Animal Rescuers from all over the World Come Together in Las Vegas to Learn How to Save More Pets

The reason to attend the Best Friends Animal Society's No More Homeless Pets National Conference hit me like a ton of bricks on the ride back from visiting their sanctuary at Angel Canyon in Kanab, Utah last week. There was a group of about 40 of us who decided to visit the sanctuary ahead of the conference. On Monday, October 22nd, we boarded a bus from the hotel "Rio" in Las Vegas and headed east.

On the ride back to Las Vegas early Thursday morning, I looked around the bus. At about the same time, "Viva Las Vegas" was playing over the bus intercom system as the skyline of Las Vegas became visible. I took stock of all the cat and dog life savers sitting around me - the rescue people and the ones who worked at animal shelters. They were busy texting their volunteers back home to schedule medical appointments for foster cats. They were busy uploading adorable puppy photos to Petfinder. They were checking their email on I-Pads. They were constantly on their smart phones keeping track of animal issues back home. These people were not "on vacation." I'm not sure if they ever are. What most of them do is a 24/7 "job" even when it's an unpaid volunteer position. And for a lot of them, it's NOT a paid job. But even though a lot of them are unpaid volunteers, it's a very fulfilling life for them. I felt honored to be among them. They are hands-on animal rescuers and I am a "media person". I do whatever I can to promote and educate the Northern Lower Michigan area about pet ownership and saving homeless pets. But these animal rescue folks do the REAL work. The important work.

Getting back to my moment of clarity about why this conference exists and why we were all going to it, as well as why a lot of us have also visited the Best Friends sanctuary over the years...What I realized at the moment "Viva Las Vegas" was playing on the intercom was that if every person on the bus had even saved only 50 animals this year, that would be 2000 animals! And from lengthy conversations I had with them over the past four days, I knew that most of them saved a lot more than 50 animals this year. What this trip was about was how to save even more. It was about learning how to do things better. It was about learning from each other to see what works and what doesn't. Some groups wanted to save 60 dogs instead of 50. Other groups were looking at saving 1200 cats instead of 900. Similar to an addiction program (and we are ALL addicted to saving pets), we were involved in a social group of sharing to help others - and learning to help ourselves. All of these great people had the same focus of saving animals and all of them related to each others challenges that they face every day. No one was shy about saying hi and meeting someone new. The attendees of this conference deal with life and death on a daily basis. They would talk to anyone about anything if that person was wearing a Best Friends lanyard around their neck. They were there to save more lives.

The bus of people who went to the sanctuary was full of cat people, dog people, bird people, bunny people, small rescue groups with small budgets, big county shelters with small budgets, Republicans, Democrats, Floridians, Michiganders, Canadians and more. They are from all walks of life. Animal rescue, in my opinion, is one of the few things that breaks all barriers, where even Republicans and Democrats can work side by side harmoniously because they are all on a mission to save animals.

I was lucky enough to have my trip generously paid for by a private donor who is a supporter of the Pet Friends website. She believes in the goal of Traverse City becoming a no-kill community and wanted me to go to the conference to learn as much as I could to bring back information and ideas for our area. I send her many thanks for making this trip a reality.

So for those of you who may never get the opportunity to take the trip, here is a blog from my visit to both the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah and also the No More Homeless Pets Conference in Las Vegas. I apologize for the length of this piece but I've been requested by many animal friends who haven't made the trip to fill them in on what goes on during this exciting week.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 22ND

Monday was the first of many early mornings to come. I checked out of the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas and headed out to join our tour bus headed to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. We were joined by Best Friends staff member Patty and our bus driver, Rick, who kept track of us to make sure no one was stranded at a gas station or a McDonalds when we took a short pit stop. It was a beautiful ride through the small towns and winding roads. We drove through beautiful canyons of orange with bright blue skies behind them. Patty handed out veggie sandwiches from Subway and water. We were warned (nicely) several times that we needed to keep water with us at all times when we went to the sanctuary the next two days. Between the high elevation and the heat, we would need to keep ourselves hydrated. Patty told us stories about the history of cities along the way and asked us questions to see why we were there and what we hoped to learn. Along the way, towns sprung up out of nowhere. For miles there would be long stretches of canyons and then all of a sudden, you would see phone lines, electric and a community. It was very exciting when we saw the Best Friends billboard because we knew we were getting close to Kanab! Soon, we arrived at the Holiday Inn Express and got settled in our rooms. A little later, we went downstairs for a dinner that was catered by a favorite restaurant of Best Friends. The food was delicious and there was a Best Friends staff member at every table. We got to learn about the jobs they did and why they chose to work at the Sanctuary. We also got to see a short video about the Sanctuary which made us look forward to the next morning even more.

