As mentioned
here and
here (and in other previous posts), back in October I went, for the second year in a row, on a week-long volunteer trip the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah. The sanctuary sits on hundreds (if not thousands?) of acres of Southern Utah canyon country. Basically the organization bought an entire mountain. It is impossible to describe the beauty and majesty of the place, but suffice it to say it's magnificent -- and truly spiritual. As explained
on their website, "On any given day, there are about 1,700 dogs, cats and other animals living at the sanctuary. They come for special care from shelters and rescue groups all across the country. Many of them just need a few weeks of special care before they're ready to go to good new homes with loving families." Where as last year I didn't know what to expect and was incredibly emotional & high-strung the whole time, this year went a lot smoother.
Day 1 (Sunday)
I arrived at the St. George airport via prop plane without incident. The guy at the rental car counter asked me if I wanted to take a Camaro that had just been returned. The look on his face told me I should be excited about this, but I didn't immediately recognize the name of the car, and I didn't really care what they gave me as long as it wasn't enormous. When we went outside he got the reaction he was looking for. Throughout the rest of the trip I got comments everywhere I went about the car. The 1.5 hour drive from St. George to Kanab was also relatively uneventful - with the exception of accidentally running a red light and pulling myself over to give myself a slap on the wrist (and a moment to calm down). I should have stopped and taken photos of the beautiful sunset during the drive but the Camaro kept insisting I drive faster ;-)
Day 2 (Monday)
Morning shift: Dogs - Maggie's
Afternoon shift: Cats - Benton's
Not fully remembering how quick the drive was from the hotel to the sanctuary I got to my volunteer orientation SUPER early. This gave me a chance to sit and take it all in again and think about how grateful I was to be back. I got my schedule and a new name tag - this year with a green star on it representing 2 years of service - and headed out to my first morning shift in Dogtown. The dogs of Best Friends are housed in "octagons" - structures comprised of 8 runs with both indoor and outdoor areas that the dogs can go in and out of at leisure. Each run usually houses 1-4 dogs depending on their age, needs, etc., and each octagon has a name. I chose to go to Maggie's Mercantile - the area where dogs new to the Sanctuary go until they're ready to be placed in a "regular" octagon. I had spent time at Maggie's in 2010 and really liked the caretaker there - Jacquie - because she took the time to tell me about each dog and answer all my questions. Unfortunately it was her off day, but I made lots of new friends including
Maude,
Yo-yo,
Zoom,
Honey Bun,
Niles, and many more.
After lunch it was time for my afternoon shift with the cats, and I decided to go to another familiar place: Benton's House. The cats of Best Friends live in houses that also have multiple, separate rooms, each of which have both indoor and outdoor areas for the cats. The rooms have all kinds of ledges and rafters and cubbies for the cats to climb/scratch/snuggle/nap on. Each room probably contains 10 - 30 cats, again, depending on their age, needs, etc. The entire Benton's house has special needs cats and I immediately fell in love with all of them when I volunteered there last year. I don't think I actually ever made it to another cat house. And so without any hesitation I went back to Benton's at the first opportunity. A number of my buddies were adopted since my last visit, and I'm so incredibly happy they've found their forever homes. But it was great to see some familiar faces like
Tumbles, "Snaggletooth"
Scott,
Bob, and
Miss Dot.
Day 3 (Tuesday)
Morning shift: Dogs - Maggie's
Afternoon shift: Cats - Benton's
After helping Caregiver Paul (no Jacquie again unfortunately) clean (sweep, mop, wipe down, etc.) the indoor portion of the runs at Maggie's, he had me take Niles on an outing - a little trip to another area of the sanctuary, away from all the other dogs, where the animal can get some one-on-one attention, extra exercise, and new smells. We went on a little hike near Angel's Lookout - a beautiful spot where the BFAS Caregivers can bury their own pets who pass away - and then drove over to Angel's Landing - an outdoor ampitheater where special events are held with a grassy area to play around in.
