Week 5, Days 4 & 5: Is it really over?!

I cannot believe the internship is over. Everyone said it would go by so fast and they were absolutely right. The final couple days were pretty tough. I spent a lot of my time outside of work working on my projects. In the end, I ended up doing research for Dr. Frank, bonding rabbits, making a pamphlet about bonding rabbits, and making a silly little video of bonding rabbits. It was definitely a rush to get it all finished in time!

On Thursday morning, I actually was quite sick, so I had to call in to work and let them know I couldn't make it. I was so disappointed because I was scheduled to work in an area that I love. I was feeling a bit better by afternoon, but mostly I felt that I just had to go in to work because it was Pepsi's last training class and I didn't want him to miss it. He was a really good boy, despite the rain and construction noise in Tara's Run. He even did his new trick (spin) with a lure. I was so proud of him. He's come so far in 5 weeks and our bond is unlike any I've had with another dog.

On Friday, I worked from home doing research for Dr. Frank. I'm really excited that I was allowed to do this through my internship because it is basically my dream job. Dr. Frank is amazing to work with and his studies are really interesting. I'm sure I'll continue to do a little more work here and there for the project just because I keep receiving e-mails about it!

The interns had a pizza lunch and I think for a lot of us it was starting to slowly hit us that this was the end. We only had one more shift left!

For my last shift, I took Pepsi on an outing. He was a bit stressed and distracted, probably due to a major change in weather. Mostly, he just wanted to sit on my lap. That was fine with me. I hugged him a lot, told him repeatedly how much I loved him, and then had the hardest time in the world bringing him back to his run. His caretaker said she'll keep me posted on his status and I really hope that my goodbye to him was not an actual goodbye, but a see you later. I miss you, Pepsi!

We ended the afternoon by gathering in the conference room and each intern presented their projects and some of their reflections and thoughts on the internship. The general consensus was that it was absolutely amazing, life changing, and tough to leave. I think we probably had the best possible group of people in our internship session and it was really hard to say goodbye to all the friends who I'd shared this amazing experience with.

I'll write some further reflections later, but I want to give it a little space as I transition back to my life in Minnesota. Plus, I'm too sad to write about it right now because I miss everything and everyone so much!

Week 4, Day 4: Maggie's and Pepsi

Today's been a great day because I got to work my morning shift in my favorite area of DogTown, Maggie's, and then work with Pepsi this afternoon. I love working in Maggie's because there is such a focus on training there. The caregiver is fantastic and the dogs are absolutely wonderful. I enjoyed getting to feed them while working on behavior and then walk several of them. They each get a report on how their walk went and any behaviors they exhibited.

There was one dog who particularly touched my heart today. His name is Peek-a-Boo. He's a recent addition to Best Friends, as he was found just months ago tied up in the nearby Peekaboo canyon. Worse than being tied up and abandoned, he also had severe blunt force trauma to his head. It was described to me as clearly intentional and the weapon was something like a baseball bat. This type of story makes me so sad, but so grateful that Best Friends exists. Peek-a-Boo spent the first bit of his time at Best Friends at the Vet Center. He was shut down to humans - not acknowledging our existence. He has come a long way in a couple months. He now interacts with humans and even knows "sit" and "down." He's an amazing and gentle dog. He is still very fearful if you try to touch his head (or in my case, put both a collar and a halter over his head). But he did not lash out at me at all. Once we got past putting things near his head, we enjoyed a wonderful walk together. Here he is doing sit and down on his walk:

He's skin and bones right now but he's finally getting the love and care that he needs at Best Friends. He will make an unbelievably wonderful family dog and I can't wait for him to have his happily ever after.

Thursday lunches are always awesome because different departments throughout the sanctuary share stories of what's going on in their areas. Today, the rabbit update was about bonding and they featured pictures of Benjamin and Fargo that I helped bond in the past couple weeks! There were great stories from every department, and it's always inspiring.

After lunch, it was time to pick up Pepsi and take him to his training class. I get so much joy when I see him and spend time with him. He did amazingly well in class today! He hardly barked at all, and if he did get distracted by another dog, all I had to do was say his name and he would re-direct his focus right back to me. We worked on "sit," which he now can do with only a verbal command, and "down," which he can sometimes do with just a verbal command, but still usually needs a hand lure. We had fun learning to do "Puppy Push-ups," where the dog goes into a sit, then a down, then a sit, and a down, and so on. Pepsi loved doing them! Next week for our last class together, I'm supposed to teach Pepsi a trick. I know he's amazingly smart, so I hope I can come up with something clever and teach it to him in time. 

