The vacation that inspired me to start a blog (Utah)

The next part of the trip was 5 days spent at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary - a wonderful place in Kanab, UT that houses at any time up to 2,000 animals - dogs, cats, pigs, horses, goats, wildlife. If you've seen Dogtown on National Geographic Channel - that's the place.

Monday morning, Liz and I left Death Valley earlier than we expected, when we saw that the 2 hour route from there to Vegas required chains (wait, didn't the people at the Enterprise counter say this wasn't possible?) Luckily the front desk at the Furnace Ranch had maps with alternate routes that were not snowy, so we had a 2.5 hour trip ahead of us, and so we left nice and early just to be conservative.

It was a fairly easy and uneventful trip back, and 2 minutes after I dropped off Liz at her terminal, Jamie called and said his plane had landed. Perfect timing! We decided to get on the road to Best Friends right away since it was estimated to be 4 hours. This ended up being a long 4 hours, my head was still pounding after my marathon-induced cold relapse. But the views as you crossed through AZ and then into UT and then back into AZ and then back into UT are well worth it:


Almost as soon as we drove into the beautiful Angel Canyon, and checked in with the really friendly people at the Welcome Center, I started to feel better. We were staying the first three nights in the cabins at Best Friends - it was a cute cozy room big enough for 2 people and 1 dog with a gorgeous backdrop.

I knew what to expect with the climate - cold nights, a bit of snow, but the sun almost always warms things up nicely during the day. Much more tolerable than snow in Cleveland! I was walking around with just a light jacket most of the time during the day even though we got snow twice.

Tuesday morning we had the day planned out at Best Friends - meet with volunteer coordinator, take the tour, go for the $5 vegetarian buffet, then volunteer with the potbellied pigs. The tour was helpful in finding our way around, but it only gave a small view of all the areas - if you go and want to see more in depth and spend more time with the animals, I would really consider volunteering. The $5 buffet they say is for employees and volunteers, although sometimes they can fit guests in also. It had a really good salad bar and then another dish which was different every day. Really good & healthy food. It was nice to get a good meal in at lunch, because there weren't many restaurants open in Kanab during this off season, and so we just shopped at the grocery store and ate microwavable food in the kitchenette in the cabin all week. The cabin had a microwave, refrigerator, sink, and bowls/utensils. Nice setup for a cheap price!

After the buffet, we went over to the pig and horse area to work with the pigs. Our first job was to walk the pigs. This was accomplished by throwing popcorn in front of them. Still even with the bribery, it's not always easy for 1-2 people to keep 4 pigs from running into the road.

They sort of can be bribed, but sometimes, they're just going to do what they want to do. The first group we took out was very friendly, we could crouch down and pat them on their side, and they just kind of snuffled along looking for popcorn. A few more groups, and we get to Metro and Penelope. We were warned that they have tried to bite people before, so we should watch out for our legs. I got Metro down to the road, and when he tries to step into the road, I moved my legs in front of him like we were told. Unfortunately, he did not like that, and he nipped my leg. Not a full out bite, but I did bruise up, with a bit of broken skin. Here's the perpetrator.

We moved on to the friendlier groups, and got this cute picture with Jeffrey and Hogan. I was amazed at how strong their personalities are. I could pick up on them just with a few minutes with each pig.


Our next job was to chop up vegetables and prepare dinner for the pigs. Each pig had a card that described their dinner - how much lettuce, how to chop it (some like it chopped up fine, some just want a head of lettuce chopped in half), how much of the grain pellets, other vegetables, and then supplements. Now it's time to feed them! All the time spent preparing, and two seconds later the lettuce is all over the pen, because the pigs dive for the pellets first.

We left the pigs at 4 PM to go up to DogTown to pick up a dog for a sleepover. Jamie had sponsored a really shy girl named Tabitha for me for Christmas, and so we were thinking we at least wanted to meet her, and maybe bring her for a sleepover. We walked in and told the woman at the desk we were interested in a sleepover dog, and she must have spotted our running t-shirts which I'm sure we were wearing, and she immediately volunteered another dog Arrow who supposedly would have as much energy as both of our dogs at home combined (ha! little did she know!) He came out, and he was so handsome! A little energetic, all sweetness, I loved him right away. He was not shy with the kisses and jumped up to say hello right away. We went back to the cabin and changed so we could take him for a long walk. We went on the dirt road that led from the Welcome Center in the lower canyon up to the upper canyon. They were right about his energy on the walk - he was a strong boy, especially when a jackrabbit crossed our paths. He had a bit of hound in him, I could tell both from his jowls and the way he stuck his nose to the ground and tracked animals. Just the kind of dog I would have fallen for if it hadn't been for our two crazies already at home.

After an hour walk, he was behaving pretty calmly. Amazing what exercise can do! We went back to the cabin, and he was so well behaved. Gentle and sweet, he was very good while we ate, took treats very gently, and always up for snuggling or petting.