After lunch with the lovely family from Missouri who helped me clean the dog runs earlier that morning, I headed back to Benton's to play with
Forrest (he has since passed away),
Maximost,
Maury,
Cinderella,
Madge (who I took for a walk), and many more of my new friends.
I had to cut my time at Benton's a little short because I decided to do a doggie sleepover and I had to go pick her up! The Sanctuary encourages volunteers to take dogs and cats home to their hotels for the night to again, give the animal some special one-on-one time and expose them to new places & situations. Because the dogs are
always around other dogs they're almost always on alert, even when they're sleeping. So it's pretty common that when they go on sleepovers all they want to do is... sleep! That was the case with Yo-yo, who upon learning that if she snuggled up to me on the bed I would happily snuggle her back, remained there the entire rest of the night.
Day 4 (Wednesday)
I decided to take a little side trip to Bruce Canyon National Park in the middle of my week. Before I could get on the road though I had to take Yo-yo back to Dogtown. When I dropped her off I saw that they were offering puppy class that morning and decided to go. I worked with an adorable little bundle of squirmy named Bronco and his four brothers and sisters. The other volunteers and I tried teaching them to sit, stay, lay down, etc., but the best part was watching them go wild when we brought out all the puppy toys for puppy play time.
After puppy class I hopped back in the Camaro and took off for Bryce. The views were simply stunning (photos below), but I didn't enjoy visiting the park quite as much as I enjoyed visiting Zion National Park in 2010. The tram at Bryce stops running during the fall & winter months which meant driving through it on my own. Many of the hikes aren't loops so if I wanted to check them out I would have to essentially do them twice to get back to my car. I ended up getting really sleepy and took a nap in the car at one of the outlooks. I didn't feel all that invigorated when I woke up (in fact I was sweaty from having the sun beating down on me and cranky for "wasting" an hour and a half) so I just made sure to stop at a couple more of the recommended viewpoints before heading out. I felt extremely jealous when I saw a group of people riding horses through one of the canyons, and I will definitely be sure to do that if I ever make it back.
On the way home I stopped at a local bakery where I got a fresh croissant and a hot chocolate/coffee/mocha beverage. Best. Snack. Ever. (And perhaps the highlight of the day)
Day 5 (Thursday)
Morning shift: Pigs
Afternoon shift: Horses
During my 2010 trip to BFAS I didn't work with the pigs. I'm not sure why I chose not to, but I knew this time around that I definitely wanted to give it a try. And it ended up being such a blast! There are only about 20 on the property, most of them of the pot-bellied variety. Each is given a special meal - healthier than anything I eat - and a few like to go on walks. A couple REALLY like to go on walks and because they don't use leashes (and they are wayyyy to heavy to pick up) I needed to use my walkie to call for help to get one of them (ahem, Cherry) back to her pen. It was great fun though and even though I accidentally gave one of the pigs bananas when he was supposed to get prunes, the Caregiver, Yvonne, was super sweet to me. You can meet all the pigs who are up for adoption
here.
I spent the afternoon with one of the horse Caregivers, Ron, riding around throughout the sanctuary in a Polaris from one horse pasture to another to muck. For those of you who aren't familiar, mucking = scooping poop. Mucking in the rain, as I did in 2010, when the sand/dirt ground is wet and almost clay-like is absolutely no fun. Mucking in the gorgeous, dry, sunny October warmth is much much better. In between the mucking Ron took me, and the intern who was with us, to a number of hidden away spots that we would never have known were there. We found a hidden lake inside a cave, Anasazi petroglyphs, ruins & handprints, and, unintentionally, a baby rattlesnake. I got to spend a little time with
Clyde, the shy boyfriend of one of the horses I fell in love with last year, Bonnie. Bonnie has since been adopted, but Clyde needs a little bit more recuperation time until he can go to his forever home. He's doing great though!
It was a fantastic afternoon and a stellar day, which I decided to top off with dinner at Rewind Diner - a little restaurant in Kanab that I discovered last year. They serve one of the greatest burgers I've ever seen, the
Saturn burger - named for the ring of cheese that extends out around the burger patty. Heart-attack inducing amazingness. Between the silly pigs, the backroads tour of the sanctuary, and my Saturn burger, Day 5 was definitely the best day of the week!
