It's been a week?!?!

Woah. I can't believe it's been a week since my last post. The time is flying here, and I don't like it.

Let's see....What's happened this week....

Well, I've spent alot more time in horses and loved it more every time. I now have a project horse, his name is River and he's a big grey thoroughbred (I think). He's gorgeous. And I am now getting lessons there in Parelli natural horsemanship, and it is so awesome. I haven't had a chance to take a picture of River yet, but I will, promise!!!

I've been working in dogs and picked a focus area, it's called the Fairway. I really like the dogs and caregivers there, so it's gonna be a great place to work.

Other than that, I've just been continuing to love it here. Tonight I have the most adorable, sweet and loving little 3 month old puppy on a sleepover, his name is Token (but I think he looks like a Riley...)

I'm pretty sure he's never seen his own reflection before...He's so cute!!

I still love this place.

Today was awesome. Do I ever not say that? Haha!

My morning was in horses, which is always fun, I worked with Ron and it was so nice. He is such a great guy. We scooped poop and scratched ponies!

Then in the afternoon we had our first training class with our project dogs, and it was fan-flippin-tastic. I am learning so much here about dog training. We are starting with clickers, which I really like and I think I'll stick with. We learned how to teach sit, watch and down. The lead trainer, Huck, who is our teacher, has some really great ideas and is good at giving us each an equal amount of attention. My girl Kitzi would get really excited when she saw the other dogs but when I had her attention she learned really fast. She's smart, I just think she's got a bit of doggie ADD :P. Anyway! No fun pictures today, sorry! :( Hopefully tomorrow!

I love it here.

Did you know that? I love it here.

No really. I really do.

Yesterday I was in dogtown in the morning, which was fun, and then in the afternoon I was back in Horses Haven. But instead of scooping poop all afternoon (Which is still pretty awesome) I got to spend the entire time with one of the trainers. It was SO COOL. She showed me the different horses she's working with and worked with one horse for a looooong time and was talking to me the whole time about what she was doing and more and more about natural horsemanship. I have to say, I think I'm being converted. I am so excited to get a project horse and get to work! :)

Today was a little uneventful, we had a presentation this morning that was pretty interesting, and then I took Miss Kitz on an outing to angels rest, which is like a graveyard for pets. Only not nearly as grim and nasty as that sounds. It's actually really beautiful, there's windchimes everywhere and the graves are decorated really nicely. Some things there break your heart, owners leave collars or toys...But I think it's really fantastic.

So for tonight I'm just hangin back at the house, I decided to take a different dog home tonight on a sleepover, his name is Harpo! He's sooooo sweet and all he wants is to cuddle. I think he is really enjoying being out of the sanctuary and in the quiet, he's been on the couch snoozing most of the time...Haha! He needed a rest!

Goodnight everybody! :)

Yay Ponies!!!

Today, I spent the whole day with horses. YAY!! :D

Well, most of the time we were scooping poop, but I did get to interact with some really cool horses in their pastures, including one 17.2 hand horse I kind of fell in love with....But anyways....

It was awesome.

But aside from all the poop and pony scratching, I also got some time all by myself with the goats and sheep!!

The goat whose picture is on the top is hilarious, she loves to get scratched and if you stop scratching her she...makes a goat noise at you...I have no idea what that's called. If you're my facebook friend there's a video of it on there (hopefully, if it ever uploads...)!

The guy who I worked with all day was one of the coolest guys I have ever met. Also one of the nicest. His name is Ron, and even though we were scooping poop all day, we had a blast. He also took us to all these really incredible sites, and I took lots of pictures. :)

 There's Ron!

 This place is incredible, behind me there is a hidden lake in a cave!!

Kanab Creek

Pretty awesome day. Now Kitzi and I are relaxing on the couch, considering going to bed early so we can get lots of rest. Goodnight!

My baby girl.

So not much has happened in the last two days cause I had them off, but tonight I have my project dog (or as I like to call her, my baby girl) home with me! This is Kitzi! (Or again, as I also like to call her, Miss Kitz :D)

She pretty much rocks my world. She definitely has some work to do though! She is picky with other dogs, so we will be doing alot of work to make her less reactive, and if she sees a lizard (which are waaay common around here) she goes nuts. She knows sit, but that's about it! It's actually really fun to have a dog that has alot to learn. Tonight is my first night, so I took her for a walk, and within a half an hour she was walking on the leash way better than when I picked her up! She's smart, and I hope in the next four weeks she's gonna learn tons, and get adopted. (If I don't adopt her first....)

