You could live there

I went to Bryce Canyon National Park yesterday. It's the most gorgeous place in the world. The entire time I kept thinking,"this place can't be real" because it really doesn't even look real. It's crazy. We did the Queens Garden/Navajo/Peekaboo loops, which were around 6.7 miles or so. Here are some photos from it. I'll upload all of my photos of my trips to FaceBook after the internship is over because it's too tedious to go through them all now.

At the trailhead. Elevation 8,015 ft.

Amazing

There were about 4 painters who set up shop at the very top

It looks like a kingdom to me

Think this is a painting? It's not. This is what I saw.

People have left these strange rock piles

So Jill and I made one too.

Kingdom

Walking through a tunnel

The ascent we had to make at the end

Partway through our ascent

Back at the top of the world

Tonight I went to Japhy's aunt and uncle's house for a cookout. He's staying with them and they were nice enough to make all of the interns dinner. It was delicious! There house is outside of town, and it is just absolutely gorgeous around there. It was a great time with fantastic company.

One of Japhy's aunt and uncle's dogs - Breia

Doesn't do it justice.

The moon is full tonight and gigantic and awesome. GO LOOK!

On an unrelated note, this is how Buddy likes to sleep -

Learning to walk

I will never be able to completely vocalize how awesome today was.

I spent the morning at Old Friends and what a morning it was! There's a dog in Sharkey's run, Mattie, who has a brain tumor (she's been adopted - just waiting for her people to get her!). You usually have to hand feed Mattie as she's on a bland diet because of her tumor. I tried to hand feed her and she was not having it. There's important medicine she needs to take, which she did end up getting. A few minutes later she vomited her pills up. Luckily after that she didn't seem to have any issues.

June is such a pretty dog

Later in the morning, I was walking June, who is a dog that kind of just wanders around Old Friends. She has a run there, but doesn't spend too much time in it. She is epileptic. Her mouth involuntarily closes sometimes, so you're not supposed to put your hands (or face) near hers because she starts licking and then her mouth just closes. She doesn't mean for it to happen, but it just does. She's such a doll though. On our walk, all of the sudden she just stopped walking and starting kind of like dangling her paw. I knew that couldn't be a good sign so we headed back to the run immediately. Apparently, that could have either been a small seizure, or a sign of a seizure so we put a bunch of padded pillows on the ground in her run in case she did start seizing so she wouldn't hit her head. That seemed to be the worst of it and then nothing else really happened.

I walked more dogs and then went with the caregiver, Haylee, to get Eve her cart!

I know I've mentioned Eve before, but here's a quick low-down on Eve: Eve cannot really use her back legs. She was (guessed) hit by a car. She uses her front half to drag herself around and still quite enjoys life.

Today she got a cart to help her get around easier! They didn't know if the cart was going to work for Eve. She had tried a cart before, but it only had two wheels and not enough support. Eve walked with her front legs kind of split sideways apart and would fall when she tried to use the last cart because it didn't have enough weight in the back. This chair, is also two wheels, but it has an extra weight support in the back to help keep her upright. This is what I was lucky enough to see:

 

Eve did so well! It was the most amazing thing to be able to see a dog who couldn't walk be able to walk! I was so proud of her! They're going to work with Eve in the cart so she can gain the right muscles to make it easier for her to use it. I'm so happy for her!

