First Week: Bunnies

       The normal commute from where I'm staying to the sanctuary is about 15 minutes. There is only one road to the sanctuary, and that's Highway 89. But unfortunately, they've been doing a lot of construction on 89 for the last few months, narrowing the road down to only one lane. They use something called a "pilot car", which takes cars back and forth along this 3-mile stretch of highway. While the one direction of cars is going through, you have to sit there and wait your turn to go through. This can take up to 25 minutes to get through this stretch of the highway. Since I started work at 8:00AM this morning, I left at about 7:15AM to ensure that I would get to the sanctuary on time. Luckily (or unluckily) enough for me, I missed the pilot car! So I got to work about half an hour early. Once I got into the sanctuary, I decided to go take a picture of the Grand Staircase Escalante from the upper canyon. (I blew it up pretty big, but it still doesn't do the picture justice!)

       Once 8:00 came around, I made my way over to...

     Not having much experience with bunnies, I didn't really know what to expect. I walked in and met the staff: Michele, Bryan, and Jason... Who are all SUPER nice! Now that my first day is over, I can tell you that I'm in love with bunnies!!! Shocker, right? I spent the majority of my day cleaning and sweeping kennels, doing laundry, and feeding. Not too grueling. Right now, the sanctuary has about 85 bunnies! I had the pleasure of watching the staff attempt to "bond" two bunnies. For those of you who aren't too familiar with bunnies, they prefer to have a companion or a 'forever friend', so they try to bond or introduce them to one another within a gated area. This bonding process can take up to 3 weeks. Today, they were trying to bond Cadbury (the brown one) and Bugzie (the white one). They got along very well and showed no signs of aggression towards one another. They are too cute!

       While cleaning one of the kennels, I made a new friend. Her name is Harley. I spent some time in Harley's kennel just hanging out with her. She was one of the only bunnies that didn't run away from me and actually allowed me to pet her. Michele suggested that I give Harley a "veggie bowl", which is one of her favorite treats!

       Doesn't get more adorable than that! She is such a love. I'm already trying to figure out how I can get her back to Pennsylvania :). Later in the afternoon, when all of the bunnies are fed their afternoon snack of fresh greens, I decided to go back to Harley's kennel and hand-feed her. I think she appreciated the help!

       Overall, it was a really good first day! And I can tell that it's going to be a great week and I'm going to enjoy my time spent at the Bunny House! Sadly, I got stuck waiting for the pilot car on my way home, so my commute took me about 30 minutes instead of 15! Oh well, it's not so bad when this is your view :).....

Happy Mother's Day!

       I want to start off this post by wishing all moms a Happy Mother's Day, and especially my own mama who I'm missing terribly today! Love you, Mom :)

       Today was my orientation at the sanctuary! I arrived at the Welcome Center at about 7:45 AM, and I stood there awkwardly with a few other people waiting for the doors to open at 8:00 AM. While I was waiting, I had the pleasure of watching at least a dozen hummingbirds congregate around a feeder on the deck. I've never seen so many hummingbirds in my life! Once we got inside, I met the other interns, and the Intern Coordinator, Amberly (I'm actually staying with Amberly for the duration of my internship!)... There are 6 other interns, and we are all females! We're all from different places all over the country, which is cool.


       We started off the day by watching some introductory/informational videos about Best Friends, and then we took a tour of the sanctuary! FYI - the sanctuary covers about 3,700 acres!  We began driving along a dirt road where we saw horses in their pastures, waiting to be fed. As we drove from the lower canyon to the upper canyon, we came across Angels Rest, where they lay animals who are no longer with us. Even though I only got to see it from within a moving van... I can say that it is truly breathtaking, and so beautiful. I can't wait to visit Angels Rest in my free time. Then we ventured into Cat World, as well as, Dogtown Heights. I met a few kitties and a sweet pitbull named Rosebud. Since it was chilly today, we kept it moving pretty quickly, so I only got to see most of Dogtown from the van. (Boo!). After the sanctuary tour concluded, we got lunch at the Village Cafe! The Village Cafe is vegetarian with vegan options as well! If I want, I can eat lunch there everyday for just $5. Not too shabby! After my yummy lunch, we got a personal tour of the Parrots! I'm not really a "bird person" so I wasn't too thrilled about this tour... But once we got there, I learned some pretty cool, new things. And some of the birds were just absolutely gorgeous.


