Hey! Alrighty, so Erin flew into town on Wednesday and we went out for some dinner and drinks that night at Macayo's (a popular Mexican place here), with some friends. On Thursday Erin & I worked on our tans (which didn't take much time!) and we went out to eat at Yard House (my favorite place!) Friday morning Erin & I started our trip north.
So we rented a car because my car is 13 years old and I wasn't sure how the combination of mileage, uphill/downhill, and heat would affect it. This of course makes me want a new car again because it was just so smooth! Anyway, we headed to the Grand Canyon which is always beautiful. I wish I could see it for the first time again ya know? But it's still fun to see, and fun to see people's reactions when they catch a glimpse for the first time. I think maybe sometime I wanna head over to the North Rim and walk on the skywalk. I pretty much always go to the same place every time I've been, Mather Point. And one time my friend Cathy & I went to Desert View-- which was neat.
So after the Grand Canyon we got back on the road to head to Kanab, Utah. This is like 3.5 hours or so further north and a little west. A beautiful route with the red rocks, through Page, and Lake Powell/Glen Canyon Dam. We got to our cabin on the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary grounds about 10 or so Friday night... we were greeted by the biggest bug I've ever seen hanging out on the door frame entering the cabin...I made Erin go in first. Thank God she's not afraid of bugs or we wouldn't have survived. I dunno what this bug was, but I swear it had horns and everything. It kinda looked like a bug that Pumbaa was following on the Lion King. Anyway from that point on I was on high alert. We walked in and I saw some other big bug on the floor, which Erin promptly smashed for me (THANK YOU ERIN!) And a few little ones here & there. So I made Erin check the bed, etc before getting in. We're laying there and I see a spider on the ceiling...Erin's asleep so all I can do is keep an eye on it. I swear I watched it for like an hour. It finally started moving across the ceiling, further from us until I couldn't see it anymore so I fell asleep-- although I was pretty tense as I slept! I woke up a bit later to the spider exactly where it had been earlier on the ceiling and started watching it all over again. It started moving towards the wall which I was thankful for so it would come down a little ways, I'd kill it, I'd sleep. This was the plan anyway...I watched it come further & further down the wall while gaining speed, I looked away for like a millisecond to pick up my shoe and he was gone! At this point I realize he must be in the bed but I can't see him, and I sure as heck can't just stand up the entire night so I get back in bed, tense as hell. I set my phone down and turn back just in time to see him scurrying down my arm!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe that?! I jump out of bed, Erin wakes up convinced I'm delusional. I turn the light on in time to see him all willy nilly crawling across the top cover, I swat, and miss him.... yuck. I finally get back in the bed, kick all the covers off and lay there pretty much in the fetal position, finally sleeping but swatting all night at phantom bugs! I wake up in the morning to the same (or so I thought!) spider up on the ceiling and Erin offs him for me :) Then we make the bed...where my friend from the night before comes crawling out of the covers. And Erin gets 'em. YUCK! The good news at this point is that every living bug I'd seen (aside from the giant Pumbaa bug) has been killed so I can relax. Although I spent the rest of the time there looking very carefully everywhere I sat or stepped, and shaking everything out before using it!!
Whew, so that morning we headed to the welcome center to check in and watch a welcome movie that tells all about the society and the sanctuary. Which I of course spent the whole time trying not to cry. After that we took a tour which drove us all over the place-- Horse Haven, Piggy Paradise, Dogtown, Cat World, etc. The sanctuary is set on 3800 acres of land and has more than 1800 animals at any given time. It's the largest no-kill shelter in the country, if not the world... (it may be, I'm not sure). The scenery is beautiful--rocks, cliffs, trees. Best Friends took in 22 of the Michael Vick dogs, which they call the "Vicktory Dogs." If I remember right, at this point the first 1 has been adopted out, and all but 7 are being fostered right now!! So, clearly the dogs can and are making progress. Dogtown is where all the dogs are kept and there's a few different locations. The buildings are set up as octagons where 1-3 dogs are kept in each space; which consists of an indoor space and an outdoor run. They all have little swimming pools for keeping cool, toys, and beds galore. It's obvious they are all very well cared for and HAPPY! Cat World has a bunch of buildings that also have indoor and outdoor spaces. They have a lot of rafters for the kitties to climb around in and tons of beds to lounge in too. They also have a couple special houses-- the "Incontinental House" where the incontinent kitties stay, and a house for cats with skin cancer that has shade over the screened in outdoor space. They also have places for bunnies & birds, and I'm sure something I'm forgetting.
After the tour we grabbed some lunch before heading to volunteer in Dogtown. Basically you can help out with whatever needs to be done. Each set of octagons has a caregiver that oversees everything going on with the dogs in those areas. The work consists of feeding, grooming, cleaning spaces, walking them, socializing, or taking them on outings. So, we took a dog, Miranda, on an outing. She loved riding in the car and we took her to the natural amphitheater that they have there to roam around. She was a pretty independent dog, not caring much for a lot of affection but still very sweet. When we took her back we helped clean out some swimming pools and fill them with water, which they loved! One dog in particular, Popi, LOVED it! He kept trying to steal the hose from Erin. After that we socialized a bit and picked out a pup for an overnight guest. Yes, you can take a dog to sleepover! A lot of the hotels in town allow dogs (as do the restaurants) and since we were staying on the grounds it was even better. The flooring is easy-clean stuff, and they have dog doors & little runs there to let the dogs out. Since we were in an easy-clean place they suggested we take a dog named Katie Mo. She's fairly new to the place and hasn't been house-trained yet so she hasn't got to do very many outings. She was a doll! A sweet girl, and she never had any accidents either! We just made sure she had a chance every couple hours and she woke me up in the morning to take her out. We got to take her into dinner with us too and she behaved really well.
Sunday morning we took Katie Mo back and headed over to Piggy Paradise to work with the 19 potbellied pigs they had there. So we made all the breakfasts. Each pig had a little menu all its' own. Some needed their lettuce finely chopped, others you just cut a head into fourths. They all got pellets and other vegetables too, and supplements as well. So then we went out and gave them each their food. Some of them knew how to sit so you had to ask them to sit before giving them the food! And they all would walk exactly to where you needed to set the bowl when you walked into the pen. It was funny :) They were super cute.
After the pigs we had to get back on the road to head back to Phoenix. It was a really fun experience and an awesome place to see & learn about. The website is www.bestfriends.org if you want anymore info. You can join, sponsor animals, etc and all the money helps keep the place running. It is a nonprofit with 400 employees that runs on donations! In addition to all the care the animals get they also do a lot of outreach work and activism. Pretty cool place.
So Erin headed back to Illinois this morning and it's getting closer & closer to reality for me...a.k.a back to work. I had to go get a TB test this morning and still need to get a physical and drug screen for work this week. But good news, my friend Heather (met in Africa, from Scotland, met up with in NYC this summer) is flying in on Thursday!! I'm pretty excited about that cuz it's always great to see people and who knows when I'll see her again. So we'll be heading up to the Grand Canyon (what can I say, if you're out here you should see it!) And probably Sedona. She's not sure how long she'll be here but anyway, it'll be fun.
Oh, and here's a link to the pics from Erin's visit if you wanna see:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044981&id=197103045&l=942c823c0e
