With the blessing of town officials, Paws of Plainville Inc., a nonprofit volunteer group, recently opened the 4 Paws Animal Shelter in a trailer next to the old Wood School. The shelter will provide a refuge for homeless cats and kittens found in Plainville, as well as Wrentham, Foxborough, and eventually other communities as space and circumstances allow, organizers said..

Shelter leaders hope the temporary trailer, which they expect to occupy for the next three to five years, will add legitimacy to their fund-raising efforts and lead to a permanent shelter.

“I’m tired of begging,’’ said Sue Jones, an 18-year resident who helped found Paws of Plainville 12 years ago to deal with the town’s feral and homeless cat population. “We were having a difficult time getting other shelters to take our animals in, so let’s just do it ourselves.’’

The official opening day for the shelter is Sept. 25, with a fund-raising yard sale among the festivities.

The 12-by-60-foot, three-room trailer — with heating and air conditioning, hot water, and water-and-sewer utilities — has been a community effort, drawing on support from town officials and donations from area residents and businesses, she said.

“It’s amazing how big this project has gotten and how many talents have been brought to the table for the animals,’’ Jones said.

Many surrounding communities have municipally funded animal shelters, which often only take in animals found in those towns, Jones said. After the departure early last year of Plainville’s longtime animal control officer, who had been housing stray cats on her own property, Jones approached Town Administrator Joseph Fernandes to seek his advice on finding a new home for the animals.

Fernandes immediately recognized that the community could benefit from the proposed shelter.

“The cat shelter is hopefully a first step into something a little more expansive,’’ Fernandes said. “It would service the town’s needs, and also expand in terms of dogs and other types of pets should they be found.’’

With the town manager’s support, Jones approached the Board of Selectmen last summer and asked to lease space on town land for a temporary shelter. The board suggested the old Wood School property.

“A facility gave them a little more credibility in their fund-raising,’’ said Fernandes, noting the town can take back the space should it become needed for its own building needs.

“Hopefully, this is the first step towards something more permanent and sustainable in terms of facility size and utilization,’’ Fernandes said. “At the end of the day, this is a town problem, and to the extent that [Jones] and others are representing an organization dealing with the problem, it’s a good partnership.’’

The shelter’s staff members have yet to approach officials in Plainville and nearby communities like Wrentham to ask for a formal contract to provide shelter services.

“We will be looking at that in the near future,’’ Jones said. “For now, it’s a priority to get the shelter in operation, because the need is so great for the cats and kittens.’’

During the past year, the list of donations included the trailer, with monthly rental fees covered by the Plainridge Racecourse; paving services from James Paving Co. in Plainville; asphalt from Riley Brothers Inc. of Bellingham; wood for a handicap-access ramp from Wrentham’s animal control officer, Chris Wider; and discounted animal-care services from Wrentham-based Countryside Veterinary Clinic, which has provided care for the town’s feral cats for years.

“It’s wonderful that people are reaching out in this economy — I was told this is the worst economy to try to do this,’’ Jones said.

She said her group is modeling its facility after the Medfield Animal Shelter, where she volunteered for several years.

Medfield’s shelter, an 1,800-square-foot building on land leased from the town, off West Street near the waste-water treatment plant, is celebrating its sixth anniversary this month. It’s run almost entirely on donations and grants, but receives some funding from the town’s animal control budget in exchange for taking in its strays.

Kim Agricola, a Medfield resident and director of the shelter, said it takes in cats, dogs, rabbits, and guinea pigs, as well as more exotic animals such as parakeets and pet rats. A few years ago, it began caring for animals from Dover and surrounding towns as space allows.

Raising funds and material donations for the shelter was a community effort, Agricola said, and noted that Paws of Plainville is emulating the formula well.

“They’ve been working on it for a long time and they’ve really hung in there, doing their best to get the selectmen and their town on board,’’ Agricola said. “I give them a lot of credit for that, and for doing it in tough economic times takes that much more work.’’

The Plainville shelter began training volunteers last month. Already, the shelter has taken in nearly two dozen cats and kittens, and Jones said she hopes to expand its care program to include dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, birds, and other small animals.

“I think it’s our responsibility to provide for them, and I think we’ve made a huge difference so far, but without a shelter, it’s harder,’’ Jones said. “Once you build it, they will come.’’