Best Friends Animal Society trip

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Reflections of Best Friends Animal Society

I was obviously a fan of Best Friends well before I made this trip. However, seeing it in person and volunteering with the animals is just a truly rewarding and awe-inspiring experience. If you are an animal-lover, I highly recommend finding time to visit Best Friends. They do such amazing work and it's not just about housing homeless pets. They have created a program called "No More Homeless Pets" which is as much about education as it is about adoption. BFAS used to stand for Best Friends Animal Sanctuary but the changed the "S" to Society to encompass a larger plan. They realized that the sanctuary is needed and wonderful but doesn't address the root of the problem. Pet owners need understand that having pets is a great undertaking that requires lots of time, love, compassion and money. The simple act of spaying/neutering is probably the biggest difference maker. At Best Friends, they have a clinic that offers s/n services for a very low price and most areas have clinics several times a year to help pet owners. Best Friends also has two other programs that specialize in the dog community - stopping puppy mills and creating a better reputation for pit bulls.
Check out all of their initiatives at: http://network.bestfriends.org/initiatives/Default.aspx
They also have a Best Friends Network that connects the whole US (as well as international) with options to help in your own community. I learned about this on the tour and have just signed up!
Thanks for reading my blog about Best Friends. Hopefully, it will inspire some of you to visit, volunteer and/or donate! If nothing else, perhaps I've helped raise awareness about the responsibility of having and caring for animals.

Best Friend - the tour

On Monday, Dave and I took the official Best Friends tour. They start by showing you a video that describes the different areas of the sanctuary as well as successful adoption stories. Then, they take you on a guided tour of the entire 3800 acre property. Our guide, Raven, talked about how Best Friends began and she showed us each section. We didn't get to see Piggy Paradise because the pigs were quarantined this week for treatment. I really wanted to meet a pig! Anyway, we drove past several pastures where the horses can graze and relax. They have about 20 horses, all of whom are adoptable but not ridable. They think of everything - their outdoor water buckets have solar panels so that the horses' water doesn't freeze in the winter! Our tour took us through Angel Canyon which is just beautiful - mountainous with a river running through the valley. At the top of the Canyon is Angel's Rest which is a pet cemetery. Animals who "cross the rainbow bridge" are buried there and anyone can have their own pet commemorated or buried at Angel's Rest. It's quite lovely with windchimes and walking paths. Each month, the staff at Best Friends holds a blessing ceremony to remember the BFAS animals that lay there.
From there, we went to Dogtown Heights and got to meet some of the dogs. We stopped at an octagon in the Fairway which is where I had volunteered so it was nice to see Donna and some of the other pups I had met.
A stop at Cat World was next. Again, we stopped at one of the houses to meet several cats. This time we were at The Colonel's Barracks so I didn't get to see Nenet (which is probably good). Just like Jill's Diner, this house had indoor/outdoor space and a variety of cats at different socialability levels.
We drove past The Bunny House which is obviously for rabbits but also currently has four guinea pigs. They spay/neuter the rabbits and litter box train them to make the more adoptable!
The last areas we drove by is Parrot Garden and Wild Friends. Parrot Garden has far more than just parrots - macaws, cockatoos, etc... Wild Friends is a rehabilition area for various (mainly birds) wild animals. Ideally, these animals will be treated and released back into the wild. However, Best Friends does offer them a place to live forever if they cannot be released into their natural habitat.
When back at the Welcome Center, there is a gift shop as well as an information center to learn more about this amazing place.
This tour was my last visit to Best Friends (at least for this trip). I'm so glad I got to visit and volunteer!