Pepsi and I spent some quiet time together after class. We usually don't go out and do something very stimulating because class is already over-stimulating for him. We enjoy snuggling together and I tell him what a good boy he was in class and how proud of him I am. After spending some time with him, I put him back in his run. It hit me like a ton of bricks that I only have one more week left with him. I've fallen completely in love with him and formed a strong bond. As I was saying goodbye to him today and he was looking at me through his door, still wagging his tail in hopes I'd stay and play, I teared up knowing that I would have to say goodbye forever next week. I can't stand the thought of abandoning him. He's in a wonderful place at Best Friends, but this boy needs to be in a home! Somebody please adopt him! Here he is in his run as I said goodbye this afternoon:

It was a bittersweet end to my day, but I look forward to the time I have left at this amazing sanctuary!

Week 4, Day 1: Bonding

Well, I was supposed to be doing some rabbit bonding today, but that ended up not happening, which I'll get to later. Luckily, I still had a great day and bonded with others in the process.

My morning shift was spent entirely with Pepsi. He was super excited to see me this morning and I was beyond excited to see him. I just adore this boy! First, we went to Tara's Run, the training area, because he loves it there and he can run around and play on agility equipment and get some energy out, all while feeling safe and not distracted by other dogs. We had a blast in there today, going on the teeter-totter, the dog walk, the a-frame, through a little tunnel, over a hurdle, and jumping on on all the tables. Sometime in the middle of all this fun, I pulled him aside into a smaller enclosure to work on our homework assignment from last week's training class, called "101 Things to do With a Box." Basically, we were assigned to just clicker train our dog to pay attention to the box and then gradually shape a behavior out of it. Pepsi did great: by the end of our session he knew to put his front two paws in the box in order to get a "click" and a treat!

After our weekly visit to the Welcome Center, where Pepsi goes to see his fan club, we headed into town. He did very well in town and visited with several people. One staff member even pulled off the road to come get her "Pepsi fix" when she saw us out walking. I swear, there is not a single person I meet who does not love this dog! We met man in town, who Pepsi really took to immediately and this man really liked Pepsi. I thought for a moment I might have found his match. It was love at first sight for them both. Unfortunately, this man has a cat at home and Pepsi doesn't do well with cats. I was really bummed out because they seemed like they'd make a great team.

Next, Pepsi and I decided to take a hike together. He's a very athletic dog, but this hike was much rockier than I expected, so we both were scrambling! The views toward the top were amazing though!

We bonded deeply during this hike because we had to watch out for one another. Sometimes he didn't know how to navigate the rocks, so he'd look back at me, asking me to go first and show him. Other times, he led the way through narrow paths, with a drop off just to the side of us. He was always very careful to not pull me. For example, when he would get momentum up while going down a bunch of steep rocks, he would stop at the bottom so that I could go down the rocks too before we moved on. It was really an amazing partnership. We were both in a situation that was rather harrowing and dangerous in retrospect, but we were 100% there for each other. 

At one point, the trail split, and I let Pepsi decide which way to go. Unfortunately, the decision was not the right one because after walking for a ways, the trail suddenly ended in a sandy cliff that we both began to slip down! It was really scary. After we started sliding down a few feet, we slowed a bit and I just told him to hold very still. I started to slowly move back up, without causing an avalanche of sand and then told him to slowly follow as I was able to help pull him up back onto a flat surface. He acted perfectly and I could have cried as I hugged him and told him what a good boy he was for staying calm and listening to me. 

So we ended up getting out of our scary situation with no problems. Well, there was one tiny problem in that we ran into another dog on our way down. We pulled off to the side of the narrow trail to let it pass, but Pepsi is in love with other dogs, and though I was hanging on to a significantly sized rock to brace myself against his inevitable pulling on the leash towards the other dog, Pepsi was stronger than my rock and I stumbled and cut up my hand on some rocks. No big deal though: two bandaids later, I'm as good as new.

We were both exhausted after our adventure, so we headed home just in time for lunch. This was Pepsi on the ride home:

Thank you, dear Pepsi, for all the dog fur, slobber and paw prints that now adorn my rental car! I put him back in his run when he got home and after a big drink of water (I did have water with us on the hike for him to drink), he flopped down on his side and settled in for what I presume was a very good nap. I wish I could have napped with him!