This afternoon was one spent at the Fairway. I like working there because I get to do a lot. Kathy let me feed almost an entire run by myself and then grab the bowls. It's nice having a little responsibility. After, I went with a few volunteers to the dog park. They had a great time. The dog I was walking was Raisin, who is very, very shy. After seeing her, I decided to spend the rest of my afternoon there trying to socialize her. Raisin is very good with Kathy as Kathy hand fed her the very first night Raisin was at the Fairway. I blocked out the other dogs in her run outside and sat with her inside. She was very nervous and just stared at me mostly. After a while, she would come and sat as far away from me on the dog bed that was next to me as she possibly could. I just sat there. She got closer. Eventually, she started offering me her paw. I found this strange because I don't believe she knows shake or wave or any tricks of that sort. I continued to sit there with her and read her life plan (life plans are like the dogs' files - it has their intake forms, their history wherever they were before Best Friends, their history while at Best Friends, etc). Raisin was from a hoarding situation. Her and her sister Latte (who I met at the Garden - she's equally as shy) were rescued by a woman who had them for 1.6 years. Both dogs remained painfully shy and the woman no longer had the resources or time to try and socialize them. Every now and then I'd pat the bed and call Raisin over and she would come and just sit next to me. If I reached my hand out for her to sniff, she'd offer her paw. Eventually I got up and got some treats and we worked on sits. She is still very, very shy with me and I'm sure we'll probably have to start at square one the next time I work with her, but I still felt a sense of accomplishment with Raisin. I told Kathy about her offering me her paw and her mouth dropped. I guess the only other person Raisin ever offered that behavior to was Kathy. That's pretty cool.

I'd like to see Raisin find her person and come out of her shell; I think her life would be a lot more enjoyable that way. She seems to want to interact with people (sometimes) but is so, so shy.

I didn't take a photo of her and I couldn't find one on the website but I'll get one next time.


After the Fairway we had our weekly intern meeting. I can't believe our 3rd week is already over! The meeting was great, as usual, to reflect on the past week. So much has changed with all of our project dogs it's fantastic. Japhy's project dog, Lillian, might be going home tomorrow - some adopters have flown in just to meet her. I hope it goes well.

Also at the intern meeting I found out my answer to whether I can shadow Huck or not - kind of. I'm not allowed to officially shadow him because they don't allow that kind of thing, but I can schedule myself to be in an area where he's training and can observe. AWESOME!


Tomorrow some of my intern friends and I are going hiking at Bryce Canyon. I'm super excited.

It just gets better and better

I had yet another fantastic day, but I am super exhausted, so apologies if this entry seems hurried.

I had my first "real" shift in the Parrot Garden today. I've had a shift there before, but I was only there for about an hour and a half before I had to leave to get instructions for the Colorado City cats, so I didn't do much that day. I shadowed Kevin, one of the caretakers, around for a while to feed and water the birds, then I did some dishes and cleaned some cages. The birds are really pretty and some talk, which is great, but I didn't feel a connection there the way I have in other areas. There's also a dog that lives in the Parrot Garden. Her name is Layla and she was one of the Michael Vick pit bulls. I got to meet her today. She's super sweet and currently wears a purple collar, which could be changing. Next week, she's going to be taking a mock 'Good Citizens' test. It's the assessment they use here to determine if an animal would be safe as a pet and goes through things like stranger tests and other dog tests. I hope she does well!

Every Thursday the interns take their project dogs to a training class at Tara's Run. With how anxious Sharkey was last time and being that our 'focus' training didn't go awesomely, I didn't know how this session would go. Sharkey did AMAZING! He only have very brief moments of disruption but otherwise I was able to keep his focus most of the time. I did what one of the trainer's recommended - keeping a treat out while he was in a sit or down and rewarding him every 30 seconds or so (and building up) while he was focused/quiet. One of the other interns said she couldn't believe how well behaved he was and it was like he was a whole different dog! I was so proud of him! We did some loose-leash walking exercises and he did really well with that, too.

After training class, I took Sharkey on an outing to town. We just walked up and down the main street and everyone that met him loved him; he's quite the charmer. I just want him to find a home now. He was really good on our walk, of course, and just an absolute sweetheart.

This is where the Sharkster prefers to ride in the car on our way back from training. Only from training though, not to training or to an outing. Usually he'll sit nicely in the passenger seat or lay down in the back.

When I got Sharkey back to his kennel, I was met by a pleasant surprise. Huck, the awesome trainer Josh was telling me about, was there to work with Sharkey on his tennis ball guarding and I got to watch. It was a really great session for Sharkey and super interesting to see how Huck's methods differ from what you'd normally think to do. It's so crazy to me how he can immediately focus on the dog's behavior and uses that solely to come up with a plan for them. It was really great. I asked Huck if I could shadow him some afternoon and he said it'd be fine with him, but I need to ask the team leaders if it's okay first, so I will be e-mailing them after I finish this entry.

