AN American woman’s US$1.2 million fortune is going to the dogs — and cats!

    Animal lover Glenda Taylor DeLawder, from Tennessee, who died in November 2015 at the age of 72, left her entire estate to “exclusively help care for Carter County’s cats and dogs,” Mayor Leon Humphrey recently announced in a statement.

    Administrators of DeLawder’s estate have already directed US$540,000 to the local animal shelter — it will go toward expanding animal areas and purchasing a van to take pets to clinics and adoption events.

    “Carter County and [Elizabethton Carter County Animal Shelter are] truly blessed and honored to be given such a tremendous gift,” Humphrey said. “One of the largest private gifts given to the county for our citizens (human, feline and canine.)”

    The mayor added expansions to the shelter were scheduled to begin Jan. 9 and the new van is slated to arrive in March.

    (SD-Agencies)