Scott now sees City Hall on the verge of some real breathing room.

The descent into this mess is almost too complicated for review. It's sufficient to note that the SPCA has done the often thankless job of animal control in Fresno for more than 50 years. By mid-2011, critics had a half-century of beefs and the courage to publicly press their case. Too many animals were being put down, they said. SPCA board meetings were unnecessarily closed to the public, they said.

Council Member Clint Olivier soon took up the critics' cause, saying the $2.2 million that City Hall paid each year to the SPCA was the perfect wedge to force transparency on the nonprofit. He and the critics vowed to form an alliance that would deliver a state-of-the-art animal-control business model, leaving the SPCA in the dust.

Then the SPCA called everyone's bluff. SPCA officials early last year said they were invoking a clause in their city and county contracts. They said they'd do animal control for another six months, then happily head into the sunset free of the money-losing agreements. Oct. 1 was the day of reckoning.

The alliance never fulfilled its promise. Perea and the county found their alternative with a small operation run by Liberty Animal Control Services at the old morgue. City officials, stuck with responsibilities far more daunting than the county's, asked the SPCA for a six-month extension to March 31.

The SPCA agreed, but City Hall had to throw in a sweetener. The cost for the half-year's work ending March 31 is $1.6 million ($1.1 million for a half-year plus another $500,000).

Scott was stingy with details of the contract he'll pitch to the council. The SPCA will need to be paid for the last three months of fiscal year 2013 (April, May and June). Scott said the cost of SPCA's services for fiscal year 2014 would be about $3.2 million -- $1 million more than the city was willing to pay two years ago.

Scott said he might ask the SPCA to do everything, including the dog-pound chores, in fiscal year 2015 as well.

Eventually, though, City Hall's breathing room will disappear. The need for a dog pound won't.

"We're not ready to build it," Scott said. "We are ready to start evaluating."