The hotel lobby at the Rio

Outside pool area of the Rio

View from the bus on the way to the sanctuary

View from the bus on the way to the sanctuary

Almost to Kanab!

Our group stayed at the Holiday Inn while in Kanab

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23RD

Tuesday started out with a great breakfast downstairs at Holiday Inn Express. Who knew that instant pancake machines existed?? Everyone should have one of these. We got off to an early start and headed off to the sanctuary. It was another beautiful ride through canyons and hills. If you have a problem with heights, this is definitely not the trip for you. During the entire visit, we rode around curves and hills as we went through the canyons, sometimes on paved roads and sometimes on a road that had a sign which said "unimproved road."

Downtown Kanab

The Welcome Center at the Sanctuary

The deck outside the Welcome Center/Gift Shop

Inside the Welcome Center for Orientation

The pond (with fish of course!) outside the Welcome Center

A view from the Welcome Center

We stopped at the Welcome Center first for an orientation about safety and got our schedules for the day. We had been broken up in two groups the day before and today we got our itinerary. For my group (a big shout-out to Group B here!), we were to do some workshops first. We hopped on a smaller shuttle bus driven by volunteer and driver, Eileen, and headed towards Dogtown where we would meet some dogs who came out of bad situations like puppy mills, hoarding and neglect.

On the way to Dogtown, what should we have expected to happen? Well, a dog rescue, of course! Or being a witness to the start of one at least. We had seen a mule deer run out in front of our shuttle bus. Then we saw a whole herd of them go by. The next thing we saw was a blur of a dog go by from one side of the road to the other. Then we saw another dog run out in the road, this one wearing a red bandana. We were hardly on the property for an hour and there were dogs needing to be rescued.

The dog rescue begins!

Dogtown, between buildings

This dog will have seizures if it gets too excited

The wall of adopted dogs this year from this octagon

Eileen said it didn't look like the dogs were from Best Friends because they weren't wearing the Best Friends collars. She got out of the bus but the dog didn't want to come towards her in our direction. The dog ran farther down the road. Eileen radioed some other staff members and they arrived within minutes. They drove up ahead of us where they could still see one of the dogs. Eileen came back to our bus since the situation was being taken care of by the Best Friends staff members - the "professionals". She guessed that the dogs probably came from visitors in the RV park area. We drove ahead to Dogtown to start our day. We found out later that the dogs were rescued and were indeed owned by visitors nearby. Another successful dog rescue for Best Friends!

When we arrived in Dogtown, we went into the octagon called "Dolores". The dogs are housed in octagons with inside areas and large outdoor runs. Most of them live in groups of two, three or four dogs for companionship. They are matched carefully before being housed together. The names of the octagons are the names of previous dogs that have been rescued by Best Friends or people who have contributed to Best Friends. In this case, "Dolores" is named after Dolores Harris, one of the early supporters of Best Friends who along with her husband Homer were big financial contributors to the sanctuary. Homer also has a building named after him.

In the Dolores octagon, we were introduced to three dogs who were rescued from bad situations - Missouri, Gummi Bear and Forest. There was about 20 of us and we sat on the floor so that we wouldn't be threatening to the dogs. We were given treats to break up and toss around for the dogs to sniff and eat.

Forest and Gummi Bear

Cat World Building

Both Missouri and Gummi Bear walked around the room, eating treats off the floor. Gummi Bear even gave out some kisses to a few people. Being around people is part of their socialization so that they can get used to a more normal environment and not be afraid of new things. When you're a puppy mill dog, from a hoarder or a bad situation, you are afraid of hands reaching out to you, you don't know how to play or live a normal dog life. It's the job of Best Friends to introduce them to the world they should have been born into. Volunteers also help with this process.

Gummi Bear is the only one up for adoption at this time. She lived outside in a trailer park and is now learning to socialize with people.