After lunch, I headed up to Rescue Village to do my bonding with the rabbits, or as I like to call it, smooshing bunnies (because sometimes you literally have to smoosh them together!). However, they were way understaffed today, so Meghan (a fellow intern) and I ended up just helping out however we were needed. It was actually a really fun afternoon. Usually there aren't two interns working in the same area, but Meghan and I both happen to be doing projects up there, so we worked together and bonded while cleaning, feeding, and watering the rabbits. Having her there made the time go by so much faster!

I was happy to see that my first pair of rabbits that I did bond are doing great together. Someone even made them a special sign:

I got home from work today and, after an exhausting day with a not-so-great night's sleep last night, I lay down on the living room floor to greet all the cats and dogs that I live with. They all piled on top of me and I ended up falling asleep! I woke up in time for dinner and I'm looking forward to going back to bed tonight!

Week 3, Day 5: Puppies, kittens, and a baby stroller

If you read yesterday's post, you know I was feeling really sick most of the day. I got a really good night's sleep, but still didn't wake up feeling well. I nearly called in sick today, but decided to at least give it a shot and I'm really glad I did. It turned out to be a day that didn't require much exertion, but was rewarding and full of adorable baby animals!

My morning shift was in Puppy Pre-School. I got to do another puppy socialization class and this time I worked with a 10-week old puppy named Pebbles. He's a sharpai/pug. He's pretty much the cutest thing ever and is absolutely covered in wrinkles. Unfortunately, he's a product of a puppy mill momma, and the breeding was terrible. All the puppies from the litter, and the mom herself, have health problems or will get them down the road. Best Friends had to make sure the forever families knew that they weren't just getting an adorable puppy, but one who might need expensive surgeries down the line. Here's Pebbles:

After puppy class, I helped socialize some of the younger puppies with older dogs for the first time. These puppies are raised so well at the sanctuary! They're exposed to so many situations. One of the puppies, Tweety, decided to take refuge in my lap for a bit during his playtime with the big dogs:

During my shift, I also took a dog out to the puppy dog park, socialized a few dogs, did some doggie laundry, and held puppies while they got their rabies shots. 

After lunch, I worked in CatWorld Headquarters. I was excited for this shift because I knew I would meet Dr. Frank, who is an amazing animal behaviorist. I had been in e-mail contact with him to see if I could help him with any of his research, and he spent some time with me today talking about the research and what I could do to help. I'm really excited to have that as a project. Dr. Frank is so smart and highly regarded, and it was a privilege to get to see him at work with some of the cats. One thing we did together was take cats on walks in a baby stroller! It is a great way for cats to get out if they can't be outside much and don't do well on walks. Here I am walking a sweetheart named Zeb:

The rest of my afternoon was spent socializing with cats who need a little extra help. Sometimes they're very shy, other times they are scared of humans and tend to lash out by swatting at caregivers. One cat would hardly come out of his little soft enclosure in his run, but some baby food on my finger got him to come to me eventually, even if only for a minute. In one of the runs, there were three cats: two kittens and an older cat. The older cat can't be touched because he will swat with claws. He's just too scared right now. But the caregiver had me go in there anyway and play with the two friendly kittens with the older cat watching so that he could see that people are good and don't hurt cats. It was really fun to play with the kittens; I couldn't tell the two apart for the life of me, but here's one of them:

I finished up my shift doing some cat laundry, and then headed over to my intern meeting. You know you work at Best Friends when you head to a meeting with cat poop on your pants and it's no big deal.

I'm really glad the weekend is here so that, depending on how I feel, I can either explore and do some more hiking, or rest and relax. I'm hoping for a little of both!

Week 3, Day 4: Dogs, Dogs, Dogs

I haven't felt very well today. I've been having a flare up all day of some of my chronic illness issues, including an upset stomach and really bad fatigue. I didn't feel too bad this morning when I started my morning shift at the Fairway in DogTown. But the first thing I did was take a little chihuahua on a walk, and I could hardly make it through the walk. Luckily, a lot of the rest of my morning was spent socializing shy dogs, so that did not require much exertion on my part. It was really rewarding to work with a couple of dogs who would not allow me anywhere near them a couple weeks ago and watch them start to make progress. Two dogs in particular got to the point where they'd take food from my hand and allow me to pet them. I could tell it was hard on them, but I'm so proud of their progress.

