Final: Stillwater Humane Society

Jackie Ross-Guerrero, who is Director of the Stillwater Humane Society, and a volunteer try to figure out what happened to this dogs back legs. After running for a few moments with the volunteer he began limping. This is one of the many things Jackie does within a typical day at the society.

This woman began volunteering with the society just a few months ago, and is now a regular, coming in five to six times a week. She knows everything about nearly every dog and will often bring treats for them. She plans on joining the foster program when she moves into a new apartment and is able to have pets.

During Joseppi's Aniversary Week they had an event where proceeds went to the humane society. Here a Joseppi's worker paints the face of a child at the event.

This little boy and his mother spend time with a pet at an adoption event held at the Family Video in Stillwater. The humane society holds adoption events every Saturday at various locations around Stillwater.

Each cage has a "walked" or "not walked" sign for volunteers to flip over after walking the dogs. During the nice spring months every dog is walked almost every day, and many are taken to Boomer Lake with volunteers to run.

This puppy was a part of an abandoned litter of five found behind a donut shop in town. They were given names such as "Poppy" and "Blueberry", and within a week the first three had found homes. Puppies are the easiest to adopt out because this is most often what families are looking for.

The halls and office of the shelter are painted in bright colors, with paw prints decorating many of the walls. This was just one of the many changes Ross-Guerrero made when she took over as director a little more than a year ago.

One of the many dogs within the shelter, just hoping she will get her chance to roam in the back field for awhile.

Since Ross-Guerrero has taken over as director of the shelter adoption rates have more than doubled. She also heavily promotes the volunteer program and events off site, in hopes of bringing more attention to the cause.

A group of volunteers enjoyes the nice weather outside with two of the society's occupants. As you can see the puppies were not interested in playing, they were more interested in affection, which they get plenty of with volunteers like these.

A wall in front of the humane society honoring volunteers, donors and pets who have passed away.

In the cat room there are often multiple cats to a cage. It is now what is considered "kitten season", which runs from around March until near the end of the year. This means there will be a constant flow of kittens coming into the society looking for homes.

A volunteer wrestles with a dog in the field behind the shelter. There are also two fenced off areas where volunteers can go and let dogs off their leashes to run and play.

These girls were hoping to convince their mom they needed this beautiful dog. She had been hit by a car and had arthritis in her back hip, so mom wanted to check with the staff and make sure she would be OK to take home.

This family was visiting from Alaska and came to the shelter on a whim. Although they wanted to wait until their children were a bit older before getting a pet, they fell in love immediately and knew he had to be theirs.

Walking his new pet.

Worn out from a day of playing with the animals, the kids all decide to rest while not letting their potential pet get too far from them.