Forest was the saddest one of all. She sat on the floor shaking the whole time while we were in the building. She came from a hoarding situation and who knows what kind of life she had to endure. She just broke our hearts. She was clearly scared by so many people, yet at the same time socializing her is a much needed part of her rehabilitation. Although she never got up to walk around the room like the other two dogs, it was good to find out that she was becoming more comfortable around her caregiver and making small improvements since she came to the sanctuary.

After visiting with the dogs in the Dolores octagon, we continued on to our next workshop. Along the way, I saw that the Amra and Rhonda buildings were right next to each other. If you've read the Best Friends book, you'll remember that those two dogs were very devoted to each other and were there near the beginning of the founding of Best Friends.

Our next stop was at the main cat building "Cat World Headquarters" for our "Quality of Life" workshop with veterinarian, Dr. Frank. As we waited for him to talk, we got to pet a cute little kitty named Little Callie. She was the office lobby cat. A senior cat with skin allergies, she enjoyed being the center of attention until the class began. She was brought to Best Friends because her owner had health problems and could no longer care for her. She is up for adoption too. Here is her link:

The workshop began and Dr. Frank talked about our perceptions about what quality of life meant to different people. We talked about what it meant for humans and animals alike. It came down to a balancing act of the enjoyment of life. To humans, felines and canines, the quality of life is about what matters to that person or animal. What is it that happens that might elicit a positive or negative feeling?

One example of the quality of life in a cat is whether that cat lives indoors or outdoors. If one cat loves to be outside and another is fearful of it, they would have a different quality of life if you kept them both inside - or kept them both outside. Making the same decision for different animals doesn't give them the same quality of life. Managing the physical and emotional well-being of our rescue animals is about treating each pet individually. To do that, we have to pay attention to and learn what is pleasant and unpleasant for each animal. And often times, the unpleasant will far outweigh the pleasant. If an animal is sick, other things might not matter to them as much. Their fun toy is no longer appealing if it hurts them to go to it. However, by doing our best to tune into the relationships they have with us, their mental stimulation and their health, we can often find opportunities and tools at our disposal so that we can make their quality of life better. The same holds true for our own pets. We need to pay more attention to what makes them happy and what they enjoy and do what we can to enrich their lives.

View from driving around Sanctuary

A beautiful place for lunch!

After the workshop, we took the shuttle to Angel's Landing and met up with the other group who had been taking a tour of the sanctuary. We had a great vegetarian (and vegan) lunch near a canyon wall. It was a beautiful location and looked like one of the places where trainer John Garcia had used in the show Dogtown which was on the National Geographic Channel for four seasons. While we ate, we watched a demonstration about clicker training from one of the Best Friends volunteers. Clicker training is not only a useful tool for us to train our own animals, it's a great thing to use at shelters to make dogs more calm and adoptable. You can use it with cats too!

After lunch, it was time for our group to take a tour of the property. We jumped back into one of the shuttle buses and headed out. Most people think that even though the sanctuary sits on 3,900 acres of property, that the different animal buildings are grouped together. Not so. It actually takes 12 miles to see everything. Yes, the cat buildings are in same general area and the same is true for the dogs. But the animal areas themselves are spread out. Often times, we had to go through canyons for ten minutes or so to arrive at the next tour spot. This was done because the founders wanted to keep the land as natural as possible and make roads that went around trees and didn't just go in a straight line at the expense of nature.

We saw more deer run by and some babies too. We stopped in Dogntown at the "Ginger" octagon and met Miss Prizzel, a female Plott Hound who loves attention.

The dogs have a lot of room in their outside dog runs

Inside one of the octagons, dogs wait to get walked

Dogtown

The little dogs keep an eye on us as we drive by

There was also a beautiful dog outside of the Ginger octagon who was in a red coat. Unfortunately, we couldn't interact with this dog because it would have seizures if it got too excited. As we visited the pets at the sanctuary, it was obvious that Best Friends often took in a lot of special needs animals that would be unadoptable in most shelters - the blind, deaf, old, incontinent, sick, injured and those who needed extensive physical or behavioral rehabilitation. They have the time, space, staff, volunteers and knowledge to give these animals what they need to become more adoptable.

