We got out of the van and went inside where we were greeted by McKenzie, one of the caregivers at Amra's. We bundled into the main area of the octagon as McKenzie explained the story of Amra's, and why it was set up the way it was. We noticed there was a chew toy with an unhappy face hanging on the wall, with the words "Michael Vick" embroidered into the front of it. I hoped it got a lot of use. We were also greeted by Chakita, the "out dog" of Amra's. I've noticed that a number of the octagons in Dogtown Heights have a resident out dog, which in this case means a dog who is very well mannered, calm and predictable. Because of Chakita's mellow personality, she gets special privileges and is allowed to wander around the octagon on her own and hang out with the caregivers.

She also gets to greet tours, and that's what she did with us. She wandered around from person to person, collecting head rubs and pets the whole way. This is an example of one of the many almost intangible things Best Friends does so well. They don't just take good care of the animals there, they're very smart about coming up with unobtrusive and entirely pleasant ways to make visitors and volunteers fall in love with the animals who need homes. A dog like Chakita who walks up to people and offers unconditional affection is going to melt anybody's heart. And right there, before the tour is even over, people are thinking about how they can adopt her or a dog like her.

Chakita soaked up affection from everybody on the tour

It's genius, just like the strategic placement of the benches on the walking trails behind the Lodges, which have water bowls and brushes sitting on or near them. You figure, "Well I'm already here with the dog, I might as well brush her," and then you get a situation like my first visit when Lola was so affectionate towards me, and my second visit when I bonded with Miss Heidi.  And they make it so easy to take a dog on an outing or a sleepover, and I can verify that it works. When we took Rebo for a sleepover the previous weekend, I almost didn't want to give him back. He was that great.

After McKenzie finished explaining everything about Amra's and Rhonda, we thanked her and trundled back out to the van. We got in, and we finished the tour by driving past Angel's Rest and the horse pens on the way back to the Welcome Center. We got out, thanked Jeri for the tour, and Kief and I went inside to fill out our volunteer paperwork. Once that was done it was around 11 AM and we were free to wander around until lunch. Since there wasn't enough time to do any work before noon, we decided to just hang out around Dogtown HQ to look around before heading over to Angel Village and the cafeteria. When we got there it was actually snowing/hailing a little bit.

We were the first people to arrive for lunch, and we chose an indoor table near the window because it was pretty cold outside still. Vegetarian meatloaf with potatoes and gravy, delicious! We were joined by Jessica, who works at the front desk in Dogtown HQ, and her husband Mike who works in the video department. We enjoyed our lunch with Mike and Jessica, and after lunch we headed back to Dogtown HQ to start volunteering.

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“I hoped [the Michael Vick

chew toy] got

a lot of use.”