We went back to New Friends, where we found caregiver Terri washing dog bowls. Nicole the pit bull was still lying on the floor, and I gave her some more attention, which she loved. Terri asked if we wanted to help with dishes, and we said sure, but we had already agreed to walk one more pair of dogs: Miss Heidi and Woody. Terri said that was fine, and we went out to get our last pair of dogs for the morning.

We made our way to Lodge #8, which houses Andy and Orlando (who we walked last time), Ballsy, and Miss Heidi & Woody. At the entrance to Woody and Heidi's run, there was a sign, which I'm loosely paraphrasing here:

"Miss Heidi needs to wear a harness due to a medical condition."

"Woody needs one too."

Great. We walked into the run, and Woody and Miss Heidi were happy to see us. Right away we could tell that Miss Heidi was the shy one, and Woody was the excitable energetic one. Woody was jumping all over the place, while Miss Heidi demurely stood further back and watched. We looked at their harnesses, which of course were different than the type we had struggled to get Pacer into.

"Okay. I'm sure this is where the head goes."

"Yeah, but which side is up? this side, or...?"

"Well probably, um... that side?"

"Those definitely look like leg holes."

"Okay so all we need to do is put his legs through there, right?"

"Yeah. It looks like it should make sense."

"So let's get his legs into these – oh, that is definitely not right."

"It looks like he's wearing a sweater."

"Maybe if we put it on backwards?"

"Then there's no place for his head."

Woody was also resisting the harnessing procedure and kept wiggling out of every attempt at getting it on him. I continued to struggle with him and his harness, while An took the other harness, walked over to Miss Heidi and got the harness on her seemingly without any problem at all.

"You're kidding, right?" I panted, tired from wrestling with both Woody and his harness. Woody continued to bounce around and wag his tail at me.

"No, it's pretty easy, it just goes on like this." She proceeded to put Woody's harness on without any trouble. I still don't know how she did it.

"Great," I mumbled as we hooked up their leashes. Clearly I would fail harnessing class, if there were such a thing.

Woody goes in for his closeup

We took Miss Heidi and Woody and left their run through the back gate. As we walked up the road to the trails, we saw Jean, one of the regular volunteers. She came up to us and told us these were Paul's dogs.

"Who's Paul?" I asked.

"Paul was one of the co-founders of Best Friends," she said. "He died in a car accident a few weeks ago."

And then I remembered reading about it on the Best Friends news page, and how he loved Basset Hounds and had a few of them. Miss Heidi and Woody weren't Bassets, though.

"The Bassets were taken in by other employees here. These guys were put in the lodges together to get used to the environment."

That explained why we hadn't seen them when we were last at Best Friends a month ago. I looked down at Miss Heidi and Woody with a new understanding of their situation, and I suddenly felt honored to be taking Paul's own dogs out on a walk. I was so grateful to Paul and the other Best Friends founders for creating such an amazing place, and now I felt more than ever that I was actually giving something back to Best Friends, even if it was just a small thing.

It occurred to me that it was a little like a wolf pack, where the wolf pups are raised by the whole pack. I saw Best Friends and all the staff and volunteers as Paul's pack, and we were going to take care of his children. I gently patted Miss Heidi's head, and we continued up towards the trails.

After a while we stopped at one of the benches to give them some water and a couple treats. Woody was energetic but lovable, and Miss Heidi was calm and affectionate. She got excited when the treats came out though, and both she and Woody scarfed them down enthusiastically. Once they had a few treats and some water, we just sat there and gave them affection. Right about then is when I began to bond with Miss Heidi.

Woody bounced around like he was on pogo sticks, but Miss Heidi just sat in front of me and just looked at me with those big brown eyes, waiting for the next head scratch. She was adorable, and the more I paid attention to her, the more she became comfortable with me. Soon she was leaning in to lick my face and lean against my arm as I petted her. It felt like she was shellshocked from losing her owner and being moved into the lodges, and she just wanted some human affection again.

Miss Heidi and Woody check out the view

I put my arm around her and gave her a hug, and she turned her head to lick my face again. Meanwhile, Woody, whose leash I was holding in my other hand while An took pictures, was bouncing and running around like a kid who has just eaten six Snickers bars and a bucket of frosting. He got their leashes tangled, he jumped on Miss Heidi, he tore around in the sand. "It's a good day to be a dog," he said.

The rest of the walk was very nice, and both Woody and Miss Heidi were enjoying being outside with people on this beautiful cloudless 70 degree day. We brought them back to their run and Woody couldn't get out of his harness fast enough. He wiggled out of it on his own as soon as we unfastened it, and he ran over to the water bucket to get a drink. I went over to remove Miss Heidi's harness right when Woody finished drinking, and he must have thought I looked hot because he came over and got me all wet.

I took Miss Heidi's harness off, and rubbed her ears and head. She just sat there and looked at me, so I got down on my knees next to her and petted her. She leaned into me a little bit, and I began to feel bad that we were going to leave her there. It just seemed like she was still confused about being moved to the lodges, away from her home. I rubbed her side as she leaned her head into my chest, and I told her that everything was going to be all right. I sat there with her for a good few minutes, just talking to her and petting her.

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“I rubbed her side as she leaned her head into my chest, and I told her that everything was going to be all right.”