As we rode along on our tour, we saw many other dog buildings and then we drove over to the cat buildings. We ended up at Benton's House. Benton was a cat that Best Friends rescued in the early days. Greeting everyone at the door of Benton's House was Bob. Bob loves to go outside for a walk as often as possible and he was the reason they started the cat walking program. Yes, they DO walk some of the cats! And a few of our volunteers got to try it themselves during their volunteer time.

The (Benton's House) Cattery is a very cool place for kitties!

In Benton's House

Benton's House had friendly office cats

Benton's Room

We met shy cats and outgoing cats, small cats, big cats, black cats, orange cats....Lots of beautiful cats. Many of the cats in Benton's House were from the Great Kitty Rescue that happened in Pahrump, Nevada.

In Benton's Room where we visited, the cats had a lot of shelves, beds, cat trees, cubby holes and toys, both inside and out. Their outside cattery was fabulous with lots of high beams to walk across and places to spy on people who came to visit.

Kitties inside Benton's Room

Cubby holes for cats in Benton's Room

Up near the ceiling in Benton's Room

In the Cattery outside Benton's Room

The next stop was the Bunny House. The bunnies were living in style with all kinds of toys and sleeping quarters. There were homemade amenities and store-bought ones. One of my favorites was the princess tent. Most of the bunnies had both inside and outside areas and they were in groups of bonded pairs. They are also adopted out in pairs. There were two volunteers in the bunny area who were folding laundry. It sounded like they had been there for a while on that task. We were told that a new bunny building was in the works - and that it would include their own washer and dryer too!

Bunnies inside

Bunnies outside too

This bunny has its own Princess tent

Arriving at Horse Haven & Piggy Paradise!

Our next area to visit was Horse Haven and Piggy Paradise. There were many beautiful horses to visit with. The horses we met were in an area in front of the cabins where visitors stay. One of the horses we met, Helen, was blind and she still tilted her head back and forth out of habit, behavior she had learned from previously having partial sight. We learned that the Best Friends staff took care of every horse based on their individual needs. Each horse got a Horsenality profile so that the staff could learn more about each horse and be able to properly train and motivate them. I will go into this a little more later when I talk about a horse workshop that we went to.

A view of the cabins behind where some of the horses are

Visiting and learning about horses

After visiting with the horses, we met up with some pigs in Piggy Paradise. In total, there are currently about 10 potbellied pigs up for adoption at Best Friends and they live together in the same area. They came to Best Friends because they were neglected, abandoned, outlawed from where they lived or from a hoarding situation. Two of the pigs created paintings while we were there. The staff members had put paint under some plastic and then put the food on top of that. When the pigs ate the food, the paint was moved around. These piggy paintings would be used for fundraising later.

A pig working on a painting

The large area where all the pigs live

Piggy greeter of the day

Hanging out in the sun and showing off for visitors

The next stop on the tour was back to the Welcome Center and a trip to the gift shop. I picked up a few things and relaxed outside on their porch. Below the porch was a pond with fish and there were also turkeys nearby. It was very serene listing to the water and the chimes in the area.

After doing some shopping, I decided to join most of our group (and those from the other group) for a blessing - a celebration and remembrance ceremony at Angels Rest, the pet cemetery at the sanctuary. It is a very spiritual place where the pets of people from across the world and from Best Friends are buried. There must be thousands of pets there. There are markers with pet names on them, urns, photos, and all kinds of trinkets, rocks and special gifts left in memory of loved ones. Their owners bring these gifts to Angels Rest, mail them to the sanctuary and people like us also add things to their sites if we are touched by the name of the animal or their story.

