Goodbye.

I feel like I've lived out the phrase "You never know how much you love and appreciate someone/something until it's gone." In my case, I'm usually leaving my "something." This time, my "something" is Best Friends, Kanab, and all the surrounding national parks like Zion, Lake Powell, the Grand Canyon, and Bryce. I never took for granted my surroundings while I was there, but boy do I miss them now. My "someone" is all of the interns. They were like an instant family, and I am still amazed at how well we all got along. I already miss them all and can't wait for our first reunion.

The Group: Taken At The Panguitch Valley Balloon Rally
[left to right: Jenny, Ainsley, Jazzy, Sarah, Megan (me!), Marina, and Becca]

But before I get all emotional over here, let me tell you about my last week at Best Friends with the cats. As I mentioned in my last post, I was stationed in Benton's House. Benton's was one of the first catteries built at the sanctuary. If you've read the Best Friends' book, it talks a bit about a black and white cat named Benton and the cattery named in his honor.

I walked in on Monday kind of unsure what to expect from the week. I had an idea that I would be doing some cleaning and socializing, but apart from that, I had no idea. Benton's House is designed with the special needs cats it houses in mind. There are four rooms (Niblet's, Benton's, Bruiser's, and Tomato's) within the house, apart from the lobby area that includes the kitchen and laundry areas. If you've read the book, you probably also remember some of these names like Tomato, the investigative reporter cat who used to write columns in the paper for Best Friends.

Throughout the week, I had the chance to get really involved with the medical side of things which was such a great experience. Let it be noted that the people who work here are so great! There was even one staff member, Heather, who was from South Carolina and continued to give me the south in small doses throughout the week. I was also in charge of feeding times, socialization of shy cats, and a lot of cleaning. 

Finding All The Kitties In The Morning

We also had a good bit of meetings throughout the week - including one with Lori Marino! It was a great last week, and I was sad when it came to an end on Friday. All the interns met up on Wednesday night to go to dinner at Escobar's and have one final night at the shaved ice stand. 

I left Kanab on Saturday...In the morning, I went to pick up my mom from St. George so that she could do the ride back with me. We went back through Zion and I gave her a personal tour of the sanctuary (and said goodbye to Pedro) and Kanab - including the shaved ice stand. And then we headed back to Georgia.

Over the next three days, until Tuesday night (as I am typing this), we drove across the country to Edisto Beach, South Carolina, where my aunt has a beach house rented until Friday. On the way, we stopped by Belen, NM to see mom's old boss and Lubbock, TX to see my "adopted" brother, Ben. And of course we stopped in Louisiana to see the Duck Commander, Buck Commander (Duck Dynasty) place. That was such a loooooooong drive, and that's all I'll say about that. 

So now I'm sitting here at the beach with my dog and my family taking a break before heading back to Athens on Friday.



Catch you next week,

Megan

Feathers, Beaks, Wings, and Things

This past week, I was in birds. 

Allow me to sum up for you my previous bird experience: I watched a cardinal lay eggs in front of my house when I was in 3rd grade. I once watched my friend's cockatiel while she was on vacation. I woke up to the sounds of kookaburras and cockatoos in Australia. I fed ducks when I was younger. And I've seen herons, owls, and hawks in the wildlife ward. And that's about it. Pretty extensive bird knowledge, I know.

The week was comprised mostly of me learning about general bird care. We would carry the birds out in the morning, feed and water them, clean their cages, shower the birds, talk with volunteers, carry the birds in, and do closing food and waters. That was pretty much the drill from day to day. I think one of my favorite things to do was carrying the birds in and out - especially the cockatoos. Throughout the week, I got to know some of the birds' personalities, especially King O (who loves to dance) and Little Feather (who loves to sing...and who can probably hold a note better than me). And the ladies who work at the Parrot Garden are absolutely fantastic and so much fun to be around! Each morning, I would go into the office, put my stuff down, and give Lilly and Flip a head scratch before starting the day.

[Above: Amazon Family. Amazon, Keno, & King O]

One of the afternoons, I had the opportunity to take part in an enrichment project for the cockatiel flight. We placed a fountain atop a table and surrounded the fountain with artificial turf covered in bird seed. This set up mimics a foraging habitat for the birds in this flight.