One dog I worked with is named Mocha. She is such a sweet dog! I have never been able to get near her. Today I sat outside with her on a leash and I tried to feed her peanut butter, just to associate being outside with me with something good. This was how she was when we first got out there: lying as far away from me as the leash would possibly allow!

She would not eat the peanut butter from me, but if I put some on the ground near her, she'd eat it when I walked away. By the end of our time together, she ate one single lick from the spoon of peanut butter in my hand. Later, I worked with her in her run. This is when we really made progress. She flinched the first time I touched her, and tucked her tail as I pet her, but slowly over time, she started to get more comfortable. After a while, she was giving me kisses!

Success! It was a really satisfying morning. Too bad I felt sick for most of it. After lunch, it was time to pick up Pepsi for training class. He was excited to see me, which was really nice. Last week's class did not go very well because he gets too excited and distracted when he's around other dogs, but this week we worked really hard on not barking and on staying focused. He did a great job! We also all worked on loose-leash walking, which he is very good at. But I found that when he was on the road with cars, and all the other dogs from class, he struggled and wanted to pull. Every time he pulled, we stopped walking. By the end of the walk, he was doing great again.

At the end of class, a lot of what we were doing was just sitting and listening to the trainer. Pepsi has trouble with this because he wants to be doing something, especially if it involves greeting the other dogs. But we sat through the whole thing and he didn't make a peep. Granted, I was feeding him a million treats, but hey, whatever it takes! He was getting so slobbery from the treats and dirty from the dirt flooring the he got himself (and me!) totally caked with slobbery muddy dirt. Look at his paws!

After class, we have the opportunity to take our dogs on outings. Pepsi gets very stressed during class, so I personally think the last thing he needs after class is more stressful stimulation. So instead, we went somewhere quiet and sat together. He was on my lap of course. This was also good for me because I really wasn't feeling well by this time.

I was hoping to go to the Blessing at Angel's Rest tonight, which is a blessing of animals who have crossed the rainbow bridge. I actually donated money in honor of my last dog, Soda, to Best Friends and had her commemorated at their Blessing last year. So it's an emotional thing for sure, but I really wanted to go. Unfortunately, I'm just not up to it. I hate when I have flare-ups of my illness and I don't even know what really caused them. All I know is that I need to rest in bed, eat the right foods, and hope my stomach doesn't start to feel even worse! Hopefully a good night of rest will make me feel better.

Oh, and to end on a positive note: I checked in with Rescue Village this morning and my first two rabbits that I helped bond spent the night unsupervised and it went really well! They were cuddling all day today and continuing to groom each other. What a success!

Week 3, Day 3: Halfway Point!

I can't believe I'm halfway through my internship already! I feel like I still have so much to do and so little time! Today was one of my favorite days so far, and I'll explain why in a bit, but first I have to do a little photographic rewind and post some pictures from yesterday to make up for last night's photo-less blog post. I mentioned I worked in horses in the morning. There are two horses in particular that I really enjoyed being around: Helen and Amir. Helen has been blind in one eye her whole life and has gradually lost sight in her other eye over time. She's a beautiful horse, but she just makes me laugh because she lies down and groans all the time. The first time I witnessed it, I thought she was dying! But it's just how she is! Here she is in her beautiful surroundings:

The cool thing about Helen is that she has a boyfriend, Amir. They live in the same pasture and he is her eyes. I love them together. He's a very handsome horse, with a great personality. Here I am with him:

If you aren't familiar with horses, you may be wondering why they're both wearing masks. Those are fly masks to help keep the flies off their faces. Oh, and yes, I'm wearing two jackets in this picture because it was freezing out in the morning, but in the high 80s later that afternoon. Crazy Utah weather. A huge thank you goes out to Ron for letting me borrow his jacket to wear over mine!

After mucking, we had to dump all the fragrant horse poop in its proper place. I captured this gem of a shot of Ron, in his new favorite Fredonia t-shirt, in the act of dumping tons of horse poop!