Entrance to Angels Rest

Honoring a lost pet

Chimes at Angels Rest

Many pets laid to rest at Angels Rest

A family of kitties lost and memorialized

Another view of Angels Rest

A special tribute to a rescue from the early days

Honoring Katrina victims

There are also chimes all over Angels Rest which have pet photos and words inscribed on them as well as cubbyholes in rocks that displayed photos and prayers for their family members who had passed away. A short ceremony was held at Angels Rest that day and we spoke the names of pets who had crossed over the Rainbow Bridge recently. Visitors in the crowd were also encouraged to share stories about pets they had lost recently as well as celebrations of adoptions and good news. The winds blew and the chimes rang out. After the blessing, I went out in search of Mollie the pot-bellied pig. Mollie was a rescue from the early days of the sanctuary and the first pig that they took in. A pastor in Idaho had called them, desperately looking for a place for his pig to live. There was a new ordinance where he lived that said farm animals could no longer live within the town's limits. Mollie would probably have taken offense to being labeled a "farm animal." She was house-trained, watched TV with her family and often slept in their bed. Although it was a long drive, the pastor and his wife left for Utah the next day after being told his pig was accepted into the sanctuary. In addition to the pig, the pastor brought the special carved wooden bed that Mollie loved along with shopping bags of toys and treats. And because Mollie was used to being part of the family, she came to live with Faith Maloney, one of the founders. Mollie's story really touched my heart and I was on a mission to find her memorial site. After wandering around for quite a while, I finally came across a bronze pig and many gifts left in her memory. It's really a unique experience to be a part of the Best Friends story after you're read about them over the years.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24TH

Today was the day we got to volunteer with the animals. When we had planned our trips from home, we had to choose a volunteer area. We were asked if we wanted to volunteer with cats, dogs, birds, bunnies, horses, or pigs. It was a tough choice between the cats and the dogs but I had decided to volunteer in Dogtown. Our group of about 20 people (group B) was divided into even smaller groups and about six of us went to the "Fairway" dog area today. We walked dogs from the octagon Petey and Dotty. We walked in pairs, two humans and two dogs. The dogs who walked together were from the same runs. I walked my dogs with a woman named Courtney Trotz-Sanders who is with Paws for Life Rescue out of Troy, Michigan. Being a fellow Michigander, we knew a lot of the same animal stories and issues going on in Michigan. Even better than networking with people from far away, was discussing things that were going on in our own state. It's a great way to save more animals in the future and to discuss local issues that need our attention.

Posing with Atmosphere

Jen and Autumn with Courtney and her new friend

Thankfully, the walking trail was posted along the way

Here is Raisin, the shy dog that I walked

The first dog I walked was Atmosphere, who had a reasonable walking pace, not too fast and not too slow. Courtney and I tried to pay attention to the markers along the trail so that we wouldn't get lost, however at one point Atmosphere wanted to go right and we went left. When we brought the dogs back to the octagon, the staff member told us that we had taken the shorter trail. Ah! Atmosphere had known that we were cheating him out of his long walk! So back we went. In the end, he got a regular long walk and the extra one too. We should have known that the dogs knew where they were going and we were just the visitors.

My next dog to walk was Autumn. She would make a great companion for a person who likes to rollerblade. She was very high energy and anxious to investigate everything along the trail. She went left and right, then left again and right again. She didn't want to miss anything and you could tell that she thought her leash was way too short. She wanted to be way out ahead of things and I wasn't able to keep up. Our bus driver and volunteer, Raven, got to walk a dog with us too during this time. Raven was a favorite of ours and we learned so much about the sanctuary from her. She was really great to spend time with, as were all of the Best Friends staff and volunteers.

My last dog to walk was Raisin. She was beautiful Hound, but very timid and decided to walk behind Courtney and the other dog. She was scared along the way from noises and quick movements but there were also times along the way when she lost herself in the walk and her tail would start wagging. She was rescued from a hoarding situation and was still adjusting to a calmer life at Dogtown.

Billy Bob

Mocha Too

After the last walk, we had about 20 minutes left until the shuttle was scheduled to leave. Courtney and went into separate runs to socialize with the dogs. I was in a run with Billy Bob and Mocha Too. They were both very shy dogs but Billy Bob did come over to me a few times to let me pet him and get some kisses. He came from another shelter who had found him as a stray, starving and needing medical attention. He was beginning to come out of his shell at Dogtown.

Mocha Too, a female Golden Retriever, was absolutely gorgeous, but so shy I wasn't able to pet her. She came from a Colorado rescue group and is learning how to walk on a leash. She needs a lot of patience and Best Friends is giving her plenty of that along with lots of love.

The staff and volunteers in Dogtown were all great. They get very excited about their adoptions too and have a wall of photos of all the dogs that have been adopted that year right near the entrance of their octagons.

A friend next door to Billy Bob and Mocha Too

Sira visits us for lunch

A view at lunch

Learning a lot at the Parelli Horse Training demonstration

After volunteering at Dogtown, we went to have lunch at Angel's Landing again. Another beautiful day in the canyons. While we ate, a volunteer was there with Sira, a Shetland Pony. The volunteer talked about how they are treating her for Cushings Disease and give her hoof care so that she's no longer in so much pain and much more comfortable.