Carrying In The Amazons

Throughout the week, we had a course of seminars and meetings. Our first took place on Tuesday and focused on Puppy Mills. I really enjoy Dr. Frank's presentations because they have great flow and focus on topics of great interest to me. On Thursday, we met with the Emergency Response Team (ERT). This team is comprised of John Garcia and Ethan Gurney. You may recognize John's name as one of the trainers from Dogtown, and now he is the leader for the ERT. Ethan is an ex-marine who has some interesting stories about catching pigs barehanded. They shared some of their stories with us - from their intensive training they have undergone to get to where they are today to their rescue stories from Hurricane Katrina. Their presentation reminded me of a time a few years ago when I got to take part in an emergency evacuation center drill back in Augusta. Several volunteers from the Red Cross and shelters around the area gathered together to mock set-up what an evacuation center might look like - from registration to actually housing of the animals and people. This event reminded me that it's so important to be ready and prepared. John and Ethan highlighted this point in their presentation as well. They stated that they always ensure they and their volunteers are prepared for such a situation - basically they practice what they preach.

Side note - I also got to give my boy Pedro a couple of car rides throughout the week. I love him so much, and if I could find a way for him and MJ to meet, I would take him home in a heartbeat.

This past weekend was our last weekend in Kanab. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm going to miss having the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, Zion, and Bryce at my fingertips. Anywho, we went to the Grand Canyon north rim on Saturday and hiked 4 miles in the canyon. Let me tell you - coming back up...that was probably one of the hardest, if not THE hardest, hike of my life. I did a lot of stopping on the way up / a lot of wishing I had a mule. We stopped by Jacob Lake on the way back for dinner and cookies, because if you go to Jacob Lake, you have to get the cookies. Apparently it's a law or something. (A law that I don't mind abiding by.) The cookies were as great as they were rumored to be! I took it easy on Sunday. I mostly slept and watched TV. But all the interns did get together Sunday night to bake and decorate cookies, so that was fun.

Coconino Overlook (and my motto)

View From The North Rim

This week at the sanctuary, I'm in cats - specifically Benton's House. They're keeping me busy, as it's a special needs cat house, so there's always something to be done there. But, per the norm, I'll write more about cats in my next post!


Until next week,

Megan

A Week Gone to the Dogs

Week 3. My week in Dogtown. 

But first, week three!? What!? Where is my time here going? 

I absolutely loved last week. Each day's agenda was fairly similar in theory, but my days all looked different up at the Lodges - Angel's Lodges. That's the area of Dogtown where I was stationed for the week. Here there is a mix of color colours - green (volunteer friendly), purple (18-and-older friendly), and red (staff only), which made for an interesting experience. 

I'm going to do what I did for the horses in my last post and go through what my days of the week looked like at the Lodges. I'll post some pictures of some of the dogs I'm going to talk about here, just so you can have somewhat of a visual: 

   

  

(Side note - all of these beauties are up for adoption!)

Monday. My first day not in lower canyon. I had to leave a few minutes earlier, but I rolled up at Dogtown HQ at 7:50am. I was escorted back to my area where I met up with Chris and Melissa, two of the caregivers, who gave me a brief tour and showed me the ropes (literally, they showed me the leashes and stuff). Later in the week, I met Terri, another one of the awesome caregivers. Chris and I took Modoc out first so that he could show me the trail. The trail winds behind the runs up a hill to a point that overlooks Dogtown on one side and the cliffs on the other. Benches spot the trail, and it continues to wind up and down and around the area of the canyon. For the next walk, I got to observe a parallel walk between DeeDee and Hummer down the road that leads past some of the founder's homes. I then set off with Treasure on the trail by myself. After a morning full of walking, I had the opportunity to watch an introduction at Tara's Run between Bolt and Esther, two dogs they were trying to see if could potentially live with one another. Before lunch, the other interns and I went to a presentation on the stages of puppy-hood. After lunch, I got to do some clicker training with DeeDee, sat with Pedro (my baby who I'm determined to bring home one way or another), and helped out with feeding. And that was my first day. 