Okay, so now that we're caught up with photos, I can tell you why today was one of my favorite days so far. The first thing I got to do today was go to puppy socialization class. These puppies had amazing manners already and were so precious! The puppy I worked with, along with my fellow intern, Megan, was named Utter. Here she is:

It's almost too much cuteness to handle! After working on some manners and commands with the puppies, they were allowed to have a little playtime. Here's a clip of it for your viewing pleasure:

After working with the puppies, I headed over to another area of DogTown called Maggie's. I've been wanting to work in Maggie's since I found out about it. Maggie's houses dogs who need to live alone and who have some behavioral issues to work on. But they are sweet, wonderful dogs. Usually it's just one or two things that bother them, so we really try to work on those things with training so they can be adopted. I loved the dogs I met there today and I really liked the caretaker. I walked several of the dogs and took notes on their behavior throughout their walks. I like that this particular dog run takes special note of animal behavior and training. I am excited to focus more of my time there in the coming weeks.

In the afternoon, I was back at Rescue Village, bonding bunnies. I'm really enjoying this work. It's really rewarding to me to help a rabbit find a companion and also free up space for more rabbits to be rescued. My first pair that I started bonding have been together each day, supervised, for about a week now. They are Benjamin and Fargo. They're doing so great that tonight, they are being allowed to sleep in the same run, unattended. I'm praying it goes well, and I think it will, given how close they've become this week:

I will be calling Rescue Village first thing tomorrow morning to see how they did overnight! Today, I started bonding a new pair of rabbits: Piper and Scooby. They were very nervous the whole time, but showed no aggression towards one another. We'll have to see how they do in the next few days. Assuming it goes over well with the powers that be, I will be doing bonding as my internship project, and writing a pamphlet to hand out to visitors and potential adopters about why we bond rabbits and how to do it. The rabbit staff is really excited about this project! I love the staff up there. I'm even recording some video of the bonding so I might make a supplemental youtube video on bonding as well, as time permits.

After work today, I went to a talk by one of the founders of Best Friends, which was interesting and fun, but made for a long day. I came home and spent some fun time with my host family. Now I'm getting to bed too late! Tomorrow, I'll be in DogTown all day, first at the Fairway, where I worked my first real shift a couple weeks ago, and then in training class and on an outing with Pepsi, my project dog. After work, I'll be attending the blessing at Angel's Rest, where the sanctuary animals are buried once they've crossed the rainbow bridge. It's a beautiful place and I know I'll cry, so I should probably bring a box of tissues! Anyone can have their pet honored at one of these blessings. When my last dog died, I sent in a donation to Best Friends in honor of her and specified for her to be part of the blessing at Angel's Rest. A ribbon with her name on it was hanging with many others from the tree branches at Angel's Rest. 

One more thing before I end this blog (mostly because I don't want to end it on a sad note!): I heard from one of the vets who works here and does a lot of research in animal behavior, which is my biggest interest. I had asked him if he wanted help with anything that I could do for a project and he got back to me today saying there might be something I could do to help him with the current study he's working on. I'm really excited about that and will meet with him Friday to talk more about it! 

Week 3, Day 2: Horses, Dogs, Bunny Bonding

This morning turned out not to be a morning full of Parelli training, but I was able to discuss with the trainer better times to schedule my work sessions for that. So in the future, hopefully that will work out. For today, I mucked horse pastures, which was actually fun because there were several of us doing it, making jokes, talking, and of course enjoying our beautiful surroundings.

I ducked out of my morning shift early for a special intern opportunity. We got to go with one of the caretakers to her building of dogs, which tend to be very aggressive. Most of them are red collar dogs, and some will stay at the sanctuary forever because they cannot safely be adopted out into society. She talked about their behavior, some of the things they'd been through, some reasons behind why they do what they do (it's actually usually a lack of confidence, just like shy dogs!). If you think about it, that makes a lot of sense: when shy dogs get scared they use the "flight" response and when aggressive dogs get scared they use the "fight" response. At least one dog had a neurological condition where he's sweet and wonderful most of the time, but then basically loses his mind and goes crazy and can be aggressive until the episode passes. The vets still aren't sure what's causing that. A lot of these dogs are actually sweet a lot of the time, but pose dangers because they could flip to an aggressive side. It is great to know that they have such an amazing caretaker, who sees the good in them and does not give up on them, even if they'll live the rest of their lives at Best Friends. These dogs get playtime, walks, treats, training, and everything else the other dogs get. They live a good life. Some will eventually be adoptable to the right person as they are rehabilitated.

