Adopters share happy tales about their new pets

A pet’s adoption day is the photo everyone sees — the excited smiles, the caption announcing the new family member, the people sharing their congratulations. But snapshots of what comes after — the first hike, the first zoomies down the hallway, the first time a shy pet climbs into their person’s lap — can be just as sweet. What’s more, they can inspire others to find their own happily-ever-afters by adopting a pet and saving a life.

At Best Friends Animal Society, we love when adopters keep in touch and share how things with their pets are going. Here are a few of their stories.

Dune has been settling into our home beautifully. She was a little timid at first, but she has opened up and relaxed tremendously. We continuously see more sides to her amazing personality: She is sweet, silly, smart, mischievous, goofy, loving, affectionate, and very cuddly. It seems that she likes being with us and living in the northern San Francisco Bay Area. She loves hiking at the lakes and mountains near our house. She loves going on the trails and smelling the fresh air and flora in the woods.

She has become quite popular and loved in our neighborhood by both people and dogs, and she loves them back. She is wonderful with other dogs! She loves meeting her friends at the dog park and wrestling and playing chase with them. It is amazing to watch how athletic she is: She runs and changes direction very fast and can jump quite high. She has so much fun and we adore her. We are so thrilled to have Dune in our lives. She is such a loving, beautiful, and joyful spirit. We love her so much and look forward to many amazing years with her.

Moose has been a big addition to our family. Since we brought him home, we have taken him on adventures. We started him off by going on hikes in his backpack, and it has escalated to him being on a leash as we walk him through hikes. He loves hammocking and just being outdoors with us.

We have also recently added Fox to our family. She is not big enough for a leash, but she has started to go on hikes with us in her backpack. We want to start camping with Moose and Fox and doing longer adventures with them. They love anything we do and are always up for whatever we have planned. Moose and Fox have made a huge impact on our lives, and we are truly blessed to have the best cats in the world.

Beau did great on the way home. He is so sweet. He was stepping up and everything. I even got a couple of head scratches in — very brief, but very happy about that. We put Rio and Rio 2 on for him, and I think he likes TV. He was even dancing last night. So far, he seems really happy, and I’m excited to see how much more we will bond.

This article was originally published in the September/October 2026 issue of Best Friends magazine. Want more good news? Become a member and get stories like this six times a year.

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.