Sixty NMHP Conference attendees chose the optional Sanctuary Visit. Tell us about your experience!
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Thank you.
Ok, first off I’ll say right up front that while I am going to try, I don’t see any way I can put into words what I experienced in terms of emotions, feelings, the effect my visit had on my life—those things that involve such a high level of feeling. I can tell you what I did—but how do I get across the impact visiting Best Friends had on me—and I think a lot of others.
First off the setting. Where do I start with superlatives? The beauty, the feeling of being surrounded by pure nature, the awe of the geography. Well, that doesn’t begin to do justice. This setting is perfect for such an effort as Best Friends. The setting permeates everything—the look of the grounds, the way the buildings fit in, the way the animals seem to be at home no matter what their situation, even though the goal is to find almost all of them forever homes. It’s a place you just can’t help but feel the desire and almost a need to be a part of. Not just giving money or being someone who loves animals, but being a part of the work they do. It’s a place where hours feel like minutes and working with the people and the animals feels like a calling. More on this later.
The group I was with was scheduled to spend the morning touring Best Friends, then spending the afternoon volunteering with the dogs. Some folks helped with cats and others went to meetings with founders or other staff to discuss issues. I look forward to hearing their experiences. We had a great warm up to all that though—the dinner Sunday night when a number of staff came into town to sit with us, share a dinner and share what they did and their perspectives. I want to thank them for doing that-- it really set the stage for how we were treated. Ok, let me back up—the first glimpse was provided by those who gave up their Sunday to drive to Vegas, pick us up and take up to Kanab.
Back to the dinner—the food was quite tasty, the episode of Dogtown as great and those staff members—answering questions, sharing what they did and how it fit into the whole effort of the Sanctuary. I learned a lot about water that night!! You’d be amazed at what’s involved in making sure Best Friends has the water needed to run everything.
I want to cover our tour Monday morning. I feel that a few things that happened say a lot about a few things. First, never underestimate how mesmerized a group of 10 can get with the simplest of things. Our guide Diane became “painfully” aware of this right away. She was trying to keep us on schedule so we could see a bit of everything. But we had other plans. We’d wonder off looking at an animal, or we’d keep asking questions because the information was so interesting and there was so much to learn. Or we’d wonder off towards more animals. She was great with us though, no matter how much we wanted to stay at every area we came to. Don’t get me wrong—I loved being in the group of 10 I was with—I think a lot of us bonded. I know a lot of us talked animals and talked issues/ideas till we got out of the vans at the airport! This is the hard part to allow anyone reading this to get the feelings and emotions. It was what we saw, what we experienced and how we were treated that allowed for such an open exchange of words, feelings, ideas and friendship. I don’t know if Diane is aware of this but she really had a big effect on the experience the 10 of us had on the three hour tour.
Lunch separated our tour and our volunteering experience. Let’s just say that we were provided a perfect transition. The food, the view, the whole lunch was exceptional. A word though on a specific place. I was told before I left for the conference by more than one person that if given the chance to go to Angel’s Rest to make sure to spend some time there. Wow—what an understatement! And I want to mention Lenny. He takes care of Angel’s Rest. He hasn’t always been there, but I can attest to why he should stay as long as possible. Angel’s Rest is in Lenny. And Lenny is in Angel’s Rest. As soon as he starts speaking, you can feel it. You don’t hear his words—you feel them. And I don’t think it matters what your belief system is. Again, not sure how to appropriately convey all of this about Angel’s Rest and about Lenny. I do believe once you’ve been there, you will know. All 10 of us sure know.
Have you ever walked into a place where people are working really hard and they have lots to do? And on top of that you r walking in causes them more work yet? Well, if it hasn’t happened to you before, it will if you volunteer at Best Friends. In all of that though, what happens is you are made to feel a part of them—them being the staff and they animals. You are genuinely welcome there. It doesn’t matter of you sit with a dog, walk a dog, scoop poop, sweep walkways—they treat you so well even though they have so much to do. The staff want you to feel great while you’re there and after you leave. Our group of 10 was no exception. I have a specific story to share that really hits this point home.
The person we were handed over to for our dog experience is Paul a caregiver. He’s a bit tall, thin build, a very quiet unassuming voice and the same in mannerisms. You can see a picture of him if you go to the Guardian Angel link and look at Barry’s update that is up right now. We were spread all over the place and he made sure we were well taken care of by the other care givers at the three different buildings we helped at. By the way, those three caregivers treated us very well by the accounts I heard. At the end of our time he worked hard getting us all back together and of course much like we did with Diane, our group made us behind schedule. Everyone wanted to see the Vick dogs. Of course we couldn't see any of the Vick dogs in person as they can only be handled by staff. Many were bummed even though we already knew we couldn't work with any of them. Once he had us all rounded up, he offered to get Denzel (that was who everyone wanted to see) and walk him around the van if we all promised to stay in the van and not even open the doors. Of course we all said yes! He got Denzel, walked him all around the van so folks could take pictures. He stopped and gave Denzel a treat and Denzel gave him lots of love. Everyone went nuts at how cool it was. 1 person couldn't get any pictures so Paul took Denzel back to his run, then too that person's camera and went back to the run to get a couple of pictures for that person. Talk about going the extra 5 miles! Talking about making us feel special. He didn’t have to do that. More on this action and Paul in a bit.
That evening there us a dinner schedule for us, and a number of founders have offered to spent their evening with us, all of them sitting at different tables so we can hear some very good stories! At the beginning of the dinner all of the founders and the staff having dinner with us were introduced. As you can imagine—well, I hope you can anyway, the founders there created quite a presence. We were surrounded by a number of the group who built Best Friends literally from the ground. It was very inspiring! Each and every founder was given a warm round of applause by all of us. Paul happened to be one of the staff that had dinner with us. Of course he was introduced just like the other staff and founders. Believe it or not, Paul got the biggest round of applause of anyone--including any founder. The 10 of us let everyone know with applause and rooting what it meant to us that he did that act of bringing out Denzel when he didn’t have to do anything like that. I think Paul was taken by surprise!
This is the kind of thing that really hits you emotionally and creates such strong feelings about being at Best Friends. Gabriel De Peyer, one of the founders, gave the keynote speech. He spoke about the beginning, what is happening now and what the future could hold. He brought up a point that I think folks at Best Friends exemplify. He said that they have learned it’s not enough to have staff that relate to the animals; the staff also have to be people persons. It is this one thing that the staff do so very well that made the visit so meaningful. It really makes a difference in how you feel when your visit is over—you remember the people as much as you remember the animals. Oh, how much you remember those animals!!
I know I’ve felt out a lot of names. It’s not for thinking they didn’t make the visit great, because they did. Each animal area welcomed us and answered our stream of questions. So folks we interacted with a lot though, and I want to mention one more person. From the time we loaded up in Vegas till the time we loaded up to go back to Vegas, Pat was always there making sure everything ran smoothly. I want to assure everyone that smooth was an understatement. Pat gave up a lot of her time to make our experience special. She treated us great. She made sure everything that was supposed to happen did so, and did on time. For three days we were pampered and she made sure of it. Not till Monday night did I find out that she isn’t even a staff member. She’s a volunteer! Thank you so much Pat!
I’ll apologize again for not being able to convey the impact the visit to Best Friends had on me—and I think on so many others. I wanted to try though. How does one say thank you appropriately to all of these folks who gave so much effort to make our visit so special?