As we traveled from Vegas to Kanab Utah, we passed through Little Creek and Colorado City Arizona, fulfilling one of Sallie’s hopes to see the polygamist communities she’s been obsessed with for the last few years. No thanks to her friend Beth for helping to feed the fire of obsession by their readings of many survivor stories and watching the documentary films of those brave ones to leave the communities.
Now for the good part… BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SANCTUARY.
They provide two secluded spots for RVs with full hookups overlooking Angel Canyon, complete with cement slabs and picnic tables. There were lots of hummingbirds that we fed from a hook off the RV to keep our cats entertained while we were gone during the day.
We took our orientation and van tour of the property the next morning to get a nice overview of the mission and purpose of the sanctuary. After a vegetarian lunch (no surprise huh?) Sallie and Sue separated for different animal adventures.
Sallie went to 5 horse pastures to help muck and love on horses. They have many surrendered Mustangs, Thoroughbreds, show horses (several other breeds Sallie can’t remember) and abused/lame horses that are flourishing with the daily love and attention they get. The manager of Horse Haven said she’d always wanted a “job” where she was outside, working with horses, living in a beautiful place and if “I have to shovel a little shit, it all evens out”.
Sue took the opportunity to play with and feed some kittens for the afternoon. Having 5 cats (all homeless and over 6 months old) as a part of her life, it was a treat to be around 2 month olds. They played, played, played! One took a fondness to her and never stopped purring. One more cat for the RV? Don’t think so… at least not at this time!
We went exploring at the end of our first day and found a hidden lake in a cave in Angel Canyon.
The next day we went to puppy preschool (ages 3 months to a year) and helped to clean the pens and serve the puppies breakfast. It was quite the production when you are dealing with 21 hungry, hyper and loud pups! We got to take 4 litter mates out to the “park” so they could run, dig, play and tackle each other.
Another lunch at Angel Village then Sallie went to work in Dogtown. She asked to work in an area that doesn’t get a lot of visitors. They sent her to “Deja’s Run” where there are dogs that have to live in runs by themselves, because of aggression or just needing to be the only dog in a run. Sallie worked with 5 pit bulls, cleaning and refilling their pools, taking them to the dog park, and playing with them in their runs. In return she got lots of kisses and found them to be big love bugs. A couple of them were from dog fighting rings. You would have never known from the love they gave, except for the visible body scars. Luckily, the emotional scars are healing just as nicely as the outward ones.
All in all it was a very fulfilling time spent at the sanctuary. We memorialized special pets at Angel’s Rest Cemetery.
While there, we followed up on our friend Eloisa’s cats that she took to Best Friends 10 days earlier to have them cared for in their forever home. We played with other animals to help socialize them so they can find their forever home also. We feel grateful to be able to travel with our special cats that already have their forever home with us…