scan the animal for a microchip. Lacking any identification, they bring the animal back here to be safely held. Immediately, we post information on our website and Facebook page. We check our spreadsheet to match any filed lost report. If we don’t receive an owner response within five days, the animal becomes county property. Each is spayed or neutered if needed, vaccinated, dewormed, (heartworm test for dogs six months and older), microchipped (essential!) and behavior-assessed. Then they go up for adoption. We encourage new owners to immediately establish a vet relationship to ensure all of their pet’s needs.”
ECAS services are funded by Eagle County. They also accept material donations and equipment for the animals’ benefit. A donations wish list is on their website. They keep surroundings and schedules as normal and “homelike” as possible. Dogs have spacious runs and agility equipment, plus toys and enrichment puzzles in the kennels. Fresh air and exercise is key, and volunteers give regular walks. Cats enjoy a cozy and safe place to hide if nervous or shy, and recently, a new “catio” entertains more social ones, often kittens. Rowe’s priority is to provide consistency with feeding time, play or visitation time, down time and lights out at bedtime. “They need to know what to expect,” she adds.
ECAS Manager Rhianna Rowe and her dog, Stevie
Volunteers: The Heart of the Shelter
ECAS welcomes volunteers ages 10 and up (parents must accompany until age 16) and offers flexible scheduling. The volunteer portal is easily accessible to complete an application. Once reviewed and approved, basic training steps are required, a tour, then orientation, and you’re ready to join an enthusiastic group and to help out.
Nancy Lamontagne is a valued, veteran volunteer. What inspired her work at ECAS? “I grew up with every kind of animal imaginable. Now because I travel so much, it’s hard to own one. Volunteering runs in my family and I can get my animal fix.”
Lamontagne has been at the Humane Society in Phoenix for nine years and ECAS for two years, previously volunteering in Summit County. When in Eagle, she visits the cats one or two mornings a week.
“With cats, I do mostly behavioral training. If any animal is skittish, it’s less likely to be adopted,” she says. Lamontagne uses skills learned from experience to help cats feel comfortable, interact, play and even cuddle. “Each one is different,” she adds. “I always need to figure out what is the best approach for the individual cat. It’s very rewarding to see an animal’s behavior improve.”
Volunteer Nancy Lamontagne. Photos courtesy of ECAS.
Heartwarming Journeys
Many animals stand out as ECAS success stories. Like Morris.
Morris is an affectionate tabby, a Houdini-like escape artist and one of the shelter’s favorite graduates. His original owner lost him while traveling through Colorado and he was brought to the shelter. Not microchipped, the owner put in a report to ECAS. They matched his found location and confirmed his identity. The owner chose not to return to reclaim him, hoping he would be easy to adopt out. Finally, on a third attempt with the expert help of the Lakewood, Colorado Cat Care Society, he found his happy forever home. Now he’s living his best life!
Rowe has many similar heartwarming adoption stories.
Joey, a chihuahua, was surrendered to ECAS as a young adult from a family that could not afford his care. He was born with a chronic, painful leg condition. After conversing with the shelter vet and a local orthopedic surgeon, Joey underwent a patellar luxation surgery for his left hind leg and an amputation for his right hind leg. It was a long recovery process, but with assurance to greatly increase his quality of life. After the surgeries, he was in a foster home during his full recovery. His foster family fell in love and he became a permanent family member. Today, Joey enjoys walks with his sister and lives a wonderful life.
Rowe is especially proud of creating the animal-human bond with kids, starting young: “We work with schools and summer camps, both projects at the shelter and in our animal welfare education programs. I love it when these groups want to be involved. Future volunteers! It builds compassion not only for animals, but humans, too. The kids see that just doing simple things, like making an adoption poster, can make such a difference.”
The essence of kinship … Luther Standing Bear would agree.
