Getting Started

I just wanted to give everyone an update on the last 48 hours. I left Boise at about 10:30am Tuesday to drive to Kanab. It is said that the drive takes about ten hours, but between Salt Lake City traffic, my self imposed 72 mph speed limit (for fuel conservation), and a need to stop at virtually every rest area I passed thanks to the copious amounts of fluids I have been drinking in an effort to bring an end to the cold I picked up, it was about 9:45 pm before I finally arrived at Carissa's house in Kanab. Carissa is another dog caregiver, she works with the Michael Vick dogs, aka the Vicktory Dogs; I stayed with her when I was here in the summer and am going to stay with her until I find a more permanent living situation. After unloading my car - which was packed to the roof (I'm not exaggerating) - and cramming all my stuff into places where her dogs won't eat it or pee on it, I made up the couch and gratefully went to sleep.
This morning, I arrived at Best Friends a few minutes before 8am for the morning meeting and then met with Ed (boss man) to do the welcome back stuff and find out where I will be working. I have been assigned to the Lodges, HOORAY! I spent a lot of time volunteering in the Lodges and they really need the help up there. They are laid out differently that the rest of the dog areas. Rather than having Octogon buildings, there are about 15 small buildings (probably about 100-200 sq ft each) and each building houses a max of 8 dogs; the runs are designed to house many of the dog aggressive dogs that can't live in multi-dog runs. The outside runs are about the same size as those at the Octogons, but the inside runs are only large enough to comfortably accomodate about 2 dogs (with beds, water buckets and toys). Working the Lodges means that I will have a lot of time to tear around the sanctuary on golf carts, as cars are not allowed back in the Lodges and the only way to reasonably get from one place to the next with cleaning supplies, poop scoopers, or lunch for the pups is on golf carts :).
The person I will be shadowing at the Lodges is off Tuesday and Wednesday, so I was taken around and introduced to all the new faces and reintroduced to the familiar ones (people that is) throughout Dogtown. Tomorrow, I will officially start working with the dogs. I was done with my day today at about 10:30am, so I figured the next stop should be the library to investigate the library card situation, check email, and post here. And then I am going to head back to Carissa's for some lunch and a bit of a rest; I didn't know that I wouldn't be working a full day today, but it is working out well, it will give me a little time to recover from yesterday's drive and try to kick out this cold. I will be sure to write a post about day one with the dogs as soon as I can get back to the library (not sure of their hours, yet).