The more time I spend with Sharkey the more we bond. He's at the point now where he gets really excited when  he sees me, which is great, but it's going to be near impossible to leave him in two and a half weeks. Anyone interested in adopting him? I'd be happy to transport him back to Wisconsin! I'll also be happy to work with him on tennis ball excitement for you...

The last Thursday of every month, they have a blessing for pets that have crossed over the rainbow bridge. It's held at Angel's Rest, the pet cemetery that is on-site at Best Friends. The animals that pass while at Best Friends or even people's pets that they'd like to be placed there are buried there. It's really a very pretty place with gorgeous wind chimes. It's a very sad ceremony, but also a happy one as people share details about their pets. I cried, along with probably 95% of the people there. You get there and see a whole bunch of people and one of the founders, Virgil, plays a violin before the ceremony starts. Then one of the employees reads a little blurb that makes you think about all of the animals that have passed through your life. He asked us to close our eyes and look into the eyes of our animals, past and present, and then describe what we see. That made me lose it. Thinking about Tucker's little eyes makes me miss him sooooooo much. And then trying to remember Rachel's (Rachel was a collie I had growing up - we got her when she was 9 months old and I was the same age. We lost her a little over 10 years ago). After that, they list the animals that have crossed in the last month that resided at the Sanctuary, which included 3 cats, 3 rabbits, 5 dogs, and 2 parrots (I think). Some of their caregivers were at the Blessing and said a few words about the animals. The next segment was called "Celebrations and Concerns" where anyone can stand up and share remembrances of their pets. It made me laugh and cry. These pets are people's families and they aren't forgotten. We had some more reflection time, followed by some music and then a closing. Some interesting things I learned was that whenever they bury an animal, at least one wind chime always starts even if it is a completely windless day - there's never been a placing without a wind chime (and usually the one nearest the placement) going. There was also a time when they were placing a dog named Honey Bee and her caregiver looked down and there was a honey bee climbing on her (which is a rarity around Kanab!).

These are cards people send in for the ceremony. They have stories and/or pictures on the back. I think he said there were about 3,000 of them there for this ceremony alone. They were hanging from trees and wind chimes.

Like I said, it was a really sad ceremony, but it was also very comforting.

PROGRESS

Rumor

Flinstone

Once again I started my morning with puppies. There's really nothing better. We had puppy socialization class with three puppies; Rumor, Utter, and Flinstone. They're so cute! And very well mannered for being puppies. We worked on sits, downs, handling, crate training, and stairs. The pup I worked with was Rumor. She had a little problem with the 3 stair podium - she wasn't comfortable going up them and she kind of just flopped down them.

After class, I went to the Fairway. Chris was there again. We cleaned out some of the runs, walked some dogs, and did some more cleaning/socializing. I really like a lot of the dogs at the Fairway. There are some very shy dogs that I'm trying to socialize, which I LOVE doing. Even the slightest sniff of a knee or elbow is progress. I also saw Owen today. He seems to be doing better and looks much less scared which made me happy.

I was up at Rescue Village with the bunnies for the afternoon. I did some more cleaning and feeding up there. Along with sitting in on Jill, one of my intern friends, who was trying to bond some rabbits - Piper and Scooby. Fargo and Benjamin, the rabbits that were bonding last time, are doing so well together. They're actually going to stay in the same pen tonight for the very first time and I'm sure it will go just fine. Anyways, back to Piper and Scooby, they didn't really want anything to do together. It sounds awful, but the most common way bunnies bond is through fear. So, Jill and I were both sitting in the pen with them and they went from opposite corners of the pen to the same corner. Each bonding experience is different so we'll see how this one goes.



One thing I'd like to discuss is volunteers. Each volunteer wears a name badge and on their name badge is a colored star (if it's not their first time volunteering). Each colored star stands for a different amount of time that that person has been volunteering at Best Friends. I've talked with several volunteers that come back year after year to volunteer at Best Friends. One woman I talked to today has been here FIVE times before! I think it's really incredible how much dedication these people have. This is not an inexpensive trip. The closest airport is Las Vegas, which is not super cheap to fly in/out of, and then there's renting a car, lodging, and eating. It's really, really remarkable. This place truly is magical and it's great to see so many other people that think so as well.


