Weekend: Bryce and Intern Gathering

This weekend has been amazing. On Saturday, several of us girls got up bright an early and hit the road for Bryce Canyon National Park. It was stunning. There really are no words to describe it, nor can my photos do it justice. It was one of the most beautiful days of my life. I was so happy to be able to enjoy the beauty with my intern friends. Here we are at the trail head (we ended up hiking a few more miles than we meant to!) and then there's a picture of the famous hoodoos.

Given that I hadn't felt well the previous few days, and even that morning, I was a little concerned about hiking at Bryce, given that it is 8,000-9,000 ft in elevation and I get altitude sickness at 4,000 feet! I definitely felt it a few times on the hike, but it was so worth it.

Today, Sunday, I took a rest day and it was lovely. I capped off the weekend with an intern gathering where Japhy's staying, which had the most spectacular views. Our intern coordinator, Leesa, was also there and it was a really relaxing, fun night. What a great group of people:

Left to Right: Karen, Steph, Meghan, Me, Leesa, Amy, Japhy, Ryan

All in all, a great weekend. I can't believe I only have two weeks left here. I feel like I have so much to do, both at work and at play! I have four more sights I want to experience and two projects to complete at work! I better get to bed!

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!