After a huge winter storm hit the state of Texas, many were left without power and animal shelters saw a rapid influx of dogs, leaving them with hardly any space.
That's when shelters across the country stepped up to help.
Nearly two dozen dogs made the journey from El Paso, Texas to the County Animal Shelter in Santa Barbara.
“Bambi is one of the 22 dogs that we brought back from El Paso, Texas, one of the lucky 22 out of the 496 dogs in that shelter this past week,” said Angela Yates, Santa Barbara County Animal Services Director.
Yates says the transport was made possible with the help of local partnerships including C.A.R.E 4 Paws.
"They asked if we were interested in doing transport. We were looking at logistics. Originally, I was thinking about doing the transport on my own and realized it was definitely more than a one-person job,” said Christopher Harris, C.A.R.E. 4 Paws Board President.
It was about a 20-hour round-trip to a shelter in Tucson, Arizona, to give the pack an opportunity to find a forever home.
A special adoption event is planned for Tuesday. They're calling it "Texas Tuesday."
The El Paso pack will soon be meeting their new families.
Yates adds they were in for a surprise when applications quickly started to pile up.
"The fact that our community has stepped up in such an amazing way. As of this morning, we have 420 adoption applications for 22 dogs,” Yates said.
She says she is happy the community has been so helpful but knows there will be some disappointment for those hundreds of applicants who will not be able to take a dog back home.
"Just because you might not get a Texas dog doesn't mean there's not a Santa Barbara County dog at our Santa Maria shelter who really could use your loving home,” she said.
In addition to the 22 dogs from Texas, there are 17 dogs in Santa Barbara County shelters and foster care awaiting adoption.
If you’d like to check them out, click on the link below.
https://www.countyofsb.org/phd/animal/dogadoptions.sbc [countyofsb.org]