Tomorrow is my full day in horses and I'm really looking forward to it, and then at the end of the day Miss Kitz will come home with me again! :)

Sorry!

I know, I know, I didn't blog last night. My millions of avid readers are so pissed. :P

ANYWAYS. The last two days have been crazy. Crazy awesome. Yesterday I picked my project dog! Or I should really say she picked me. We were going through all the dogs and they were all awesome but none of them were really striking a chord with me. Then they brought Kitzie down from another run on a leash to meet us all, and she went around and met everybody, but she just kept coming back to me. Finally she just smashed her body up against me and laid down, and our intern coordinator Leesa said "Well Stephanie, I don't think she's really left you a choice!" and she sure didn't. She's my girl!! I'll have tons of pictures of her, I'm sure, but I haven't had a ton of time with her yet so none so far. She needs lots of basic obedience, but she is so sweet. I can't wait to spend more time with her.

Then today I worked in cats all day, and I'll be honest, I wasn't really very excited. I like cats and all, but I've been dying to spend more time with the dogs and horses. The morning shift with the cats was alot of cleaning, which is fine, I can totally clean. But the afternoon was pretty awesome. I could only be there a little over an hour because we had a meeting, but I absolutely fell in love with this cat. His name is Montana.

In case you can't tell, he only has three legs, and his one back leg is pretty deformed. But he cruises around like you wouldn't believe. He is SO COOL! I want to take him home with me....But I can't. But man, I want to. You can't see cause he wouldn't look at me for the pictures, but he has these really sharp blue eyes. He's so cool. If you're facebook friends with me you can see the video I posted of him.

The other thing we did today was go to the Parelli Natural Horsemanship demo at horse haven, and it got me really excited to work in horses at Best Friends. It was really cool, I've always kind of joked with all my show buddies about stupid crazy natural horsemanship people and how they're hippies or something....But it's actually really awesome. Horse friends, make fun of me all you want! I'm excited to learn alot more about it, and I'm also really excited because on Monday I am working allllll day in horses!!!!!! 

Ok, I'll try not to miss another night of blogging, since I know you all wait patiently in front of the screen constantly refreshing until I post again. Although this weekend won't be too exciting since I have it off, but I might get some time to hang with my Kitzie girl. :) Goodnight!

Too much cuteness for one day.

The days just keep getting better. Today we went on a few more tours, and then....we went to puppy class. Oh man, the cuteness was mildly overwhelming. We got to work on basic obedience with them and they brought out some stuff like vaccuum cleaners and umbrellas so they could get used to it. It was really cool to see how fast they learn!! Another intern and I had one little guy running back and forth through a tube thing in like 10 minutes. He was super smart, and super adorable!!

The rest of my day I spent in a place called Wild Friends, which is home to many wildlife who are unable to go back to their natural habitat, usually because of injury. It was really quiet and peaceful, and I got to see some really cool wildlife, and go in some enclosures with geese, ducks, roosters and lots of pidgeons. The staff member I worked with was a really awesome guy named Abe, he was alot of fun to work with. Tomorrow we pick our project dogs and I am working in dogtown, so it's gonna be a canine kind of day. Totally my kind of day. :D

I love this place.

Oh man. I am in love with this place.

Today was AWESOME. It was mostly just us touring the grounds and all that, but everything they were saying, everything they stand for is just so perfect. These animals have the most awesome care, and if they need to they will be here the rest of their lives. Best Friends is the largest no kill sanctuary in the country. I fell in love with all the animals we met today, which makes it SO hard to pick an area to focus in!! I can't wait to really start working with the animals directly, tomorrow my first rotation is in Wild Friends, which is the wild animal rehab center, so that will be awesome.

In comparison to my other in internship in Hawaii....Well, there really is no comparison. I learned alot at Sea Life Park, but I never felt like it was a place that meshed with me. Here, I feel like I totally belong. I have a feeling I'm going to have a very hard time leaving....

I was way too distracted by the awesomeness to take many pictures today, but heres one of the cat enclosures that are so freakin cool!!

Made it!

Ok, I'm here!! I'm finally in Kanab, UT!! The rest of my drive was just as gorgeous, but in a different way. This time it was all canyons and the red rock that is abundant in Utah, but it's so cool!! Kanab is a very small town, but very cute. I'm hoping to do some cool hikes and things like that while I'm here.

Well, my internship starts tomorrow! I'm excited and nervous, I don't know what to expect. But I had dinner tonight with two other girls that are interns, Leah and Savannah, and they were really cool, so at least I already have some friends to stick with. I'm sure I'll have tons to write about tomorrow, so time for me to sleep!!

Almost there!