Our next stop for the day was back to Horse Haven for a demonstration on Parelli Horse Training, which is used at the Best Friends Sanctuary. In a nutshell, it's a way for people to identify what kind of personality (horsenality) a horse has so that they can be trained and rehabilitated the right way. The staff and volunteers at Best Friends observe the horse to find out if they are left brain or right brain and if they are extroverts or introverts. There is a chart to help them monitor the horse's behavior and it's something that will help the horse-human relationship for the rest of the horse's life. It was amazing to watch the trainer and horse together using this method. It's really a great program to look into if you have horses yourself or are looking at getting one in the future.

After watching the Parelli demonstration, we took a shuttle and went to Feathered Friends where all the birds hang out. Before we went downstairs where a lot of the birds are housed, we got to meet a male Cockatoo named King O (or just "O"). Quite the ham, King O went from arm to arm and schmoozed with as many of us as he could. He loves people and would be a GREAT bird for anyone looking for a special feathered friend. What a guy! Click here for his photo and adoption information.

We went to visit the birds in the basement where they have Cockatoos, Macaws, Amazons and other varieties. During our informative session on the birds, they were all very talkative (the birds, that is). One of them made a sound like a fire alarm, some said hello and since I was standing next to Holly, she decided to be as loud as she could while I was visiting so I could hear her above everyone else.

King O makes the rounds with everyone

Holly has some things to say when we visit

Outside of the bird area, we ran into Layla, one of the Michael Vick dogs. She is one of the last ones left at Best Friends and currently has her own space at the Parrot Garden. In that area, she can be an office dog and get plenty of loving from Best Friends staff members. We visited her for about five minutes and she was generous with her time, posing for photos and giving kisses to a few lucky visitors. Click here for a recent story written about her.

Layla says hello

Here's a sign you don't see every day

After meeting Layla, we took a tour of Wild Friends, the wildlife area of the sanctuary. We visited with the animals that can't be released back into the wild and are taken care of by Best Friends. There are also areas farther back where they are rehabilitating animals that will be able to be treated and released. In fact, Best Friends is a state and federally licensed wildlife rehabilitation center where they are able to help orphaned and injured animals go back into the wild. There are bobcats, eagles, wild rabbits, owls, prairie falcons, ducks, geese, pigeons, hawks and more. If a wild animal needs help, Best Friends will be there for them.

After we visited Wild Friends, we went back to the hotel for a little rest and relaxation. Then we got back into the bus and headed out to the sanctuary for dinner with some of the founders. Every table had at least one founder. Some of the founders there were Gregory Castle, Gabriel de Peyer, Chandra Forsythe, Virgil Barstad, Charity Renne and a few others. Gabriel gave the keynote speech and was very entertaining. He talked about how Best Friends got started - how they started out not accepting the status quo of killing and how homeless animals were treated. Along the way, it became a movement. He talked about how the animal rescue world needs to work together and get over differences so that more animals are saved. It was a great night of great food and company. It was another night where we networked and realized that the more everyone helped each other, more animals we could save.

THE CONFERENCE

Thursday, we were up early for the bus ride back to Las Vegas for the conference. As a special treat, Patty had written a Best Friends rap song which she performed (someone had requested karaoke the day before). She did a great job and was a great host to us during our trip.

Welcome to the Conference!

One of the many dogs I saw in the hotel

The conference lasted from Thursday afternoon until Saturday afternoon. Some of us also took an additional workshop on Sunday. As some of the programs were geared more towards rescue groups and shelters, I won't go into each program that I attended, but will go over the highlights of the conference and what went on during that time. On average, we attended three programs a day with breaks and lunch. The programs were offered in tracks – some people stayed on the tracks and some chose programs based on the subject matter or who was speaking. The tracks were: marketing, making money, adoption/fostering, empty cages (keeping pets out of shelters), animal care/behavior, innovation and case studies in no-kill communities. There was something for everyone.

At lunchtime on Friday, we sat by regions so that we could meet people from the same part of the country that we lived in. On Saturday, we sat by our interests (adoptions, pit bulls, social media, etc.) We also got to watch some really great videos that were submitted by a dozen or so of the groups that were attending the conference.

