Old Friends Senior Dogs: The Best Friends Animal Society Experience....

It's not easy for us to leave all of our Old Friends, and we sure don't do it often. If we leave, it's got to be for something really special or we aren't going to go. Last April, we planned that something special and have been waiting (im)patiently ever since. Last week we sent the Princess on a spa vacation of her own, packed Arty and Benny off to the resort, got a whole family to take care of our remaining Old Friends and headed off to Kanab, Utah and Best Friends Animal Society for a week long workshop on starting and running an animal sanctuary.
Let me tell you.... it was worth every minute of the wait.
Kanab, Utah is a very small town (population around 5000) far from anywhere else but nestled in the midst of some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.

The view from the dining/workshop area in Angel Village

Best Friends Animal Society has been in it's current location since 1984 and started on a shoestring budget with a vision that has grown into it's present day mission to "Bring about a time when there are no more Homeless Pets". This mission spreads far beyond their Sanctuary in Utah. Best Friends has discovered that the way to fulfill this vision is to build a network of partners throughout the world that each does their small part. They have called this the No More Homeless Pets Network. Through education, which includes workshops like the one we attended, the folks at Best Friends share the knowledge that they have gained in the past 28+ years to help others to build their own sanctuaries, rescues and other types of organizations dedicated to supporting the Best Friends Mission. OFSDS will be eligible to join this network in April 2013.
When we registered, we were excited when we read that founders of Best Friends would be giving some of the presentations during the workshop. We were overjoyed when founders Faith Maloney and Jana de Peyer were with us for nearly the entire workshop. They generously and openly shared their experiences and details about Best Friends throughout their growth and as it is now. There were also many other workshop presenters who work in various rolls at Best Friends. All had valuable information to share. We came away at the end of the week completely overflowing with ideas, new tools and tons of energy and enthusiasm.
Our week started with a two part tour of the Best Friends Sanctuary. They house about 1700 animals, comprised of dogs, cats, birds, horses, pigs, bunnies, wild animals for release when possible and other various animals. Throughout the week we had sessions on strategic planning, fundraising, finding and keeping volunteers, adoptions, talking with the veterinarians, dog training and evaluation and much more. We also spent two mornings in Dogtown and the Old Friends section of Dogtown working with the caretakers and walking dogs. It was an amazing week. While this workshop in no way made us experts in any of the areas we covered, it has helped to steer us in a more well defined direction.

This post is the first of a short series of posts over the next several days about some of what we took home from the workshop. While our mission and goals have changed very little, we will be refining our strategies and setting a more defined plan while the workshop and our thoughts are still fresh in our minds. I will share that with you all as we progress.
Below are some of the pictures from animal areas other than Dogtown. I will go into more detail about the dog areas in the next few days.