Thursday, September 13th
As interns, we have to pick a project pet. This can be any species of animal - dog, cat, pig, goat, rabbit, etc. I chose to have a project dog (shocking, I know). There's a list of about 9 dogs we have to choose from. These dogs may just need help with basic manners, need to be socialized, or have specific issues that need working on. It reminds me a lot of the program dogs we had at DCHS - none of the dogs on our list have dangerous issues, but they are still all very important to work on to increase the adoptibility of the dog. My project dog is Sharkey. He is an incredibly cute and active adult pit bull (not to play favorites, but... my favorite breed). We're going to be working on some socialization, calming behavior, and a few behavior modifications. I've been told he's going to be quite a challenge, but that is exactly the kind of dog I want to work with! I don't know all of Sharkey's story yet, but I will share it with you once I learn it.
After choosing our project dogs, we took a tour of Wild Friends and the Parrot Garden.Wild Friends is pretty self-explaining - it's where the wild hawks, crows, ravens, minks, owls, etc reside at Best Friends. They try to keep these animals wild, meaning very little contact with people. Because of this, interns will not be working in Wild Friends because there isn't much we can do. The only human contact these animals are allowed to have is barely with the caregivers and with the wildlife rehabilitators they have come in. It was still cool to see.
The Parrot Garden tour was also interesting, but a little sad. I don't think that people realize how long these birds live. Some of them can live between 80 and 100 years! So when a person gets a bird, say in their 30s, there is a likely chance the bird will outlive their human. What happens then? Some of the birds at Best Friends were handed down to the owners children (which didn't work out - some birds PICK their humans, much like dogs often do) or sometimes there's no plan for afterwards. Humans have domesticated them, so the birds have never lived in the wild and then they can't be released. Smuggling birds has also become more profitable than smuggling cocaine, which is insane. There was one bird we met who was smuggle in the wheel well of a car. It was the only bird to survive because of how tightly they were packed in to such a small space. The birds are very pretty, but they make me sad.
After our tours we had lunch at the Village with the amazing view. It was...amazing.
I spent the afternoon in the Fairway, which is one of the units of
Dogtown. Here the dogs are all green collared (which means they can
interact with anyone - purple collared means they can only interact with
people 18+ and red collared means they are a staff only dog). I really
enjoyed working with the care giver, Cathy. First she had to give a few
training demos to the tour group that came by, and then we did odds and
ends of things. We separated the dogs for feeding and then passed out
food bowls. After the dogs ate, we picked them up and I did the dishes.
She told me I had some free time to go meet the dogs, so that's what I
did. All of the dogs were super friendly, except two very shy dogs,
Mocha and Phil. I had already met Phil, as he was one of the project
dogs (in my top two because I love working with shy dogs).
When the rescue group that found Phil discovered him, he had third degree burn marks down his back and his collar embedded into his neck, so I can understand why he does not trust people quickly. I went out in the run to see if he would warm up to me. He's very shy towards men, but also very shy to any person at first. His run-mates all came up to me easily. I called Phil over a few times and he circled me, but wouldn't get too close. After a little while, he allowed me to pet his rear end. As time went on, he would let me pet his back and chest too. In the time I spent with him, he wasn't comfortable with me petting his head, but that was fine. He kept throwing his body into me and kept coming back for rubs. I'd say that was a successful socialization period. I also tried some socialization with miss Mocha. She is a very pretty dog, just very shy. She stayed inside the run (all runs have indoor and outdoor areas), so I think because the close proximity was another reason for her shyness. She did warm up to me eventually, but I'd say socialization is key with her. I just tried to find a photo of Mocha but it's looks as if she's been adopted. Yay Mocha! At the end of my shift, we had to take the dogs that were going to be adopted to the main Dogtown HQ where they'd be picked up either later or the next day. There were three of them (YAY!). Me, Cathy, and one of the team leaders each took a dog in our car and drove them over there. Cathy has a very strong background in dog training, and she was really interested in my experiences at DCHS. I think we can learn a lot from each other, so I will definitely be going back to the Fairway!
Friday, September 14th
I started my morning in Cat World. I was there to work at Cat World Headquarters. I started by playing with a very cute cat named Callie. She had a problem with her skin that makes it very itchy, so she had her fur cut short. Callie had to wear a sweater and a cone (when no one was particularly watching her) because she scratched a sore open on her neck. After we played, I took her for a walk, which was definitely a first for me. We put Callie in a sweater/harness thing and off we were! Cats walk much differently than dogs. For the most part, or at least in Callie's case, she just likes to sit outside and look around. This was not ideal when wild turkeys who were in our walking area kept getting closer and closer to us. I kept picking Callie up (who was not especially happy with me doing this) and walking away from them before setting her down again. After a while they left us alone. I brought Callie back just in time for some cleaning. They clean the cat rooms, which includes and inside room and an outside cattery, daily. I cleaned a room of a cat who just got adopted so I had to give it a full cleaning. This wasn't too difficult. After cleaning, I got to play with 4 very friendly kittens, who look as if they've gotten adopted! I don't remember all of their names, but here are some pictures. One of the kittens took to me quickly and became almost a bully to the other kittens when they tried to climb into my lap (which was not something I encouraged). After being at Cat World, all of the interns and who ever else wanted to when down to Horse Haven to see a Parelli demonstration.
Parelli is a form of natural horsemanship. You can read about it here. It's really cool how they train the horses. It's not at all traditional, which is good. They had two horses out, one pretty advanced and another who was only about 60% of the way there. They really take their time with the horses and don't force passed threshold. Dog training and horse training, and I assume any animal training, is a very slow process, which is not always in line with our immediate expectations. All in all, it was quite an experience to see what they did with the horses.
We broke for lunch and then continued on our days.
The second half of the day Karen (another intern) and I were scheduled in parrots. There wasn't much to do, so we took seeds into a bird cage and treated the birds. This is Pippin. He's cute and really liked to sit on my shoulder.I didn't spend too much time in birds because I had volunteered to feed/medicate cats that had been rescued from Colorado City. Some of you may have heard this story, but for those of you who haven't, it was pretty graphic. Colorado City contains a polygamous community and if you're wondering why Best Friends came and took their cats, here's the story - WARNING, it's very sad. Anyways, some of these cats have ringworm, amongst other problems, so they cannot be introduced to healthy cats. They are currently residing in the home of one of the founders of Best Friends. We went out there to see the cats and get instructed on what we would be doing. It's kind of a long process dealing with a lot of poop, food, and sanitizing making sure not to spread the ringworm as all animals and humans are susceptible to the fungus. I hope the cats get better!
After our little lesson in cat care, we had our weekly reflections intern meeting. It was really helpful to be able to go through the week with the other interns and Leesa, the coordinator.
I'll write about today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday) tomorrow.
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