Saturday, September 6, 2008

Kanab - Monday

Our first outing in Kanab was to tour the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. This shelter is home to about 2,000 cats, dogs and other animals who have been abandened, abused, or otherwise not cared for. This is not any small-time animal shelter. This shelter sits on over 1,000 acres of land, takes animals from all over the country and has been recognized by numerous celebrities. They received all the dogs from the Michael Vick case and rescued pets from Hurricane Katrina and Gustov. In fact, there was a documentary about this sanctuary a few nights ago on the National Geographic channel. Their purpose is to care for the animals for a few weeks until they are ready to adopt out. Most of the animals are adopted. And they get tons of volunteers - last year they had 4800. Anyway, it was really fun for the kids and neat to see what this society is doing for these animals. However, (and I hope animal lovers don't take this the wrong way) I came away wondering if perhaps, some of that money and man-power could be spared for the homeless and abused that walk on two legs? I mean, they had a gated community for dogs that had a clubhouse and a fitness center! Oh well. Anyway, I was still impressed with such involvement in a good cause.
We went on a driving tour and our first stop - dogtown.

These two were hand in hand pretty much the whole trip.
More cute friends.
Kittyville.
The cemetary has several towers of windchimes. Pretty cool!
After the sanctuary, it was off to the the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. It had been raining on and off all morning so it was a little windy but at least the sand didn't burn our feet off. Very cool dunes - unfortunately overrun by 4-wheelers. I couldn't get a picture of the large dune without an ORV (off-road vehicle) plowing through it.So we found a little spot away from the craziness and had a few long jump contests.
Some exploring.


Making sand sculptures - see the turtle? Returning...
What is sand for except to be buried in?
A late lunch at Fiesta Mexicana and then back to the Red Mountain Home to swim.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What fun! And how beautiful!! Loved the photos. I agree with you on that 2-legged comparison with the treatment of those on 4 legs. I have felt that way before, when visiting an animal shelter in SC. Seems like those I visited in rest homes (people) were not getting anywhere near the attention and special care that the animals got. Makes you wonder about our society.

Anna said...

great pics! Sounds so fun. I love Southern Utah.