Nenet's sleepover

As mentioned, I took Nenet back to the hotel for a sleepover. She's a ridiculously cute two year female cat. Dave was already at the hotel when I got there - he'd been mountain biking in Hurricane that day. Like most animals, Nenet took to him immediately. We each sat on a bed and she run back and forth between us to be pet. After about 45 minutes, she suddenly noticed all of the other "people" noises in the hotel and became frightened. Every time a door closed or people outside talked, she'd give a little growl and hid under the bed! It took quite awhile to coax her out of there and she was still jumpy so we built a fort out of bedcovers and she hid under there for hours. At least we could pet her and snuggle under the fort! We turned out the lights at about 11pm and somewhere around midnight, Nenet apparently decided she was now comfortable with her sleepover and wanted to play. For the rest of the night, she wandered around the room randomly meowing, climbing into/onto everything (!) and jumping on us every now and then. Needless to say, neither Dave nor I got any sleep. Dave even sat in the bathroom with her for about an hour while she sniffed and played - she was strangely fascinated by the bathroom. Even without sleep, it was a great experience and Nenet was a wonderful guest. We took her back to Jill's Diner at Best Friends on Sunday morning and she ran right into her outside area to see her friends. Although I really wanted to,we decided not to adopt because we're not sure our Freddy is ready for another kitty companion. He never got along well with Kitty and he finally seems to be coming out of his shell now that he has the house to himself. Anyway, it was sad to see Nenet stay in Utah but hopefully she'll get adopted soon.
Here are few pictures of Nenet. It was really hard to take her picture because everytime I pointed the camera at her, she ran straight for me!

Nenet on the bed

Nenet - what a cutie pie!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Day 2 - Cat World part 2

After lunch I spent the afternoon at Jill's Diner socializing in each of the rooms. In one room I met Beni, a huge black male who loves to be pet, and a very shy cocalico who at least like treats. All of the other cats in that room were very shy and/or sleepy so I didn't stay too long. Next, I went to Frankie's room and met his roommates. Except for Russell, this group is older and have some minor health problems. Again, there were a couple of shy guys but Frankie, Obie and Russell kept me busy with treats, brushing and lots of pets. Frankie is the one I walked in the morning but I don't think I mentioned that he has big beautiful blue eyes and the cute meow ever. Obie was rescued after being hit by a car so he's little "crooked" for lack of a better word. He's a fairly old dark grey cat with diabetes. He LOVES to be brushed so I was covered with his fur within 2 minutes! Then, there's Russell, another smoky grey who looks just like our Kitty. He even had a sad little meow like Kitty did! He's hand-shy but loves to be pet as long as you sit down and move slowly - I spent quite a bit of time with Russell. Finally, I went to room four to meet the remainder of the Jill's Diner crew. When I entered, every cat just looked at me but when I sat down in the outside area and wrinkled the treat bag, I was heartily greeted by three friendly furries. Hiawatha is a huge (!) orange girl who climbed right into my lap and didn't move for a good 15 minutes. With her on my lap, I was circled by two black cats - one large, black, older female and a tiny black male with half a tail. There was also a beautiful lean, orange "teenager" who was very shy until I brought out the toys. I never got to touch him but at least we had some play time.
By then it was 3:30 and I had to go complete the paperwork and get supplies for my sleepover. I'd made arrangements to take Nenet home for the night! Nenet is only two years and has never been on a sleepover before so it would be a new experience for all of us. Cat World gives you everything you need -- litter box, food, dishes, toys, carrier, etc.
Although she wasn't thrilled by the car ride, we made it to the hotel without an issue. Luckily, Dave was already back from mountain biking so he got to meet her right away. I think it's going to be a fairly interesting night so I'll update this blog tomorrow once we all successfully make it through.

