There are many sweet and memorable animals at the Whatcom Humane Society, which takes in an average of 3,000-4,000 animals each year. To manage the various animals they care for, they utilize a mix of volunteers and employees, who all have their favorite animals or heartwarming stories

For Caitlyn, an employee of two and a half years, Cricket the beagle holds a special place in her heart. “She was brought in by animal control for potential abuse,” Caitlyn says. “The neighbors called in saying that the family’s children were throwing rocks at her and that she was just left outside. She was about four months old, so it’s not the greatest thing for a puppy.”

Animal Control talked to the family, who only said that Cricket had been hit by a car and was “broken.” They took Cricket to the Animal Emergency Hospital and she was diagnosed with a type of cerebellar hypoplasia that resulted from a parvovirus, which essentially means that it’s hard for her to walk and she’s very twitchy. “She most likely had parvo[virus] at some point in her life, survived it – which is a feat on its own, because it’s not an easy disease to beat – but it did leave her with some neurologic issues,” Caitlyn explains. “In layman terms, she kind of walks around like she’s drunk 24/7.”

Luckily, Cricket found her forever home through the Humane Society. She was taken to the Northshore Vet Clinic to use their hydro tank (to boost muscle growth), where one of the receptionists was immediately taken with Cricket. She offered to foster Cricket since she already had a full-size hound at home. “About a week after Cricket’s foster took her home, she said, ‘She’s not coming back,’” Caitlyn says. “She’s now learning to walk. She actually runs, which is amazing because when she got here she couldn’t even stand without just [falling]. Her dog siblings are teaching her how to be a dog because she didn’t know how. It’s really sweet. She’s learning to run around with the best of them.”

Cricket’s home is also uniquely suited to her. “The person who’s adopting also has a special needs cat, so she has a nice little special needs family of animals and it’s very cute and very wonderful,” says Caitlyn. “Without us being called out and sent to help her, she very well could’ve been euthanized. It’s one of those nice things; she has a chance because of what we did. It’s always beautiful and wonderful and amazing and that’s one of thousands, so it’s awesome. She’s near and dear to my heart.”

Stories like this are common for both cats and dogs. King Kong, an 18-pound black tuxedo cat, who was a favorite of many staff members, was at the shelter for a long time because people were afraid of him. “He was the biggest male tuxedo cat that we had. He had the hugest cheeks ever and every time we petted him he would just drool,” says Maria, an animal care and shelter services worker. “He was the sweetest thing ever but he was here for a while because people thought he was a scary looking cat because he was so big, but he was just the sweetest boy in the world and would never hurt a fly.” He ended up being adopted by a family who gave him to their 13-year old daughter as a birthday gift.

Other animals that pass through the Human Society also get their happy endings. Lucy, a wild mustang, was taken off of government property, corralled with other horses and then abandoned by her owners at a boarding facility. “Lucy was terrified by everybody. She was kicking with all four feet, you could barely get near her. She had a halter on that had been left on so long that it had been embedded in her face; they had to remove it and cut it off of her,” says Carly, the volunteer and outreach services manager. “Obviously, she hadn’t had the best time so she just thought everyone was terrifying.”

She stayed at the Humane Society farm for several months, as it was hard to find her a foster family that could handle her. “She was very, very particular on who she liked and would take advantage of anyone who wasn’t confident with her,” Carly says. “If you ran from her once, she would never let you forget it.” Carly lived and worked on the farm with Lucy for about five months, and developed a tight bond with her. “If you learned her ways and respected her, she came around pretty quickly.”

After a while, however, Lucy was in a tight spot. The barn was filling up very quickly and there were a few horses that needed expensive medical care. “It was starting to become very obvious that she was in danger,” Carly explains. “We were really concerned that we were never going to find anyone that wanted to take her.” Luckily, the newly formed Whatcom Horses in Need offered to take care of her. “A nice young gal who volunteers with Whatcom Horses in Need fell in love with her and took her home and she is now this woman’s pride and joy,” says Carly. “They have an amazing bond and she loves her so much.”

“[Lucy is one] of my very favorite stories that still makes me tear up when I think about it,” Carly says. “To see her go on and get adopted and have such an amazing, beautiful story is one of the reasons why I like to work here. That story is one of a handful that will keep me here even on the days when things get really hard.”

