After handing Batgirl over to McKenzie, we sat down out front to await our next assignment. Kathy, another caregiver at Amra's, came out to talk to McKenzie, but stopped when she saw me sitting there.

"You wrote that blog, didn't you?"

I smiled and nodded, kind of embarrassed. You can't imagine how much it meant to me to know that people at Best Friends had been reading what I wrote. All I really wanted to do originally was to express how incredible my experiences at Best Friends had been to whoever would listen, I hadn't expected the folks at Best Friends to pick up on it like that. Word had apparently been spreading, as I had been getting stopped by caregivers and other employees all weekend, telling me how much they liked my blog. It was humbling and extremely gratifying to hear it coming from so many people, and I was immensely grateful.

"I was wondering when you were going to get around to Amra's," she said with a smile.

I was glad to be there, as was Kief. We were both having a really good weekend, and I was getting a little sad that it was almost over. Kathy suggested they bring out Chowta for some socialization, and McKenzie agreed. Chowta is an extremely shy Chow Chow who has had a difficult life and doesn't trust people easily any more. Kathy brought him out into the main section of the octagon on a leash, and she handed me some treats. Chow was food motivated, and he took treats out of my hand pretty easily, but always stepped back a couple paces after taking it.

Chowta took treats from my hand easily, but backed away afterwards

Kief and I both thought he was a very pretty dog. He has a lovely face, and I thought it would be really nice to see him with his head held high rather than held low in fear and distrust. But he was still willing to make the effort and take food from my hand even if he had to walk in front of me to get it. I noticed that he was kind of hanging out behind me when he wasn't taking treats and I thought that was really cool. Maybe he trusted me a tiny bit? Kathy suggested we take him off leash to see what he would do with all four of us in the room with him, so she and McKenzie made sure all the doors and runs we closed, and I calmly ran my hand up his leash to remove it. He saw my hand but didn't react very badly to it at all, only pulling back very slightly. I quickly removed the leash and pulled my hand back. I was happy to see that he didn't try to run, he just stood somewhat behind me and between me and Kathy.

Pretty good for a shy dog who isn't on a leash, I thought. I gave him some more treats which he seemed happy enough to take from me. It seemed to be going well, when we heard the sounds of a van coming to a stop and doors being opened outside, which meant that a tour was about to come in. The first sounds startled Chowta a bit, and his reaction was to run behind me which I thought was awesome. Had I gained some of his trust already? If so, that seemed to bode well for his chances of overcoming his fear of people. Kathy and McKenzie got him into one of the runs where he promptly hid under the bed, and McKenzie opened the outer door to let the tour in.

The tour guide was Jeri, our guide from the day before, and she said she was glad to see a couple of her tour people volunteering at Amra's. I filled out Batgirl's evaluation form as Jeri was telling her tour people about Amra's, and we thanked McKenzie and Kathy and left so McKenzie could talk with the tour folks. It was after 4 PM at this point, and we still had to turn in our whistles, and I wanted to see Dakota again before we left, and we wanted to stop at the welcome center too. We drove back to Dogtown HQ and turned in our whistles and said our goodbyes and thanks to everybody at HQ for answering my questions about Dakota. We left HQ and walked up to Conrad's so I could spend a few more minutes with Dakota before we went home.

Dakota shows me how he feels about me

The caregiver there let me into Dakota's run, where he was sitting on the other side of the gate. He was happy to see me and I petted and hugged him. I offered him some mini milk bones, but he didn't want them. After a few minutes, he turned around and lay down on the floor across from me, and he almost looked depressed. I think he was hoping I would take him out again. I moved to sit next to him and rubbed his big soft ears and his fuzzy head, and then I left.

Kief was waiting for me outside, and we walked back down to the Dogtown HQ parking lot, got in the car and drove out to the welcome center. I bought a hat, and Kief bought a Best Friends shirt. Back out at the car we changed into more comfortable shoes, and we left. We were both tired, but it had been another extremely fulfilling weekend for me, and Kief said he had a great time too.

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“He has a lovely face, and I thought it would be really nice to see him with his head held high rather than held low in fear and distrust.”