Obie

Hiawatha

Russell

Rafter cats

Day 2 - Saturday, May 14 -- Cat World

Today, I spent both of the volunteer sessions in Cat World. In the morning, after watching the safety video, I headed to "Jill's Diner" which is one of the cat buildings. In Cat World, many of the buildings have specific purposes -- some are for cats with feline lukemia, cats with FIV, cats with special physical needs and so forth. Jill's Diner is one of four buildings that make up "The Wild Cats" area. It was mainly meant for the feral cats but there are very few truly feral cats there. Each building has four rooms with both indoor and outdoor areas. There are tons of blankets and hidey-holes as well as cat perches and toys. There are also rafters with beds, litter and food. Rafter cats are generally people-shy but are slowly become more socialized.
My first assignment was to walk Frankie. He is a 16 year old rather grizzled on guy who walks on a harness and really loves to be outside. We were out for so long they thought we got lost! Frankie and I had a great time just wandering around the property searching for lizards, sniffing everything in sight and just lounging in the shade.
After returning Frankie (who promptly fell asleep), I visited a different room within Jill's. Armed with a bag of treats and some brushes, I went to make friends. The treats were a massive hit but many of the cats in this room are very shy. However, Nenet also lives here and she is very loving and friendly (you'll hear more about her later). I hung out there until noon and then went to lunch so I could return at 1:15 for my afternoon session.

Frankie

a room at Jill's Diner

Nenet

Friday, May 13, 2011

Day 1 - Dog Town in the afternoon

After lunch, it was time to head back to Best Friends for my afternoon assigment. I had already spoken to the caregiver about taking one of the dogs, Esme, for a car ride. In order to take this trip, I needed to stop at the Dog Town HQ to make arrangements for an "outing". They gave me water & water bowl, treats, poop bags and an assessment form. Well prepared, I went to get Esme. I had met her in the morning but she doesn't really like to take walks. She's a ten year old female pit bull who was used for breeding before rescued by Best Friends. Esme may not like walking but she loves car rides so with her in the passenger seat and me behind the wheel, it was "outing" time. I had to have her back by 4pm so I could basically drive north for about an hour and then turn around and drive back which is exactly what we did. Unlike many other dogs, Esme has no interest in sticking her head out the window or trying to "escape", she just likes to lay in her seat and chill. Or, she likes to push up against me which made driving interesting but she's so loving and sweet, that was actually my favorite part!
That wrapped up my day at Dog Town and tomorrow I'm volunteering at Cat World for both morning and afternoon sessions.

Esme

Day 1 - Friday, May 13 & Dog Town Part 1

At a brief orientation at the Welcome Center I got my schedule and nametag so I was ready to begin. There are two volunteer sessions each day: 8:15 to 11:30 and 1:15 to 4:00pm. I'm doing both sessions today and tomorrow. Today is to be spent at Dogtown. This part of the sanctuary is about 3 miles from the Welcome Center and devoted 100% to dogs! I arrived to get my safety video training regarding the handling of the dogs. My first task was to attend a puppy training class - terrible, huh?! Anyway, there were only four little ones and about ten of us "training". The puppies are being trained with positive reinforcement to sit and lay down, not jump or nip and so on. Of course, about half of the class is actually puppy play time for extra socialization.
After that, I headed to the Dogtown Heights octagons. This is where lots of people-friendly dogs stay so you just help out with whatever they ask of you. I was in an area called ]The Fairway which consists of two octagons. The octagons are structures that have about six indoor and outdoor sections for dogs to live. After chatting with severals dogs, my first task was to walk Donna, a Labrador Retriever. They have walking trails specifically for this purpose and it takes about 20 minutes to do one lap. Although wonderful with people, Donna is little aggressive with other dogs so I had to make sure that we stayed "alone" throughout our walk. Donna knows the path and apparently likes to search for lizards at every shrub!
When Donna and I finished our walk, I was assigned to walk Maddison , a yellow Lab, who is a little slower and older than Donna. Since Maddie is dog-friendly, we paired up with another volunteer, Troy, and his walking partner, Patagonia (Patty). Patagonia is a ridiculously adorable hound dog. An unusual pair, Maddie & Patty share a run in the octagon so they get along quite well. Not as big on lizards, Maddie loved to eat the berries of a tree that is seen quite often along the walking trail. Luckily, the berries are actually good for dogs but the walking part takes a little longer.
By the time the four of us got back to The Fairway, it was 11:30 and the AM session was over. Time to get some lunch and relax (out of the sun!) for an hour or so.