Day 6 (Friday)
Morning shift: Dogs - Dulcie's
Afternoon shift: Cats - Benton's
On this particular morning when I checked in at Dogtown, I was told that they could really use some help at Dulcie's School of Dance - the home of many "red collar" dogs - so off I went. Dogs with red collars can only be directly handled by the Caregivers - volunteers cannot interact with them without a Caregiver present. This meant that Lupi (the Dulcie's Caregiver) and I had to walk the dogs together, but at least we could take two at a time, and I got to learn a lot about their stories and the intricacies of how things work at the sanctuary. I also got to have some snuggle time with sweetheart
Sunshine Girl and meet
Dawson,
Teddy,
Lili Beauty,
Candy Sandy, and many more wonderful dogs.
At lunch I met siblings Erin & Kevin Poole, from Austin and Seattle respectively, who decided to meet half-way and volunteer at BFAS as a little vacation. Doing the trip alone isn't easy, and I'm not always the best at introducing myself to new people, so I'm super glad the only available seat was at their table. Most of the other volunteers are either significantly older or
come as whole families, so it was great to spend some time with people from a similar place in life. I really hope to see them again someday, at Best Friends or otherwise, as they were really fun people to hang out with.
Before heading to Benton's as usual, I decided to take a peek in the newly built Cat Headquarters and came across two very different groups of kittens. The first were feral, incredibly scared, and scattered to hiding places when I opened the door. The second were the complete opposite - as soon as I stepped inside they wanted to sniff me, play with me, snuggle with me - basically consume all the attention I had to give. It was pretty difficult to leave and report for duty!
At Benton's I spent some time brushing the cats, giving them their special afternoon meds, and "socializing" (sitting & petting) more special friends:
Jewel,
Buddy,
Marcus,
Kyra,
Zevon,
Aly,
Perfect Tommy,
Miss Kitty, and
Jack Daniels. By this time I was getting to know the human Caregivers a little bit better as well - Heather, Jen, Barbara, Kathy & Molly's Mom (whose name I didn't write down!). If you ladies ever see this, thanks so much for letting me into your world!
I once again left my afternoon shift a little bit early so I could pick up another dog for a sleepover. I spent time on Thursday night looking at the dogs online and decided that I wanted to take Tahiti. I love Australian Shepherds and her eyes were just too incredible, I had to meet her in person. Tahiti basically did not stop doling out kisses and love from the moment they handed her leash to me. She's been at the sanctuary a long time so I hope she finds her forever home soon!
Day 7 (Saturday)
Morning shift: Horses
Afternoon shift: Cats - Benton's
On the morning of my final full day at the sanctuary I joined a team of ladies volunteering in Horse Haven. We mucked (which goes super fast when there's a lot of people doing it) and then rode the feed truck through the canyon to deliver hay and pellets to the horses in each pasture. Caregiver Alice happily filled us in on each horse's story as we went along.
I spent my final afternoon at Benton's, of course, where the Caregivers allowed me to stay extra late knowing it was my last day. I was very sad to say goodbye to all the amazing furry friends I made, but I know they are in excellent, loving hands.
Day 8 (Sunday)
Morning shift: Dogs - Puppies!
For my very last shift at the sanctuary I decided to spend some time with the puppies. Can you believe it took me until my last shift to get there? Since puppies tend to make a huge mess overnight we had a lot of cleaning to do when I first got there. Caregiver Keith and I made sure all the runs were nice and clean, and then filled with toys and snuggly blankets. Then he told me I could take the puppies one-by-one for play time! What a fantastic way to finish up the trip.
Now you can see why it took me so long to write this post - there was just so much to write about! I really hope to make this an annual trip. Not only is it incredibly important to me to do the work, it is so nice to have the beautiful change of scenery and to spend time in the company of such wonderful people and animals. If anybody wants to join me next year I would love the company!
