In the very near future, Kane County Animal Control’s website will go from this:

To this:

And that’s just the beginning of a little revelation at Kane County Animal Control that will include a new website, new branding, new tools for community involvement and a multitude of new services aimed at improving pet adoption, pet finding, education and the volunteerism.

Kane County Animal Control Director Brett Youngsteadt unveiled the changes Wednesday in a presentation before the Kane County Health Committee.

• Click here to see Youngsteadt’s slide presentation in the Health Committee agenda packet.

“We’re really trying to make this a comprehensive website that everyone’s excited about and people are excited to come back to,” Youngsteadt said.

The new website is scheduled to launch sometime in March, with a new URL: www.kanecountypets.com.

But the changes to the website are only the beginning, and they aren’t just about online aesthetics or the latest electronic gewgaws.

The new website will include pages that help residents adopt a pet, find a local veterinarian, look up animal-control ordinances and fee schedules.

But on top of that, Youngsteadt said, Animal Control is integrating a new case-management system called Chameleon — shelter software that operates under Microsoft Windows to manage and track all the data any animal care facility will handle. “Charts, graphs, spreadsheets, notices, and reports are shipped with the product and easily produced and customized using the report writing tools,” the Chameleon website says.

Chameleon will provide email notifications for the general public and for staffers that include real-time updates of the animals that are in the shelter and how residents can locate lost pets. The software keeps track of data such as animal and owner information, bite reports, citations and tag registration.

The next steps are to collaborate with the Health Department and KaneComm to manage the database, Animal Control will be working on merging its website with petharbor.com to match and link adoptable and stray animals.

Youngsteadt is also hoping to build a small army of volunteers, who will help improve service for Kane County humans and care for their pets.

In his presentation, he said his team is creating a handbook and application process, and that a first group of volunteers already have submitted applications. So far, Animal Control has seen an “overwhelming response,” and Youngsteadt said “it will take some time to process all of these applications.”

The next steps are fingerprinting and background checks, then orientation for the new volunteers, Youngsteadt said.