An and I were excited to be back at Best Friends. This time we drove up on Friday night so we wouldn't have to leave Vegas at 4:30 AM, and we arrived at the motel in Kanab around 10:30 Friday night. We got to the Best Friends welcome center a bit after 8 AM the next morning to meet up with Freddi, fill out our paperwork and start volunteering. We chose to work in Dogtown in the morning and Cat World in the afternoon on Saturday, and Dogtown all day on Sunday.

We did it that way because we love taking dogs for a walk in the morning. It just feels natural and it was going to be a spectacular weekend, weather-wise. Clear, sunny and in the 70s all weekend. We couldn't wait to get started, and we drove over to Dogtown HQ.

When we got there, we found that almost nobody had signed up to work in the lodges, where some of our favorite dogs live, so we jumped on it. This time we came prepared: water bottles, dog treats, sunscreen, everything we would need as we took dogs out on the miles of trails behind Dogtown. We collected our whistles and left Dogtown HQ.

Nicole gets some sun

When we got to New Friends, the first thing I saw was a cute little brown pit bull lying on the floor inside. The caregiver, Jorge, said her name was Nicole, and she was a sweetheart. She soaked up attention like a sponge, and loved being petted. We said we had signed up for Angel Lodges, so we hopped in a golf cart and Jorge brought us over to Cinderella and Mr. Chips' run. He said there weren't too many non-red collar dogs in the lodges that shared a run with another dog, so our options for walking pairs of dogs together were a little limited. But there were three pairs of dogs that could be walked together in the immediate area, so we said we'd walk all three pairs.

He went in and leashed Cindy and Mr. Chips, and brought them out to us. Since we had volunteered at Best Friends once before, we were seasoned veterans (or so I liked to tell myself), and we took the dogs and went up towards the trail. We had previously been warned about Mr. Chips' propensity for snacking on other dogs' poop, and he didn't disappoint. In fact we're pretty sure that's how he got his name. As we walked, we were constantly playing the "don't eat that" game with him, but a lot of the time he was too sneaky for us, acting like he wanted to go sniff a bush, then coming out with a crunchy snack in his mouth. So to get the feel of what it's like to walk Chips, here it is: The Top Five Things You Hear While Walking Mr. Chips!

#5: "No no no, don't eat that!"

#4: "Eww."

#3: "This is a walk, not a buffet."

#2: "I love you too Chips, but please stop kissing me."

#1: *crunch crunch*

The other thing we've noticed while walking Chips and Cindy is that for some reason every time we take those two out, Chips sees either a deer or a jackrabbit and tries to go after it. This time it was a rabbit, but luckily it was gone so quickly that Chips recovered and we kept walking.

Cinderella likes being walked, but she's a little shy. She lets us pet her, but she flinches a little if she sees a hand coming toward her before she was expecting it. While she's walking though, she's perfectly happy. Tail wagging, head up. It's really nice that we were able to walk a number of dogs in pairs, they seemed to enjoy it when they were out together.

We finished our walk and brought Cindy and Chips back to their run, ready to take the next pair. And right across from Cindy and Chips, Lola and Pacer were patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for their turn. We grabbed Pacer's harness and chain leash from the wire fencing at the entrance to their run, and made our way in.

Don’t let this photo fool you — they were not that calm

Boy were they happy to see us. Both of them were running in circles, jumping on us, licking us, it was great. We spent a little time just playing with them, then we put Pacer's harness on. Or we tried at least. Then we tried again, and again.

"Is... is that where his head goes? Or his leg?"

"His head, I think. Try it, I bet it goes on that way."

"Ah, nope. It's backwards."

"Maybe if we rotate it around the other way? With the ring on top?"

"Now it's on sideways. I think we have to start over."

"No wait I got it – no, that doesn't look right."

"Now the clip doesn't reach. Does it go under his leg?"

"I think it goes around the side. Or maybe it clips underneath?"

"But then where would his head go?"

Ten minutes later we had finally figured out how to put his harness on, and we were ready to go. Pacer had been very patient with us, but he and Lola were ready to hit the trail. We leashed them up and left their run via the rear gate, going back up to the trails behind Dogtown. We like taking these two on walks because they're both just so happy to be out, and they're both so friendly. We had made it almost all the way down to the road on the other side of the hill when three deer ran across the road in the distance. I don't know if Pacer saw them or not, but he stayed calm.

Lola wanted to go after the deer. She was fixated in their general direction, pulling hard against the leash and ignoring all attempts at calming her. So we waited until she had given up on catching the deer, and we headed back towards Dogtown. The return trip was uneventful, and thoroughly pleasant. We love walking these guys, and there was just this magical combination of great dogs, amazing weather and unbelievable scenery. It was, for lack of a better word, cleansing. We let them back into their run, got their leashes and Pacer's harness off and said our goodbyes. Luckily for us, the harness came off a lot easier than it went on.

>>> Continue >>>