Third Week: Cats

       Two blog posts in one day, phew! Today was the first day of my week in cats. I am going to be stationed at Cat Headquarters. When I got there this morning, I watched a safety video and got a tour of the building. After my tour, I started working with Dale and Barbara. I spent most of my morning cleaning the catteries (AKA where the cats live). There are 31 cats at Cat HQ, and majority of these cats are there because of behavioral problems. Behavioral problems can mean anything from shyness, to self-mutilating behavior. After I got done cleaning the catteries, I took Miri for a walk. Yes, they use harnesses to take cats for walks, and they also take cats on stroller rides! As you can see, Miri and I didn't get too far...

Here's an example of some shy kitties. This is Kudos and Nacho. I zoomed in for this picture; they're near the very top of their cattery on a ledge!

This is Nala. Just chillin' out in her basket!

       After lunch, Dale and Barbara told me that there was going to be a placement ceremony for Fatima. Fatima crossed over (Best Friends' refers to an animal's passing as 'crossing over') in the beginning of May. Today, they had her placement ceremony at Angels' Overlook. A few other caregivers from cats also showed up. It was a short, but beautiful ceremony. The amount of love and thought that goes into burying the animals is unbelievable. Although I never knew Fatima, I was so moved by this ceremony, and by the kind words that the caregivers said in her honor. Simply being in Angels' Overlook, I could sense the love and serenity that those animals had. What a wonderful experience that I am very fortunate to have been a part of.

       After the placement ceremony, I spent the rest of my afternoon walking cats, playing with cats, and socializing with cats. It was an easy afternoon, to say the least! Hopefully I will make some more cat friends by the end of this week. We will see!

Antelope Canyon & Horseshoe Bend

        Yesterday was adventure #2! Margie and I took a roadtrip to Page, AZ, where Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend are located. And luckily, they're only a 15 minute drive from each other! We left Kanab around 1:00PM, and decided to do a tour of Antelope Canyon first. When we got to the place that we leave to take the tour, they asked us if we had reservations. Not realizing that reservations were necessary, we said no, but fortunately for us, two people didn't show up for the tour, so Margie and I got to take their place! Pretty lucky :)


       There is an Upper Antelope Canyon, and a Lower Antelope Canyon... We took a tour of Upper Antelope Canyon, so to get there, about 10-12 people pile into these seats in the bed of an old, rickety pick-up truck, and a tour guide takes you to the canyon. So once you think you're at the canyon, you're actually not! The truck has to drive through about 2-3 miles of sand. It was an extremely bumpy ride, but still really fun! So from now on, I'll let the pictures do the talking!!!

This is when we first entered the canyon.

If you look at the right-hand side of the picture, that's what they call "The Spine of Antelope Canyon".

Sand Falls

As you can tell, there's some very dark parts of the canyon... And some parts let plenty of light in!

Awkward canyon selfie...

And this is once we made it to the other side! This slot canyon is only about 400m long, so it wasn't a bad walk at all!

       The tour guide was really goofy. He gave us a lot of tips on how/where to take pictures, some neat information on the canyon itself, the flash floods that occur, how powerful the winds are, and so on. It was a really cool experience, I'm glad we got a chance to see Upper Antelope Canyon!

       After Antelope Canyon, Margie and I made our way over to Horseshoe Bend. I will tell you right now that Horseshoe Bend is by far the coolest thing I've ever seen. I don't think anything can top this!!! 

This is on our walk down to Horseshoe Bend. It's about a 3/4 mile trek through the sand. Not easy, but SO worth it!

And here she is...

When I walked up to the ledge, looked down, and saw this... It took my breath away! It is the most stunning, magnificent thing I have ever, and probably will ever, see in my life!!! I couldn't get enough!

WOOHOOOOOOO!

Just trying to take it all in...

More selfies... Sorry......

You can't really tell in this picture... But I am at a much higher vantage point! I climbed up this huge rock (for lack of a better term), and I truly felt like I was on top of the world! It was epic!

Letting my feet dangle over the edge :) What an adrenaline rush!

And one last picture...

       Yesterday was just TOO EPIC! I'm still in awe of the things that I saw. I honestly could've sat and stared at Horseshoe Bend all day... It was unbelievable. I highly, highly recommend that everybody get out to Page, AZ to see this amazing attraction. You will not regret it! It was such a great day, and I am so glad and so lucky that I got to see something so extraordinary. Like I said, I'm pretty sure that nothing can beat this... So put it on your bucket list :)