My afternoon shift was at Rescue Village again, which is definitely going to be one of my focus areas. I'm really loving helping out with bonding rabbits. My first pair that I probably mentioned last time I worked there is Fargo and Benjamin. I sat and watched them again today and supervised their interactions. They did so well! They've begun grooming each other and snuggling on their own without me having to smoosh them together. I'll work there tomorrow afternoon again, and the caretakers said if things go as well tomorrow as they did today, they think the pair will be bonded enough to try to stay the night together without supervision. It makes me nervous because they're my first bonded pair and I want them to do really well! I think they will. If all goes well, I'll move onto bonding another set of animals, and this time, we might bond up to four rabbits together at once! Should be exciting! I'm trying to come up with my intern project idea and I think maybe I'll do a pamphlet on rabbits and bonding. It's something I knew nothing about, but is so important to the rabbits. Now that I know, it would be great to help educate the visitors and potential adopters at Best Friends about bonding. The caretakers were excited at the prospect of this project, so that makes me happy.

I'm very excited for tomorrow because I have such a great day lined up: first I get to sleep in because I'm working at the Puppy Socialization Class, which doesn't start until 9:30 and I can't interact with other dogs before that, since the puppies don't have all their shots yet. After playing with puppies, I get to head over to Maggie's, which is an area of DogTown I've been wanting to work in since day 1. They really focus on animal behavior there and I've heard nothing but good things about it. Then, I get to spend my afternoon with the bunnies again. I'm not only growing fond of rabbits, but I love working up there because the staff are really great. So, even though I never thought I'd actually feel this way, I can't wait to go to work tomorrow!

Week 3, Day 1: Pepsi Explores Kanab

My morning shift today was at Dulcie's, which is the octagon in DogTown where Pepsi lives.

Because dogs in this area were rotating in and out of the dog park all day, I got to take Pepsi on an outing all morning! I was so excited to spend hours of quality time with him, in which we could bond and work on behavior and manners. Our first stop was Tara's Run, the training area right near Pepsi's run. I know he loves going to Tara's and we were lucky enough that no one else was there. I let Pepsi run around and get some of his wiggles out. Here's a video of when we first got there. Please note: I do not always talk with such a high-pitched, enthusiastic voice (oh, the things we do for dogs!).

After Pepsi explored to his heart's content, I worked with him on some of his commands. He knows "sit" very well and does it nearly every time (you can guarantee a sit if you have a treat in your hand). He does not know "down" as well, since we just started working on it last week. But we worked a little on it again today and here he is getting it right!

Pepsi loves to climb around on the agility equipment, but I had never tried to get him to jump through the hoop before. We gave it a couple tries and here's one of his attempts. Not too bad!

After resting on my lap at Tara's for a while, we decided to move on to our next stop: the Welcome Center! Pepsi just loves it there because all the staff and visitors adore him. He gets constantly petted and given lots of treats. Everyone comments on his looks and how sweet he is. I hope to take him there often so that he might meet his match for a forever home! He was much calmer there today than yesterday, despite more distractions. He even took time to stop and smell the flowers:

Next, Pepsi and I left the Sanctuary together for the first time. He's really good at riding in my car! We headed into Kanab to walk around town. Our first stop was Critter Corner, the local pet supply store. Pepsi went shopping and wanted to buy one of everything. The owner was incredibly nice and completely fell in love with Pepsi.

We kept the car parked at Critter Corner and continued to walk a few blocks into town. We passed several shops and restaurants. As it turns out, Pepsi is quite the Kanab celebrity! We could hardly walk a few minutes without someone calling out his name and wanting to say hi! There are lots of sanctuary staff and volunteers around town, so he can't go anywhere without being recognized. We also met lots of locals and tourists from all over the world and they all wanted to pet him and say hello. He was so good walking on a leash with all the distractions of town!

Our final stop was a trail right by where I'm living. I decided to take Pepsi on a walk there to stimulate him with a new environment, since I'm sure he's very familiar with the trails around DogTown.

Pepsi and I took turns leading the way on the narrow path, and he had great recall if he ever got to the end of his leash.

Before we left the trail, we stopped to rest on a bench (and of course he crawled right into my lap!) and we just enjoyed the beauty of the day and our surroundings. We were both happy to snuggle up, and Pepsi snuck in some big slobbery kisses to my face. We headed back to DogTown right before lunch and I think we both had a really great morning.

So after seeing all this, you probably want to adopt Pepsi, right? If you're interested, click here!

