ALPACA MAMA: Celebrating her 10th straight year at The Santa Barbara Independent in 2013 is Michelle Drown, our managing editor, who has also been in charge of more than two dozen animal-themed issues during that time. In this issue, she writes about alpacas, and she can be seen here holding a baby that was born less than 24 hours before. “It’s been on my bucket list for a long time — it actually has,” she said of interacting with the South American species. “I did once hang out with guanaco in Patagonia, but they were outside the car.” Read her story and more animal articles here.