My second day at the Lodges started out with distributing am and pm meds for the day. A lot of the dogs up there are either older and/or have some special needs, so a majority of them are on some type of meds and supplements. Walking the dogs took up the remainder of my morning. I took out YoYo, Sneaker, Koda, and DeeDee on the trail, and Treasure and I went on an outing to Amberly's office to visit, Angels Landing to walk around and play some ball, and the creek to chill out before heading back. That afternoon, Sarah and I attended both the Moves Meeting (to discuss any moves of the dogs from one run to another) and the No More Homeless Pets Meeting (in place to either accept or deny requests for dogs to be taken into the sanctuary). Afterwards, I went to continue training with DeeDee and finished up my day with feeding. Actually, I should say my day finished up with an amazing sunset - probably one of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen!

Colourful Sunset

On Wednesday, the Lodges has the dog park. That meant that most of my morning involved taking dogs like Zeus, DeeDee, and Koda to the park to play ball and hang out. I also got to watch some play dates between Blondie and Owen & Ebony and Ava at Tara's Run. Before lunch, I had the opportunity to attend a talk on dog body language given by one of the trainers at the sanctuary. After lunch, I did the usual after-lunch cleaning and poop scooping before working on some clicker training with Dale. Again, I ended the day with feeding and sitting in with Pedro. Note: I got my first mini tail wag from Pedro on Wednesday :)

By Thursday I was getting sad that my time at the Lodges was coming so close to an end. I started out my day by walking Sneaker, Treasure, and DeeDee before heading off to the intern tour of the clinic. That clinic is huge and has some great equipment! In the afternoon, I walked Ava with one of our volunteers. She was really great and offered me some insightful advice about life. Afterwards, Sarah and I watched two of the dog assessments. These assessments are performed by the trainers and offer some insights into the dogs for potential adopters and for people who may want to take the dog on an outing or a sleepover. I got back in time to help finish up with the feeding. I stayed about 30 minutes later so that I could end my day with spending a little more time with Pedro.

Friday morning got off to a little bit of a later start because nobody came in at 6:30am and because the clinic, HQ, and other people kept calling and either needing to talk, meet, or for us to bring dogs. We finished morning meds and feeding, and I began my morning walking routine with Treasure, Bowser, and Koda. I did some poop scooping and water changing before and after lunch. After lunch, these two really awesome ladies, regular volunteers up at the Lodges, came to clean, socialize, and make dinner for the dogs. I finally got to take Pedro on a car ride with Terri, and he was perfect. He really feels much more comfortable in the car. Unfortunately, I had to leave early on my last day to make it to a meeting. We, the interns, attended a great presentation by Dr. Frank on quality of life. Friday night, we had a fire, and made some delicious s'mores and hung out until almost midnight!

The weekend, as usual, called for adventuring. On Saturday, we went to the Toadstools, Lake Powell, Page, and Horseshoe Bend. I was a pretty chill day - there was hiking, swimming, laying out, and Starbucks involved. A good day.

The Toadstools

Horseshoe Bend

On Sunday, I had a great opportunity in the morning to go with Marina, another intern, and some people from the sanctuary to get some pigs from Colorado City. We left Kanab at 7am and ended up picking up 14 of the gals to bring back. We took them to the clinic and unloaded them into the in-and-out runs. There were a couple of babies :) We finished up around noon, and I went back to the house to take a nap and grab some food. Some time after I awoke, I got this brilliant idea to go up to Zion to take some pictures. I left around 3pm, and three of the other inters accompanied me. We ended up actually hiking the Narrows for about 2 hours and went into the town of Springdale for a pizza dinner. By the time we got ready to go back through Zion to go back to Kanab, the sun was setting. It was spectacular!

Ready to Hike The Narrows

Hiking The Narrows

Sunset (Zion to the Left)

Per the usual, I'm going to wait and talk about the birds in my next blog post!


Megan

Horses, Goats, and Sheep - Oh My!

I told you last week that I would write another blog post to update you on my adventures with the horses, so here we are!

Let me just start by saying - last week was so great! A job position opened up in lower canyon with the horses just last week, and if I were done with school...let's just say I gave it a very serious thought. 