Sitting in our regions at lunch - and networking

Lunch time - and some great vegetarian & vegan food!

Vendors and sponsors at the Conference

Francis Battista (founder)

There were also general sessions with some of the founders. They talked about how behind every number is a nose. Every animal at Best Friends is treated as an individual and treated that way, according to their needs and they hoped that we would all do the same as that is the way we are able to make the animals in our care more adoptable.

We learned from Francis Battista, one of the founders, that this year's conference was being attended by 1400 people, a new record. He said that it got bigger every year and that more men attended this year than in previous years. People were there from 47 states and nine countries. They told us that a greater number of government shelters were embracing the no-kill philosophy of not killing healthy and adoptable pets and that more of them were working with rescue groups to save their animals. The founders of Best Friends asked us to put aside our differences with other groups. They asked us to work with shelters instead of going around them. They said if a group is saving lives, they are saving lives and that people should offer what they could to help them save more animals. We were told to never settle for the status quo of the killing of healthy cats and dogs. We should be a part of the change. If they could change things with land-line phones, direct mail, letters and phone calls, we could certainly do it with cell phones, internet and Facebook.

More founders on stage

Service dog helping out at the Conference

The Founders selected people across the country who they thought were innovators and making real progress in the no-kill movement and brought them on stage during one of the general sessions to talk about what those people have been doing to make things better for animals in their small part of the world. When asked what was coming in the future or what was needed, their answers varied. Mike Arms, president of Helen Woodward Animal Center and the developer of "Home for the Holidays", wants more humane education. Julie Castle, senior director of communications for Best Friends, sees no-kill as the cause of the decade and wants it brought more into the mainstream media. Bonnie Brown, executive director of the Nevada Humane Society in Reno, says that there is a real need for leadership in the shelter world. The are openings for executive directors and those attending the conference could be the next leaders of tomorrow. Gregory Castle, one of the founders of Best Friends, emphasized the need for collaboration again. He also said that everyone should be engaging local businesses a lot more. Many businesses, large and small, have volunteer programs or are open to them when approached the right way. Becky Robinson, president of Alley Cat Allies, stressed the need to work on the needs of each animal to make them more adoptable. She also talked about the need to do the "R" of TNR which means to return the feral cats to the location they are found in. They do not belong in shelters because they will be killed. Christie Rogero, who is the Targeted spay/neuter Manager with the Animal Welfare Association of New Jersey, says that the future of our movement is social work. She says that we're going to have to focus on people as much as animals. We will have to teach them and change their attitudes. We also have to realize that there is no PERFECT home. How many of us have left open a gate? How many of us would be approved to be an adopter by a rescue group we have never met before?

Best Friends is also looking towards the future of the sanctuary as well. They said that each year, we need to change so that we move forward. They are working on a new 13,000 square foot clinic that will be used to treat Best Friends animals as well as those from the community. They are also going to build a new bunny house and are also looking at building better facilities for the horses in the next few years. They are also looking into setting up regional Best Friends centers across the country.

The founders of Best Friends talked about how they're getting back to their focus of no-kill. For a while, they had their hand in too many things and weren't as focused on their mission as they needed to be. Although the other work they were doing was important, it wasn't directly related to the no-kill philosophy and moving that forward. They also talked about how they're not getting any younger and the need to bring new people into the fold and looking into continuity planning so that Best Friends remains viable and well-run.

Jackson Galaxy & Sherry Woodard (Best Friends) at a session

Cubby holes for cats in Benton's Room

The Best Friends founders also reminded us that amateurs built the ark and that the professionals built the Titanic. It was a call to arms for those of us who want to move ahead even though we were going into uncharted territory and beyond our comfort levels. It reminded me of a T.S. Elliot quote that I have in my office that says, "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."

No-kill board with progress and future plans

Founders of Best Friends & leader in no-kill movement

By the end of the conference, I had gone to eight workshops and learned some invaluable information for rescue groups and shelters as well as pet owners. I will be privately sharing some of the things I have learned with local animal groups in Michigan and I will also have some future articles on the website to share with you to help you manage and relate to your own pets even better. We can all make a difference to the animals in our lives - whether they are our own pets, foster pets or those in shelters who we can help. Let's all work on making our homes and shelters a better place for cats and dogs and never give in to the status quo. We can all make a difference in our little corner of the world.