Today is Wednesday which means Welcome Waggin was today. Sadly, it's the last one of the season. The speaker today was founder Gabriel. He is very humorous and it was a great last meeting.


NOW. For the BEST part of my day. I'm sure I've mentioned her before, bur Robin is one of the dogs I've been living with here in Kanab. Mary rescued her and Buddy from Hurricane Katrina. Robin really does not like most people. I've been here 2 and a half weeks now and have never been able to pet her. The few days she has come up to me and sniffed my leg or hand, but never gave me an indication that she was ready to be touched and I will not push a shy dog over threshold like that; it can be very dangerous. Tonight I was laying on the loveseat and Buddy was laying on the floor next to me so, naturally, I was petting him. Mary and Carol were sitting on the couch across from me and Robin was sitting in between the couch and loveseat. She was just kind of watching me and kind of smelling me. Carol said it would probably be okay for me to pet her, but she looked nervous so I said she wasn't really indicating she was ready to be pet yet. Just as I finished saying that she started pawing at my arm, which is her most common indication she wants to be petted. So I did. I cannot even describe how shocked/excited/impressed I was that she did this! It was so rewarding! Whenever I stopped petting her she would lean in closer to me. It was crazy! Of course I've wanted to make a connection with this shy dog from the very first day I got here, but it was so great that it happened to be today! I don't have a picture of Robin and she's gone to bed, but I'll post one tomorrow.

After Robin letting me pet her, I just sat in the living room taking with Mary and Carol. I'm not one to believe in psychics, but Mary called this dog psychic in Florida that just asked for the dogs' names, breeds, and approx ages. The dogs talked to her and she told Mary what they had said. I'm not going to go into detail here but it is INCREDIBLE the things the psychic said. She was completely spot on and there's no way she could have known the things she did. I think I may have to try this with Tucker....

Tuesday

I didn't sleep well last night due to a terrifying nightmare, so I thought I'd be lagging today but my schedule didn't allow for that.

I got to Old Friends this morning and starting separating the dogs for feeding and put ears drops in one of the dogs ears. One of our assignments with our project pets is to hand feed them so I dud just that with Sharkey. He was super gentle and it went well. After picking up everyone's food bowl, some of the volunteers and I walked dogs. I walked Benny, a cute chihuahua; Tagger, a lab/heeler mix who is nearly completely blind but is still sweet as can be; and Deja Vu, a golden retriever who does a cute little hop thing when putting her collar on.This is pretty much how I spent the rest of my morning...not bad at all.

At 11:00, the interns had a tour with Carissa, a caregiver at Jeffrey's. Jeffrey's isn't really a place volunteers or interns go because most of the dogs are red collar. Along with the lodges, you find some pretty extreme cases here and a lot of dogs who will be living at DogTown for the rest of their lives. There's one dog, I can't remember his name, but he is a German Shepard. When his owners decided they didn't want him anymore, they shot him a few times, including in the head. At first no one could go near him, but now he's at the point where his caregivers can be with him and new people can come fairly close to his kennel without him reacting. A few of the other dogs just don't know how to manage their excitement and start biting because they don't know where to put their energy. There are quite a few dogs who have been rehabbed to the point that now there seems to be nothing wrong with them, but given their dangerous backgrounds, will not be adopted out. But they can stay at Best Friends forever. Instead of putting these dogs who lack confidence  down, they have a nice life here.

It was a super interesting tour.

I spent the afternoon at the Fairway. There was a different caregiver there, Chris, but he was just as nice as Kathy. I took Thomas out for a potty break when I first got there. I don't know if I've mentioned Thomas before, but this is the third time I've worked with him. He's a chihuahua mix who lives in the kitchen at The Fairway because he hasn't gotten along with his past run mates. He's really cute and reminds me of Tucker, which is why I think I've taken to him so much. I miss Tucker an unbelievable amount so I guess I'm projecting that onto Thomas. I spent some time with Thomas in the single run at the Fairway (where he spends some days) and of course he just climbed into my lap and let me pet him. He's not like most chihuahuas - he's bigger and less yippy.