My afternoon was spent working in another area of DogTown and it was pretty typical. The one cool thing that really stood out in my mind was that I got to go to a vet appointment with the caregiver and one of the dogs. Best Friends is very holistic, so this dog was headed to a vet who performs chiropractic work. It was wonderful to hear how much progress he'd made since the last time she saw him. His back, hips, and neck were all doing a lot better and he only needed one small adjustment. He had gained a really healthy amount of weight since last time and his coat was gleaming. I felt really lucky to get to see all that in person.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, since I'll get to work with Parelli horse training, visit some special dogs, and work with rabbits in the afternoon!

Weekend Photo Blog: Zion and Pepsi

Zion National Park

Last week, the interns decided that we would go hiking in Zion National Park on Saturday. Best decision ever. It was beyond stunning and the hike was so fun (although a bit longer and more strenuous than the guidebook had led me to believe!). It was definitely a day I'll never forget. I plan to post more pictures of the hike and my entire time here in Utah on my facebook page when I've completed my 5 weeks here, but here are a few favorite pictures for now:

At the trailhead

Stunning view. I think the peak on the left is the one we summited.

We took a break in a cave. Ryan, Me, Japhy, Meghan.

Steph, Me, and Meghan

Getting ready to hike the tricky part ahead!

The options are pretty much hold on to the chains and climb, or fall off the cliff!

Gorgeous views made the climb so worth the effort!

Hard to believe we hiked all the way up from that valley!

At the summit! Ryan, Amy, Meghan, Me, Japhy

Pepsi Time

After Zion on Saturday, I thought I would be too tired and sore to go hang out with my project dog, Pepsi, on Sunday. I definitely was tired and sore, but after resting in the morning, I really wanted to go do a little work with my project dog. You know you love your job when you want to go there on your day off! So I headed over to DogTown and picked up Pepsi. I didn't know how he would do in my car or with other people, so we started out small. I took him to Angel's Overlook, which is not far from DogTown and has a nice trail and even a labyrinth. Pepsi jumped right into the backseat of my car without even hesitating. He did not like that I tied him into the back seat (he was very excited and really wanted to be in the front seat). But he calmed down quickly and I think he enjoyed the car! We took a walk along the trails and then over to the labyrinth. I was shocked at how good of a walker he is! I'm used to him pulling on his leash to greet other people or dogs, but when we were by ourselves, there was slack in the leash the whole time. He was the perfect walker! He even walked the labyrinth with me, but he did step out of bounds a few times. I don't think he quite understood the concept! Here's a picture of him sitting at the center of the labyrinth next to a rock that says, "Angels gather here."

Since he did so well with the first part of his outing, I decided to take him down to the Welcome Center in the lower canyon, so that he would meet more people. Again, he did great in the car after an initial period of excitement. We went in the welcome center and all the staff came to say hi to him. They just loved him! He made it his mission to welcome every visitor as well. He did so well! He never jumped on anyone, and I gave some people treats to give to him when he sat for them. He did it every time! I'm so proud of my boy! 

After giving him a well-deserved hug, we headed back to his home in DogTown. I will work with him again tomorrow morning. I'm really excited to continue his work with focusing on me while there are distractions. If we can make progress on that, he'll be pretty much the perfect dog. As long as you're okay with a 70 pound lap dog who will smother you with kisses! 

Week 2, Day 5: Emotional Roller Coaster!

I cried twice at work today, once of sadness and once of happiness. If my job was an office job, that would probably be frowned upon, seen as something too emotional or inappropriate. But both times today, my tears were shared and understood by the people I worked with.

Rescue Village

I began my day with a shift in Rescue Village, which houses rabbits. All the rabbits in the yurts at Rescue Village came from one giant rescue mission from a hoarder in Reno, NV. They are not kidding when they say rabbits multiply quickly. I think when Best Friends got the call to help out, there were about 1,000 rabbits. By the time they got there, there were 1,600. The situation looked like this:

Rabbits carry a parasite called Encephalitozoon cuniculi (EC). For many rabbits, this will never become a problem, but for others, it causes neurological damage that often results in partial to full paralysis and many other degenerative conditions. So Rescue Village houses these rabbits, many of whom need special medical care.

I began my day walking around the yurt to which I had been assigned with a caregiver. We were feeding the rabbits as we went. Then we both saw it: one rabbit in the next run, lying on her side, not moving. The caregiver jumped into action as I gasped. Sure enough, she had passed away during the night. I've seen my fair share of dead animals (all you have to do is drive down a road and see all those hit by cars!) and I've seen many animals and people I've cared deeply about die too. So you may not think that the death of a rabbit who I didn't know would affect me, but it was an incredibly sad sight. Her name was Lissa. Rabbits bond for life. Lissa was bonded to two other rabbits in her run. It makes me so sad to think of what all of them went through that previous night as she died. The staff at Rescue Village were all wonderful and came to check on me to make sure I was okay and apologize for me having to see that. I was okay - it is part of the cycle of life. It's just hard to see.

