November 22, 2016

Animal Lovers' Bucket List Item: Visit Best Friends

As I mentioned in last week's post about our dog-less (but not dog-free!) vacation, we spent one day at Best Friends Animal Society. And it was pawesome!
Originally we'd planned to spend the day volunteering at BFAS, but then when we thought Rita would be coming along we changed our plans to just a 2-hour tour. (I didn't want to leave her alone too long in a strange rental place.) Of course, at the last minute, we ended up being able to leave her with my sis, so we got to spend the whole day there!

The day before our reservation for our tour, we drove past the BFAS info center in Kanab and noticed a sign board out front offering "free kitten snuggles." We couldn't resist that!

The next morning we headed to the sanctuary - on a big, beautiful piece of land - for our tour of Dog Town. (There are various free tours you can sign up for - of course we wanted to focus on the dogs!) The tour was very interesting, visiting various areas where the dogs are housed and trained. We saw this gorgeous pup out on a training walk:

A highlight was getting to meet this adorable puppy! BFAS has a great puppy socialization set-up. (Sure wish Rita had gotten that!) The trainer told the hubs to go ahead and leave his hat on - it's good for the pups to meet all sorts of different folks wearing all sorts of different things.

The property is so huge there are a couple of hikes you can do. On our way to our first short hike, we stopped at Angel's Rest, the cemetery. Man, we were rather sniffly visiting there. It's really peaceful, and there are 1400 wind chimes (which folks buy as memorials) so whenever there's a breeze there's a lovely sound. (How much of a donation do I have to make to get my own ashes buried there??)

Our short hike to Angels' Overlook took us to this lovely view.

After that we enjoyed a fantastic all-you-can eat vegetarian buffet lunch for $5! ("All you can eat" are the hubs' four favorite words!)

To work off our lunch, we went on another hike to Hidden Lake (yep there's a little "lake" hidden away under that cliff if you go into that opening. Pretty wild. We also hiked to some Anasazi ruins.

On our way back, we passed a woman who was at the sanctuary for a seminar - she runs her own rescue for herding dogs, and she was hiking with this cutie who was on his first hike with his new prosthetic back feet! See his little purple "boots"? Those are actually prosthetics.
How cool is that? He made us miss our three-legged girl.

For our last stop at the sanctuary, we went to the gift shop - where I went a little crazy! After all - it's all for a good cause, right?! I bought a jacket, 2 tees (pictured), a bracelet, a poster, a book, etc. :)

One of my fave things (well, besides meeting that puppy...) was the attention to detail. They have lots of fun graphics and signs everywhere, like this sign above the mirror in the ladies' room:
"You look fabulous. Now go hug a puppy or a kitten."
It was a fantastic day, and I can't wait to go back and volunteer some time!

Do you have any special plans on your Animal Lover's Bucket List?

Thanks to BlogPaws for hosting Wordless Wednesday! Stop by their site to check out all of the other blogs in the hop. And thanks for letting me be wordy!

39 comments:

  1. I've heard about that place. It's neat that you got to visit. And those prosthetic feet are the coolest things ever. I love that we can do things like that now! P.S. - thank you for the google plus tip. I think I have it fixed now.

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    1. I know - it's amazing the things we can do for our pups now. (Glad the G+ tip helped!) :)

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  2. From the pictures yoou have posted, your hubby does NOT look like the "all you can eat" kind of guy. I guess all your hiking keeps both of you nice and slim!

    No special plans on my bucket list, but I'm sure a few places like this will bebefit from my will some day. (Hopefully not too soon, though ;-) )

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    1. I know - the hubs is super thin. But he IS an all-you-can-eat kinda guy. He's just also a workout-like-crazy kinda guy!

      And, yes, we agree on the will thing - hopefully some day (in the long distant future!) places like this will benefit from our will too.

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  3. I love reading this post! We were there last June, but it was so hot that we couldn't hike much. I'm looking forward to returning at a cooler time of year so we can enjoy more time outside.

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    1. I can imagine it would be super hot there in the summer because it was pretty warm the day we were there - the gal who led our tour said it was about 20 degrees warmer than usual for Nov.

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  4. I have driven past there so many times, and never stopped. It is on my must do list!

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    1. For sure you'll have to stop next time - even if to just drive on to the grounds. You'd love it - there are also horses there.

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  5. I definitely want to go there soon. And that puppy is so adorable. Someone will snatch him up.

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    1. I know. I loved that puppy! He reminded me of when Abby was a pup.

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  6. That sounds like a lot of fun and a wonderful experience.

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    1. It was like a trip to Disneyland but for animal lovers! :)

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  7. That is one of those places I've driven past, but now I have a reason to stop. Great photos and "marketing copy."

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    1. You should definitely stop next time, even if just to look around, see Angels Rest, and hit the gift shop. Really a beautiful spot!

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  8. I saw a TV series about this place on Netflix and watched all three (?) seasons in short order, amazing!

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  9. Looks like an awesome place and I would love to visit! They are doing such great work and I bet all the chimes sound really beautiful.

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    1. The chimes were really neat. I took a little video - I should get with it and post that.

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  10. Thanks for sharing. It really sounds like a wonderful place (and I love that sign above the mirror!) 😊

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  11. Sounds like a place I could easily fall in love with. It's getting to a point where I love hanging out with dogs, dogs, and more dogs...

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    1. Seriously. That's mostly all I want to do lately. :)

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  12. I love it that you made it to one of the places on your animal bucket list! I have one of my own, and I've only managed to cross one item off it so far. So much work to do!

    Jean from Welcome to the Menagerie

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    1. I need to get a long list going! (I know one thing I'd add - see the polar bears in Churchill Manitoba!)

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  13. We've heard a lot about this place and it sounds amazing! How nice you got to actually go and visit.

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  14. Thanks for sharing your day. What a nice place for the animals.

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    1. It is a great place - some of the animals will live out their days there and I can't think of a better place for them!

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  15. Okay. I'm officially envious! So glad you shared this. Such an amazing place and everyone I know who's been there raves about it.

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  16. Congrats on your trip. I've now added this stop to a travel bucket list myself! Anyplace that saves animals the way BFAS does is high on my list of special places.

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    1. It is really worth a visit if you ever get the chance!

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  17. hello pooch smooches its dennis the vizsla dog hay i hav herd of this playse it sownds like a wunderful playse for animals and for peepul wot luv animals!!! i do not think dada wud git ten feet thru the gate of that playse for pet memoryals tho!!! but if beeing berried their meens he wood git to play with the animals for all eternitee he wood be all in i think!!! ok bye

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    1. That would be awesome wouldn't it - play with the animals for all eternity?! Where do I sign up?

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  18. Looks like you had a wonderful visit at the sanctuary. Great animals, great people, and great scenery.

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  19. Thanks for sharing about Best Friends - it is definitely on my bucket list too! It looks amazing.

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