After that I helped feed the dogs and pick up their bowls. I also took a few dogs on walks and then it was time for dishes and cleaning out runs. They had a dog introduction today that Chris and Tim (the trainer) let me be in the run for. The dog they were introducing is named Owen and he some kind of hound. He'll be living with Cowgirl, Adam, Zeb, and Leon. The introduction went well, but I think Owen is a little overwhelmed. Every day for a week, they'll take the new dog out of the run at night in case there are problems. Chris gave me Owen to take out and I have never seen such a scared dog in person before! He walked so low to the ground and when I took him to one of the single runs, he was so cautious. I felt really, really bad for him. I know that it takes time to adjust, but seeing him that scared was really hard. I'm back at the Fairway tomorrow morning so I'll see how he's doing then.

Another day in paradise

I just want to reiterate how lucky I am to be here. I've done so much and learned so much it's incredible!

Ogy with his cone

Lugar

Besides still being sore from my hike on Saturday, today was perfect. This morning I spent at Maggie's, which is definitely one of my favorite places to be. Kathy was the caregiver there again today, and I really enjoy working with her. After we fed/handed out medications, Kathy just let me work with the dogs. It was great. I started out with Jingles, who I've worked with previously. I love when the dogs start to remember you and get excited when you come by! Jingles is one of those dogs. She wouldn't eat anything, once again, unless I was on the floor with her, but I used that to my advantage and asked her basic commands using kibble as rewards. She gets really into it, not over excited, but she shows a good amount of focus and interest. Then I moved on to working with Fargo. Kathy and I were going through the 12 dogs just refreshing them on their basic commands - sit, down, stay, leave-it, etc. Fargo has great focus and was great with his leave-its. My next dog was Sherlock, who waits nicely at his door for me to enter (mostly because I have to wait him out in order to enter). Sherlock is great with his commands, and a rockstar at stay, but he definitely has a lot of energy. Ogy was my next dog. He currently has to wear a cone because he had ear surgery, but that doesn't stop him from being the sweetest dog! I worked with Goober next. He caught on to leave-it really quickly to the point where I had to block him only minimally when tossing the treat on the ground. (I should probably briefly explain leave-it, you'd use a leave-it command whenever a dog was about to get something you didn't want him to - from food, to medicine, to other dogs...really anything - and the second step of training it is throwing a piece of kibble on the ground (or toy or whatever) and saying "leave-it" and then blocking the dog from getting it by putting your foot over it. When the dog either doesn't go for it because he's trained or gives up trying to get it from under your foot, you mark it, treat it with a different, better treat from your other hand, and pick up the dropped treat.) The last dog I worked with was Lugar. This was my first time working with him and he is a very excited lab. He's obsessive over his tennis ball, so we didn't get too much training done, however he is very good with his sits and downs.

After working with the dogs, I took Sherlock for a car ride because he really enjoys them. We drove by the sand dunes and then headed back.

Fargo

Then I took Fargo on an outing. We went to Angel's Overlook and to the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth is supposed to be really very mellow. A volunteer told me you're supposed to think of a question or a problem you're having and then when you're finished walking through, you have a solution to your question/problem. When Fargo and I were first walking up to the Labyrinth, I got the weirdest feeling. Like complete goosebumps and shivers and it was very unlike anything I've ever felt before. I don't really know how else to explain in. Fargo and I took a little walk and then headed back to Maggies.

This is the Labyrinth

After lunch I was scheduled in Rescue Village with the rabbits. For a good chunk of the time, I worked on bonding Fargo (the rabbit, not to be confused with the dog I was just working with) and Benjamin. Fargo had rabbits he used to live with, but they started picking on him. Fargo is the rabbit I mentioned in an earlier post who has EC and can't use his back legs. Benjamin had a partner who passed away last week so he's been lonely. Bonding rabbits can be a long process, but luckily Fargo and Benjamin have gotten along quite well. During the bonding process, the rabbits don't live in the same pen yet, and they need to be constantly monitored when they're together. I started out by putting them side by side and petting both of them. Then I sat in the pen and watched. Rabbits will fight to the death, so it's vital to be watching them at all times when trying to bond. Today went really, really well. Fargo groomed Benjamin, Benjamin groomed Fargo, and then they cuddled.