This past week was a little different from pigs in that I had different tasks each day. I started off Monday morning in the goat/sheep/mini/pony barn with feeding and other tasks focused on the care of the animals there. I even got to walk some of the goats with Rosalie! That afternoon I joined Ron and some volunteers to tour and muck up the canyon. I got to learn some of the horses names and quickly fell in love with a "little" guy up at the Disney barn named Chester. Here he is:

Chester

I know I said I wouldn't really post pictures on my blogs, but who am I kidding...I take WAY too many pictures not to share some of them. Tuesday morning looked very similar to Monday morning, as I began to take on the tasks in the goat barn morningly (that's not a word, but daily is, so I'm making it one). I also got to take Zeus, the ATV, around to muck the pastures in the lower canyon, and I got to watch the Parelli Demo that morning. Parelli is a form of natural horsemanship that focuses on the relationship between person and horse and allows the horse to think for him/herself. I also took plenty of pictures, but it's hard not to when this is your constant view:

Lover's Lane

Slurpee & Three Yearlings

Wednesday was feeding day. I got to work with Alice, the feeder for the day, and do tasks that involved both making the food and delivering it. I even got to go and watch Jen shoe Roy, one of the horses at Riley's. We had some seminars and meetings last week, so a lot of the afternoons with the horses, goats, sheep, donkeys, minis, and ponies were cut short unfortunately. Of course the Tiki Shack continued to be an integral part of our post-work endeavors. Also, with Wednesday afternoon came the rain - monsoon season they all say. I'm finding that to be true. It's rained every afternoon here. And when I say "rained," I actually mean that it has poured/hailed a little here. Flash floods ain't no joke here.

On to Thursday. Thursday morning involved the same feeding schedule at the goat barn, but I also got to help out a little with pigs: flashback to last week. I helped Ronnie out with the hay nets in the morning and then teamed up with Dan, one of the volunteers, in the afternoon to help him with waters and mucking up the canyon. After work, I went to the pool with some of the other interns. They have a water slide and a current circular jet pool thing - definitely will be going back there!

Friday was July 4th. I had my own little goat parade in the morning at feeding time; those guys are too cute. I was put in charge of waters, so I spent the rest of my morning atop Zeus, filling up the water troughs for the horses before I went to watch the Parelli Demo again at 10:30 - different trainer, different horse. Friday afternoon was great. I got to spend some time with some volunteers and with some of the goats (even clicker training!) and horses that I had bonded with over the past four days. 

Four days. It may seem like a short time, but looking back that Friday afternoon I felt like I had learned so much. I took pride in knowing almost all of the horses, goats, sheep, etc. names, but it was more than knowing names. There was one goat in particular that I felt like I actually made progress with. His name is Monty. Monday morning when I walked in with Rosalie to feed, I was immediately impressed by his colouring and walked over to say hi. He wasn't exactly feeling as friendly as I was and promptly got up and fled the area. Rosalie then explained to me that he and his partner Phil were both extremely shy. Throughout the week I made it my mission to befriend this goat. I felt like we were making when he started to follow me around on Tuesday, but every time I reached back to pet him, he would flee the scene. Then, Wednesday afternoon, he let me pat his head. It wasn't much, but it was a step. By Thursday, I was rubbing his back and petting him all over. I was so proud of him!

In the past two weeks I spent there, I truly fell in love with lower canyon. 

Friday afternoon, despite it being July 4th was no exception to the torrential rains. The city fireworks were cancelled, but we still braved the downpour and hail to grab some dinner and ice cream. A beautiful rainbow emerged as we were in the middle of our dessert-eating.

Double Rainbow as Seen from Three Bears

I hung around out at city park with an older couple to watch some of the locals shoot off their fireworks, since it had stopped raining by about 9:30.

Saturday called for adventuring in a slot canyon. We headed north in a hummer, and spent the afternoon off-roading and doing a little bit of hiking!

[left to right: Sarah, Ainsley, Jazzy, Becca, and Megan]

On/In the Hummer

The fireworks had been postponed to Saturday night, so we meet up at the tavern and went up to the park to watch the display. Sunday involved a nice little hour-and-a-half drive to the city. Groceries in a small town can be expensive, so we road tripped in the afternoon to the good ole' Walmart in St. George. We came back through Zion, and it started to rain (surprise, surprise). It ended up being really beautiful - all these waterfalls appeared out of seemingly nowhere, and dry creek beds became raging streams. The rain brought a different kind of life to the park. 