Sehome High School, one of three schools in the Bellingham School District, is the only one with a newspaper. The Rising Tide is a largely student run newspaper that releases once a month, featuring articles about a wide range of topics, from the Homecoming assembly to reflections on school shootings.

Dana Smith, an English teacher at Sehome who advises the newspaper and yearbook, has been the administrator for the newspaper since it was revived. “The Rising Tide at Sehome had not been a paper since ‘97 because there were some problems with the paper, and it died because nobody wanted to advise it,” she says. “There was a student … and her freshman year, she really wanted to get a newspaper started and her ninth grade English teacher sent her to talk to me.” Smith told the student, whose name was Margaret, that if she could find other like-minded people, then she would advise the paper as a club.

After two years of trying to kickstart the paper, they had five to ten students in Smith’s AP Language and Composition class who were interested. “Through [Margaret’s] sophomore year, we were figuring out how to make it happen,” Smith says. “I think that was the year I was on maternity leave and then I came back. I was teaching AP Lang and she was in my class and she had friends who wanted to do the newspaper as a club. I think that year we put out maybe four small issues. It was enough that then we put it back into the course catalog … and had class again the next year.”

The class has come a long way since those four issues. First, they learn about AP Style and writing ethically. Students then use Adobe programs like InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator to create the layout each month. The paper is headed by two student editors-in-chief, a junior and a senior. Every month, the editors-in-chief, along with the rest of the editing staff, run a group conversation to come up with story ideas and the theme of each issue. “I really love the relationships I get to build with students that are different than the relationships that I get to build in my other classes, because it’s just a different world,” Smith says. “It’s more like I’m co-managing a business. [The students] are running it and all I’m doing is peeking over [their] shoulder[s] and saying, ‘have you thought about this?’ or ‘this looks like it has a gap,’ or ‘your picture’s stretched.’ All I’m doing is helping [them] to tweak [their] paper, as opposed to me having all the ownership over it. I’d much rather be in the background and let my students shine. That sounds so cheesy to say that but it’s true,” she laughs. “I’m so proud of the work my students do and that’s what keeps me doing it.”

Smith has advised the paper for over 10 years and it’s very important to her. “I think that it really comes back to student voice,” she says. “I think it’s easy as adults who work in schools, like we’ve been in high school for – well, for me – 20-some years, minus leaving for college, and you forget how powerful and important everything is when you’re in it; so to empower students with their voice is really important. Also, it’s very concrete. It’s a way to provide authentic writing experiences. I love teaching literature and I think it’s really important, but it’s sometimes hard to make it feel relevant, the writing especially.”

She also believes that student journalism as a whole is incredibly important. “Besides president and senator, it’s the only profession that’s written into the Constitution. I’m sure this is the influence of people like Ben Franklin, who used the press. That was how they fought the war, that’s how they turned the people’s tide, so they wrote that right into the First Amendment. It’s just as important as freedom of religion, or freedom of expression,” she says. “It also resides in an odd space because journalism’s job isn’t to reflect the newspaper’s opinion, it’s to reflect what’s happening in the world and we need that watchdog. We need that watchdog in our schools, too.” She teaches this idea to her students so they are cognitive of their rights as journalists. She also teaches them about the Tinker standard that all students are affected by.

Though she was never involved in any newspaper publications during her high school and college years, Smith has a unique perspective on the world of graphic design and engagement from working three years in marketing. “I really liked like graphic design and thinking about messaging, so when I got hired at Sehome, they asked me if I would advise the yearbook, which is kind of like a crappy job that they often give to new teachers who don’t know any better because it’s hard,” she says. “It’s more public and it’s often more stressful but it also makes me feel like a really important part of my community. Advising the publications is a really important part of my identity as a teacher.”

“I loved getting involved in journalism and my state professional organization really helped me learn how to teach yearbook as journalism in addition to the graphic design and photography,” Smith says. Even though her bachelor’s degree isn’t in journalism, she got her master’s degree in journalism education from the University of Missouri.

In the future, Smith hopes to continue to grow the paper. She would love to flesh out the digital journalism of the paper (there is currently an Instagram, Twitter and Facebook that are student run) and shortening the time between covering stories and releasing them. She also hopes to be able to integrate yearbook and the paper together to have more comprehensive stories.