Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah

Like I explained in the previous post, it’s been months since I’ve posted here. A lot has happened since my last post in July…unfortunately nothing good…and I’ll be posting about that within the next week but before I do that, I’d like to share a couple of other posts first. The post below was written months ago but never got posted due to some major set backs.

Okay, so the Best Friends Animal Society rocks!

I’m a big fan of the TV show Dog Town, which was filmed at the Best Friends Animal Society sanctuary, and I have always wanted to visit and volunteer with them. And I finally got that chance. This animal sanctuary really does some great work to help put an end to homeless pets. We attended an orientation at the sanctuary the day we arrived in the small town of Kanab and then volunteered the next day. During our orientation visit, we drove around the sanctuary to check things out (they have tours of the sanctuary but we were there too late and would be volunteering the next morning…so we didn’t get a chance to take the tour).

We were able to choose which animals we’d like to volunteer with. The sanctuary houses Dog Town, Cat World, the Bunny House, Horse Haven, Parrot Garden, Piggy Paradise and Wild Friends. I would have liked to work with Dog Town or Piggy Paradise but Bobby is a cat lover and was missing his own kitty, so Cat World it was! When we arrived in the morning for our volunteer shift, we had to check in at Cat Headquarters for a short video, and Bobby quickly made friends with one of the cats just chillin’ on the couch. At Cat Headquarters there was a wall of photos of cats that are up for adoption and we soon learned that Cat World was currently housing over 500 cats. Now that’s quite a bit of our feline friends that need some love and a new home.

We first went to Morgaine’s Place to lend a hand, where we were told the younger, teenage kitties live. There, we were given the option to take a cat for a walk. We have owned a cat for years and never thought of taking a cat for a walk…a dog, yes…a cat, no. Off we went on our first cat walk. We walked Cecil, a black cat with some cute little white accents. Cecil was playful, outgoing and trying his best to catch a lizard. We also walked Panther, who was a little hesitant to venture too far. Before Panther came to Best Friends, he was an indoor cat only and so the walks are a great change for him. As Panther became more comfortable, he began to explore a little but still never ventured too far. They are both great cats with different but awesome personalities just waiting for a new home. We also met a cat named Peachy at Morgaine’s Place. Peachy was born with a neurological condition because her mom had distemper while carrying her (you’ll see a pic of Peachy below, she’s the orange tabby). Peachy is wobbly and shaky but despite her condition is very independent. I was told that cats with these conditions are adoptable but require someone with patience because these little guys and girls don’t always make it to the litter box in time…but nonetheless they still need some love.

Once we were done with the cat walks we decided to head over to Benton’s House. This is where some of the cats with special needs live. We were able to meet Miss Dot who is blind. She is just a cute little cat that gets around pretty good all on her own. We were given some treats and brushes to socialize and play with the cats here. Although we didn’t feel like we were doing much for Best Friends as volunteers, we were told a lot of the times volunteers walk the animals and play with them in order to socialize them so that they become better candidates for adoption. So walk and play with them is what we did! We sat in one of the outdoor cat runs at Benton’s House and gave them treats and played with them while we visited with a volunteer father and daughter from Detroit that was giving some of their time while on vacation.

One more thing to note. While driving through the sanctuary, we drove by Angels Rest, which is the final resting place for animals who’ve passed on. There’s a picture of the entrance gate to Angels Rest below. I feel it’s important to mention and pay respect to Angels Rest and it made me pause and think about our own pets that our daughter and my mom are taking care of for us while we’re on this journey.

We love our pets just as much as I’m sure the animals resting at Angels Rest were and are still loved.