Steamboat Springs — The Routt County Humane Society has a lot to celebrate Saturday.

When it welcomes community members to a public open house, the Humane Society will get to show off the animal shelter it recently assumed management of.

There’s also the Humane Society’s 30th anniversary to celebrate.

“It feels like we finally have come home,” Humane Society co-president Maggie Smith said. “For years, we’ve been supporting animals at the shelter, and now, to actually be there and to be involved in all of the decisions for all of the animals has really been great for us.”

The Humane Society took over operation of the shelter from the city of Steamboat Springs on May 1.

Now, it is focusing on expanding and improving services.

The changes include increased staffing and the hiring of a new full-time shelter director, the microchipping of all animals prior to adoption, a new website, new software that tracks all the shelter’s animals and new summer programming.

The shelter is also now open seven days per week.

All members of the community are invited to the open house, which will be held from noon to 2 p.m. at the shelter on Critter Court.

“We’re really excited about how things have been going,” Smith said. “We just feel like this is what we’ve been striving for all along, and here we are.”

To learn more about the Humane Society, visit routthumane.org.

To reach Scott Franz, call 970-871-4210, email scottfranz@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @ScottFranz10