Now for this week: week 3. I'm in Dogtown!!! This was the area I was most looking forward to when I signed up, and it's smack-dab (do people say that anymore?) in the middle. I never could have imagined that my time here would go by SO fast. I can't believe I'm essentially already at the half-way mark. SLOW DOWN, TIME! 

Angel Canyon

As with last time, I'll write more about dogs in my next post, so until then...I'm outta' here!


Megan

Utah-ing. The beginning of an internship.

WOW - It's been a while since my last blog post. You might have noticed that I've been pretty absent on social media and the internet in general for the past couple of weeks (until my recent massive uploading of photos). That was at first due to the fact that I was up in Colorado without any internet. It was glorious. And it was beautiful. And then I hit the road just a few days after getting back from out west to head west yet again.

Let me just give you a brief update. From taking a day trip up to Wyoming to having a snowball fight in the Rockies, the Colorado trip was all around fun. Immediately after, Lauren had orientation, so we left for Athens on Sunday and finished up Tuesday afternoon. I had just two days to pack up, load the car, and leave for Utah. The trip out was long...especially after getting stuck for 2 hours in wreck traffic the first day.

So, why am I in Utah, you might be asking. Well, good question. I'm doing a five week internship at Best Friends - an animal sanctuary located in Kanab. Kanab is a little town on the Utah-Arizona border that is absolutely beautiful. Best Friends is located in Kanab Canyon - renamed Angel Canyon by the founders. 

I had driven through the town of Kanab four years ago with my family on a cross-country road trip, so I knew what to expect of the town. However, the day of orientation was my first day setting foot on the sanctuary. It was a lot bigger / more spread out than I was expecting. Throughout this first week, however, I have found my way around and have begun to love the canyon, the sanctuary, and even the little town of Kanab. 

In my internship, I rotate weekly from one area to another. This past week (as you can tell if you've been keeping up with my pics on Facebook), I was with pigs. I'd never had the chance to work with potbellied pigs before, so that was a new one for me. I was in charge of tasks like food prep, some medical assistance, volunteers, walking the pigs, pen cleaning, watering the pigs, and feeding. I really enjoyed getting to know the personality of the pigs and working with a new set of volunteers each day. The volunteers we all unique (and from all over) and many of them had never had any experience with pigs. Susan and Adria, the caregivers, were amazing too. I honestly enjoyed working in this area very much. If I had one complaint, it would be the heat. But other than that, it was such a great first week experience! The other areas are going to have to work hard if they want to beat the pigs :) Oh, by the way, these pigs are up for adoption - just thought I'd mention that.

Me & Tobias (aka: Tob)

This week I'm in horses - yay! It's not a really big change in location, but the tasks are much different. I'll probably write more about horses/goats/sheep/etc next week.

I'm in this internship program with six other really awesome people. I'm not going to lie; I was a little nervous coming into this regarding who the other interns would be. Honestly, I couldn't ask for a better group of girls to spend my five weeks with. This past weekend, we went up to Panguitch for the Balloon Rally. First we went to the lake for lunch and intended swimming - until we discovered there were leeches in the water. No thanks. So we headed for Bryce Canyon, and the day took a drastic upturn. If you've never seen Bryce in person, it's spectacular. I'd seen it before but that doesn't belittle it at all or take away any of its splendor. 

We went back to Panguitch for dinner and found a hidden gem of a restaurant. It was cheap and the food was great. They had shut down Main Street by the time we left dinner, so we found somewhere to park and walked around a bit. We ended up getting cotton candy and ice cream and took a seat on the curbside, meanwhile watching the balloons beginning to rise off the street all around us. The sight was quite like nothing I had ever seen before. We spent the night walking amongst the balloons, taking pictures, and breaking it down to Cotton Eyed Joe. I don't think I'll be forgetting that night in Panguitch for the rest of my life. We got back to Kanab just before midnight, and I slept in and took it easy on Sunday.

I'll keep you posted with more adventures - hopefully more exciting things this weekend! If you're looking for pictures, check out my Facebook page. I'm not going to be putting many (if any) on these blog posts. Happy Tuesday :)


Megan