Wednesday morning, we dropped Arrow off at DogTown, and then went over to Cat World to volunteer. They asked us if we would rather clean or socialize with the cats, and we figured they needed help cleaning, so we dug in. Somebody had called in sick, so they did really need help, and we dug in with the cleaning (yes, I can clean!) We of course got to visit with the kitties while we did so. Frodo was one of the ones who started following us around, he was sweet and gorgeous!
All the cat rooms have an indoor space, with beds, cubes, shelves, anything a cat might like to live in, and a screened in outdoor space, and the outdoor space has rafters so the more shy or feral ones can hide out there. They put food and water up there for them.

Wednesday afternoon, after the buffet lunch, we drove into Zion. It was 30-40 minutes from Best Friends, and absolutely incredible. Just the drive in was beautiful. We saw a bald eagle on the side of the road - I had never seen one in the wild up so close before.

We settled on a hike to Angel's Landing, which was 5 miles round trip, around 1500 feet of elevation gain. It looked like it could be snowy, so we hoped we could make it the whole way. The last 0.5 miles had a chain on the mountain you could hold on to for safety, so that promised to be interesting. It was a gorgeous and challenging hike.

The last part was indeed challenging - the chain was very necessary with the snow and ice. We we warned - but we went ahead anyway.
Climbing back to (relative) safety!

Zion was really beautiful, I would love to do more hiking here in the future. Unfortunately, dogs are only allowed on a 3.5 mile paved path around the visitor center, probably the most boring (again, relatively) path in the park.

Thursday, we had planned to volunteer with the dogs, then do a bit of shopping at the gift shop, then more dog work, then pick up another sleepover dog. We went to the headquarters to watch the safety video, when a worker came in from dog walks with our buddy from Tuesday - Arrow! He hopped right up on my lap and planted a kiss on my face. What a sweetie. He is going to make somebody active a wonderful pet!

When they were deciding where to send us, we asked for them to put us at Maggie's, which was where our sponsored girl Tabitha was. No other volunteers were there, so we went on over and got started walking the dogs right away. We managed to walk every dog who was volunteer friendly at least once. One of the ones whose personality really reached me was Josie. She was so excited to go on her walk, she tugged the leash for a good 1/10 of a mile.
We also took Tabitha out, she was very gentle and sweet, but a little timid around us.
Houdini was cute - he seemed to know how cute he was, and turned toward the camera to pose his cute little floppy ears which bounced while he walked.
Then there was Charles, his face just says it all.
After another great lunch at the cafe, and some shopping, we went back to Maggie's to help out some more. We had talked with Cathy, the main caretaker here, about Tabitha's personality and whether she would do well with a sleepover, and if it would help her more than it would traumatize her, and she seemed to think it would be good for her, and she would warm up to us. So we decided to help out here until around 4, when we could take Tabitha home with us. We petted the dogs, and threw the ball a bit for Josie - this is such a happy face. I would love to take her home also, just seeing her happiness chasing the ball was wonderful! But she was in a run alone, so she must have some problems with other dogs.

4:00 came, and we took Tabitha. She actually went into the car pretty easily, and when we got back to the cottage we moved into since the cabins were booked up Thursday night, she came right out of the car, and helped us explore the new space. The kitchens in the cottage were even more decked out - they included a hot plate, a toaster oven, along with all the rest. You could make even closer to real food here! We will remember that for next time. Tabitha hopped up on the bed and laid down, and we unpacked a few things. I decided to head out for a run, I hadn't run since the marathon due to soreness + sickness. I had a nice hour run in a beautiful snowfall, it made the trees lacy and they popped out against the red rocks even more.

I came back, and Tabitha was on the couch with Jamie. She was getting a bit more snuggly, and she even gave a kiss or two. Later on in the evening, we went into the bedroom to pack up our stuff to leave the next day, and 2 minutes later, we hear a collar jingling - she had followed us in there, and she kind of sidled up to me and asked for pets! What a sweetie.

Friday morning we woke up, it was time to go. We turned on the news, only to see the sad news of the Continental commuter plane crash. Tragic, and a bit nerve-wracking, I knew I would be a bit more frightened than normal on our plane ride. Tabitha was still snuggly, and gave Jamie a quick gentle nose kiss. She took treats from us, broken up into tiny little pieces, so gently. Then when we started taking the luggage out to the car, she would start wagging her tail as soon as we came back into the room. A really small gentle wag, but still, I felt like she made enough progress she could be very happy in a certain type of home. Boo, her boxer mix run-mate would not be so happy though. When we brought her back, there was such a welcome from him, they were both so happy to be back together. She gave a full out tail wag and I was less sad to leave her behind, because she's pretty happy there.

Snapped a few more pictures, this is outside the cottage.

We checked out, and headed out on the road. We stopped at St. George for breakfast, and then continued on to Vegas. We were early for our flight, so we walked around the strip. I spent $5 on the slot machines, won $3, and then promptly lost that also. It wasn't quite as exciting as I imagined it would have been to win. Maybe if it had been $10 or more.

Then we got the rental car back, hopped on the plane, and here I am, back in gray snowy Cleveland. I cannot wait to go back!