 

After that, I did some odds and ends of things like passing out greens, which the rabbits really enjoy and some other things. An intern from a past session made a wheel-chair like thing for rabbits with EC that can't use their hind legs. We put Fargo in it and away he went!

I ended my day by working with the Colorado City cats. They're looking good!

I think I've been living my life wrong CONTINUED

Saturday was such a fantastic day. Five of the interns and I went to Zion National Park, which is a short distance from Kanab. It was really, really beautiful. This entry will mostly be pictures...ENJOY!

Entering Zion

Once we parked at the Visitor's Center, we got on a shuttle to take us to the drop-off point for the Angel's Landing hike. The hike is a total of 5.5 miles, and gaining an elevation of 1,400 feet (in addition to the around 5000 ft elevation you start at). It was definitely a strenuous hike.

We started by crossing the Virgin River

The path is pretty much paved and goes up at a steady incline. You reach a set of sometimes long [and tiring] switchbacks that take you up higher and higher. The view gets better and better. 

 

After hiking up the switchbacks, you get to flat land (finally!) that's shaded from the sun (finally!). It was around 95 degrees on Saturday. We started early to try to spend as little time in the hot sun as possible, but it was unavoidable. What great climbers my fellow interns are!

After this point, the batteries in my camera died :( However, later in the trip, Ryan's memory card was full, so he used my memory card. Any photos from now on, minus a few I took on my phone, are photo credited to Ryan.

After out nice break in the shade, we got thrown back into the exhausting work of "Walter's Wiggles" which are a series of rounded switchbacks that gain elevation quickly. They made me hurt a lot.

After Walter's Wiggles, just when you think you can't take anymore, this is what you see:

This is Scout Lookout. It is the last part before the last half mile of the hike, which leads up to the very top of Angel's Landing. I did not do the last part of the hike due to my fear of heights, but let me give you a quick synopsis of what happens: You climb up some rocks that have some chains for you to hold on to. At one point, the chains go away and the width narrows with large drop-offs on both sides. Then you get the chains back to complete the hike. At first I was kind of bummed I didn't go further than the first couple of chains, but while I was sitting at Scout Lookout waiting for my friends to complete it, I met a variety of people from several different countries. 3/4 of the people that start the chain part come back right before the chains go away because it's too much. 6 people have died trying to complete it since 2004. After hearing people's knee-buckling stories about getting up half way, I was glad I didn't try it. Here are some of Ryan's photos who did indeed go all the way to the top, regardless of not really ever having hiked before.

I was so proud of all the interns that made it to the very top! I was also proud of myself for making it as far as I did without any major freak-outs. We were pretty high up!

We started our descent down the mountain, which was much easier than going up, but still painful. My knees, quads and toes hurt a lot after it (your feet get slammed into the front of your shoe). After our long, exhilarating day of hiking, we stopped at Oscar's Cafe, a little restaurant right outside of Zion, for a well deserved dinner and beer. 

___________________________________________________________________________________

Today I woke up feeling pretty sore. I hung around and watched a movie, before deciding I should get up and actually do something. I went out to Best Friends to work with Sharkey on focus. It went okay. He just always wants to be doing something. He's fine at following commands when you ask him to do something, but in the downtime he gets anxious. I'm not sure where to go with him on this so I'm going to e-mail the trainer, Tamra and see what she suggests. I know we're going to work on leave-it and drop-it though.

I also paid a visit to my good friend Ruger. He was more excited to see me than Sharkey was! He's such a sweet dog, just needs some work on calming behavior. If I knew Tucker wouldn't mind having a brother, I think I'd like to bring Ruger home, which is the first time I honestly thought that with any animal since being here.

I'll end this post with Barkley, the stuffed dog I've had since my first birthday. He found a friend in Buddy.