Wowza. I have had an AMAZING past few days. Derek and I had a really great last night in Denver together, complete with two free beers and a free dessert at the restaurant we ate at, Which looked a little something like this:

 Then the next day we sort of explored Denver, but I had a headache so I was pretty lame company. Then I put him on his flight and we said our goodbyes, which was upsetting because I won't be seeing him for another two months. :( :(

Then I drove out to where my two friends Brianna and Erica live in Greeley, CO and went straight to the restaurant where Brianna bartends for some local beer and delicious drinks she mixed up for us, it was a very fun night. Then next day, we went on an INCREDIBLE hike. We went off the trail and basically rock climbed up a mountain. I had a bit of a hard time keeping up cause I wasn't used to the altitude like they were and kinda had a hard time breathing sometimes...But it was so worth it. The views from the top (while mildly terrifying) were stunning. Like nothing I've ever seen before. Pictures really don't do it justice, but maybe you can get a bit of an idea:

Yeah, we were up reaaaalllllly high, I have no idea what the altitude was. But it was high. Haha! Then after our hike we spent a little time in a really cute town called Estes, ate some dinner, and then went home totally exhausted. 

But regardless of how exhausted we were, we decided to get up early this morning and go find a trail ride to do! We did, and it was pretty fun, although it started to snow and we got a little cold and wet, but regardless, I think all of us really enjoyed being back on a horse :).

After our chilly ride, I had to say my goodbyes to my good friends and head out for Grand Junction, CO. I hopped on to I-70 West, and after a bit of a terrifying moment on a steep incline while battling an ice storm, I saw some of the most incredible scenery IN THE WORLD. I was in awe the entire drive. I would hit the top of a mountain, and when I got over the peak these vast plains, or red rock cliffs, or waterfalls, or MORE mountains would just open up in front of me. I think everyone should take a trip down I-70 West through Colorado at least once in their lives. It was out of this world. Again, pictures don't do it justice, and yes mom, you can yell at me later, I took this picture while driving:

My windshield wiper kind of ruins it, but you get the basic idea. Incredible.

So I am now sitting in my hotel in Grand Junction, about to absolutely pass out, these last few days have been tiring, but in a very good way. Tomorrow I will make the last leg of my trip to Kanab, UT and on Tuesday I start my internship at Best Friends. I CAN'T WAIT!!! :D

Success!

We made it! The car was fixed much sooner than expected and we made it to Denver, CO! Tonight we will be hanging with one of my really good friends Brianna who lives out here, and tomorrow I put Derek on a flight home and do the rest of the trip on my own! So nothing nearly as exciting to talk about today, but we are very happy to have a working car and have put another 8 1/2 hours of driving behind us!

And so it begins!

Ok! So this is my first blog post! I’m totally new at this, so please bear with me. I am starting this blog because in a little less than a week I will be starting an internship at Best Friends Animal Society, and my mom wants to know what I’m doing there practically every second, so this is basically for her  . 

We started our trip on Monday by delivering a dog (totally fit in to this experience!) to Wisconsin to his new forever home, which went great and it looks like he is going to have a wonderful life there! Then my boyfriend Derek and I continued on to Omaha, Nebraska, leaving my mom in Wisconsin to catch a bus/train back home to Ann Arbor. We got to Omaha after a long 7 1/2 hour drive, and when we got to our hotel room the key didn’t work and wouldn’t let us in. So we went back to the front desk, and for our trouble they upgraded us to a bigger room. We thought, cool, maybe there will be a fridge or something. We got to our room and it had TWO floors, TWO bedrooms and THREE tvs. Plus a full kitchen and living room. It was the nicest hotel I had ever stayed in. 

We woke up the next morning ready for our next drive, and even longer one at 8 1/2 hours, and hopped in our car. After about 5 minutes on the freeway the car totally freaks out, the RPMS flew up to like 6 1/2 and the car started slowing down uncontrollably. No good at all. So we pulled over and had it towed to a dealership. As of right now it looks like the transmission is in trouble and we are stuck here for a few days. Not part of the plan. But we made the best of it! We went to the Omaha Zoo, which was awesome, they have a great aquarium, and then went out for frozen yogurt. 

When we got back to the hotel and got another night there, they were fantastic and gave us the same AWESOME room at no extra charge. Oh, and did I mention that the dealership got us a free rental car?? The people of Omaha have treated us better than I ever would have expected. 

Phew! This has turned out alot longer than I planned, but we are now happily in our fantastic room, keeping our fingers crossed that the car will be ready for the next leg of our journey tomorrow. But if not, maybe we’ll just go back to the zoo!