"What's it like to volunteer at DogTown!". Volunteers Paul and Lori Wilson will tell you all about it! .........

Our wonderful experience volunteering at Amra

My wife, Lori, and I had the honor to be the first volunteers assigned to Amra, a new and very special dog area at Best Friends. Amra was built for dogs that need special attention because they have trouble getting along with other dogs. Lori and I found it very rewarding to work with the Amra dogs.

We arrived at Best Friends very late on Sunday, July 20, and checked into Cottage #2 -- a wonderful place. The next morning, we were astounded to see the countryside all around the cottage -- it had been dark the night before. The spectacular scenery was a complete surprise.

We watched the "welcome" video, went on the tour, and learned quite a bit about Best Friends. Then we sat down with Kalene Craddock, the Volunteer Manager, to discuss what we could do for Best Friends in the three days of our stay. We told Kalene that we are used to troubled dogs. Kalene asked some questions about our experience and, after a very nice conversation, sent us to Dogtown, where we were assigned to Amra.

Amra has two primary caregivers: Brian and Andrea. It would be very hard to find two more friendly, compassionate, hard-working, professional people anywhere. They took an interest in Lori and me, and they gave us everything to do that we were capable of doing, and they answered our questions and listened to our ideas. They kept us working pretty hard -- we were both exhausted at the end of each day. We walked dogs, fed dogs, watered dogs, took dogs out for baths, cleaned up dog runs, distributed new toys, and picked up chewed toys. It was a pretty heavy schedule; I don't know how Brian and Andrea do it every day.

On Monday evening, we took a dog named Jackson for a sleepover. He was perfectly behaved in every way. We were extremely proud of him when we took him out for dinner (in Kanab, most restaurants let you take a dog when you eat outside). He walked perfectly on his leash. We followed the normal rule at Best Friends for sleepover dogs -- we kept Jackson at a distance from other dogs. He was an absolute delight, and we were sad to have to give him back on Tuesday morning.

On Wednesday evening, we took a dog named Julep for a sleepover. She was every bit as good as Jackson -- either one of them is perfectly adoptable by the right family -- and we were, once again, very sad to have to give her back. We learned something interesting about Julep -- she seemed to want to be friendly to other dogs. We mentioned this to the people in charge of dogs at Best Friends. They were very interested, and it turns out that they had seen similar things in Julep before. We're hoping that Julep finds a good family just as soon as possible.

We have to thank Kalene, Brian, and Andrea for working with us and for their kindness. We also have to thank John Garcia and Vicki Kilmer-Rinker, who answered way too many questions for us. Finally, in alphabetical order, we have to thank Beans, Chaquita, China, Dasani, Jackson, Jazzy, Julep, King, Lexi, Minnie, Nicole, Pandora, Pinky Bear, Romo, Scarlett, and Shocky.

We'll be back next year, and every year.

Story by Paul Wilson (posted by Kalene Craddock)
Best Friends stock photo