Best Friends

Up nice and early, we managed to pull into Best Friends Animal Sanctuary by 7:45 on Friday morning. Our visit started with a brief orientation and safety video and then we were off to work with the puppies.

Every morning, all the puppies get 30 minutes of socialization time where they get to play and work on basic obedience. Don, the volunteer coordinator, said that prior to starting this routine, the adopted puppies had a 35% return rate. Since implementing the socialization program, however, only 1 adopted puppy has been returned.

There were 8 puppies, 6 from one litter and 2 from another. All the puppies are named based on a theme and the 6 puppies from the one litter were all named after counties in Pennsylvania. They were named by a pair of volunteers from Pennsylvania who spent a full day picking ticks from the puppies fur when they first arrived at Best Friends.

After socializing with the puppies (Saturday only. which I forgot my camera battery so no photos), it was off to Dogtown where we were able to walk, feed, and play with the dogs. It was very difficult not to bring one of these precious animals home, and the list of dogs I want to sponsor is rather long!

After finishing our shift both days, we took a self guided tour through the sanctuary to snap some pictures and check out the rest of the facility. We only were able to get pictures of the horses and the pet cemetery, but overall this is a pretty amazing place! Hopefully next time there we can help out in other areas such as the bird, cats, rabbits, or wildlife sections.

After our Best Friends excursion on Saturday, we took our own little canine critters on the Squaw Trail hike which takes you up to a beautiful Kanab overlook. It didn't seem like that difficult of a trail, but afterward both the dogs and us humans needed a nap.