In Santa Barbara we have various shelters and adoption centers that find loving homes for pets of all kinds. One of these places is the Santa Barbara Humane Society. The Humane Society was founded in 1887, making it one of the first animal welfare organizations in the country! As of right now, the humane society has limited their visitations to appointments only due to the outbreak of Covid-19 and the continuously rising cases. Because of the success of the humane society and human’s desire for companionship, many Santa Barbara residents and San Marcos students have adopted their friends and family from the location. 

Freshman Joee Dutrisac has three pets adopted from the humane society, starting off with twelve year old Buster! Buster is scared of people and hides whenever there are guests in the house. Although he tends to be shy, he talks a lot and has a lot of shared sass with the other cat of the house, Sammy. 

Sammy’s age isn’t known but he is estimated to be around nine years old. He didn’t meow for most of his life, but recently started to! Good for him! He can never make up his mind and has a tendency to hop around different rooms of the house. Unfortunately, Sammy has developed some hip problems from jumping on the fence too often, now it is hard for him to jump, but he loves to cuddle with his blue blanket. Buster also has a designated red blanket. Both Buster and Sammy live with Joee’s grandma.

Joee’s dog, Manny, was adopted at around the age of one. They suspect that he used to be in dog fights before he was with the Humane Society because of the pitbull in him. He is a huge sweetheart and falls asleep with his family every night, specifically his mom. He loves his stuffed animals as well. When he was first adopted he was very nervous and standoff-ish, but now he is a big part of the family! He will only eat if you give him a little bit of cheese, and loves ice cream.

San Marcos Senior and football player Evan Shinn has also adopted a dog from the Humane Society, Max. Max is a ten year old German shepherd who loves to play fetch with a Tennis ball. He loves to go on car rides and bark at other cars that pass by the window. To the family, Max is a source of comfort and gets lots of hugs.

The humane society has provided many San Marcos students with wonderful new members of the family over the years, but they still have more creatures who are waiting for loving homes of their own. If you can, rescuing a pet from the humane society and shelters alike is always a great help, not only to the shelters and the animals, but to homes as well. The Santa Barbara Humane Society is located at 5399 Overpass Rd, Santa Barbara, CA 93111 and is currently sheltering many animals that would be more than happy to see a friendly face, and even more so to find their forever home.