I began cleaning the runs in that yurt, with the image of Lissa always in my mind. When I got to her run to clean it, I just broke down crying. There was vomit and urine near where she died and I just hope she didn't suffer much. As prey animals, rabbits hide illness and injury very well, so she was thought to be completely healthy until her death. I cleaned the run and cried the whole time. I replaced all the blankets with fresh ones and made it as nice as I could for the remaining two rabbits. Lissa, may you rest in peace.

I never came to Best Friends thinking I would focus any significant time in Bunny House or Rescue Village. Rabbits seemed cool, but I didn't have a huge interest in them except that they are cute and soft. But in my short time working here, I've learned so much about them and how amazingly complex they are. I love that they bond for life. They really need to have a companion to be happy. So, affected by the death of Lissa, and seeing some of the other rabbits at Rescue Village who had also lost their bonded partners, I decided to focus some of the remainder of my internship doing a little "matchmaking" and working on bonding pairs of rabbits. That may sound easy, but there are three species of mammals who will fight their own kind to the death: humans, dogs, and rabbits. I had no idea! They are very picky about who they are put with and will kill each other if it doesn't work out! But once they're bonded with the right rabbit, they will always have each other's backs. So today, I started bonding Benjamin and Fargo. These are Fargo's and Benjamin's current companions, respectively:

Clearly there's room for improvement! So we started the two rabbits together in a pen, highly supervised. Here they are:

Fargo is on the left and you may notice his back legs leaning off to the side. He is affected by EC and is mostly paralyzed in his lower body. Benjamin is on the right; EC has not affected him. Both have relatively recently lost their previous partners. The introduction went pretty well! I smooshed them together and pet them a lot to get each one's sent on the other one. I also rewarded them with carrots when they were being calm and not chasing or biting at each other:

By the end of my shift, I left them looking like this:

While I watched them, I made a special treat for the rabbits called Angel's Mush. I hope you're not eating as you read this because it looks disgusting:

But the rabbits adore it! It gets made into frozen treats. Here's the final product:

DogTown: The Clubhouse

For my afternoon shift, I worked in an area of DogTown called The Clubhouse. It houses a mix of all colors of dog collars, so there were few dogs that I could actually interact with. I worked in the small dog building. I cleaned every run (with the world's heaviest mop) and made sure all the bedding was fresh. All the dogs were kept outdoors while I worked on their indoor run. They looked very cozy by the time the dogs were allowed to come back in and get ready for dinner. There is usually a dog in the kitchen while the food is being prepared, but today I had a bonus and we got two kitchen dogs! I completely fell in love with one of them and wanted to take her home! She was so sweet! She had been hit by a car, so her back is broken and she has very limited use of her back legs. But she is a happy, sweet girl, full of kisses. And she loves to take walks, go to physical therapy, and just be a dog! Her name is Thumbelina:

The other little office dog was Isiah, who was a complete lap dog (and totally mischievous!):

So let me tell you about the second time I cried today. This time, my tears were out of happiness. I got to witness my first Best Friends dog go to his forever home. It was a small dog named Sammy and he was getting picked up by his eager new momma. She waited outside while the caregiver got him ready to leave. It was very bittersweet for the caregiver, who had grown very attached to this dog. I watched as he gave Sammy one last kiss on the head, told him he loved him, and handed him off to his new mom. She could hardly contain her excitement and Sammy started licking her chin immediately. It was so beautiful, I couldn't help but tear up! I wish Sammy the absolute best in his forever home! It's sad to see a dog you love leave, but it's so wonderful for that animal and it only makes room for us to rescue more animals!

After concluding our week with our weekly intern meeting, I left feeling like I'd had a pretty productive day. There can be a lot of sadness in animal rescue and a lot of cruelty and things you don't even want to imagine. But when the little victories happen, like when two very shy dogs who are terrified of humans ate their meals out of my hands today, it warms my heart like nothing else. And when the big victories happen, like an animal finally going to a forever home, it makes everything worth it. There's no better feeling in the world.