       At the end of the day, we sat down as a group and discussed our duties and animal assignments for this upcoming week. I am in bunnies this week! I don't have too much personal experience with bunnies, so I'm looking forward to learning more about the cute, little, fuzzy creatures! Not exactly sure what my duties will be yet, but I'm anxious to see what I'll be doing all week.


       Halfway through the day today, I receive this picture from my sister, Carly....

      Most of you know that Lola is my WORLD. So when I saw this picture of her lying on my bed, looking super depressed... I didn't know whether to smile or cry. I miss her sooooo much, and I can't believe I have to wait more than a month until I see her again! I guess I should apologize now for all of the random/irrelevant pictures that I'll be posting of Lola... I just miss her so much, I can't take it!

       Well, tomorrow is the first "real" day of my 5-week internship! Basically, my schedule will be working 8:00AM-5:00PM, Monday-Friday, and I'll have my weekends off! I don't really know what to expect tomorrow, so your guess is as good as mine!

       I'll try to capture as many cute photos of bunnies as I can! :)

Lots of "firsts" today...

First time:

• Navigating an airport by myself
• Flying alone
• Flying first class!
• Renting a car

       I know that I'm 21, but I'm still pretty proud of myself for successfully navigating Philly and Las Vegas airports all by myself today! (Even though 10 year old children do it all the time...) I didn't think I could do it. Once I got to my first class seat, I immediately felt at ease! And when they brought me my breakfast accompanied by a screwdriver (needed that!), and my hot towel, I felt pretty damn special. Unfortunately, that feeling didn't last too long when I took a bite of my french toast and thought to myself, 'This is what astronaut food must taste like'. But, like a yuppie idiot, I continued to eat it so I didn't look ungrateful. I managed to take a couple cool pictures while in the air...

       And after the seemingly never-ending flight was over, I walked into McCarran Int'l Airport not even 10 steps before I saw the first slot machine. Weird... And no I didn't gamble, I have terrible luck. So I found my baggage and picked up my rental car, a cute little VW Bug, and I couldn't help but think how incredibly smooth this whole day went! I am so glad and so relieved that everything went as planned and nothing required me to have a mental breakdown.

       The best part of the trip was definitely driving from Las Vegas to Kanab. It really is true when they say that the Southwest is the most beautiful part of the country! The entire time I was driving, I felt as if I was dreaming and that all of the awesome canyons and mountains that I was seeing were just figments of my imagination... That's how cool they are.

        Now that I've made it to Kanab after a long, long day, I'm just about settled in. Needless to say... I'm EXHAUSTED after my day of firsts and traveling! Tomorrow is my orientation where I'll  meet the other interns and I'll get a tour of the sanctuary! Looking forward to it. Already feeling a little homesick... But once I start work on Monday, I'm hoping I'll be so busy that I won't have time to be homesick! Of course I'm missing my Lola butts like crazy :(... I don't think this feeling will ever subside, ugh!

What was I thinking...

 I apologize in advance for my writing, I'm new to this whole blog thing....    

       So when I randomly (and foolishly) applied for this 5-Week General Animal Care Internship at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary at the end of March... I figured it was a long shot, and that there was no chance I would get accepted. Especially, since it was so last minute! But of course, to my surprise, I quickly found out that I had been accepted! Immediately my mind was going crazy trying to figure out if I could actually make this happen, what would I pack, where would I live, etc. Being the worry wart and scaredy cat that I am... I usually find a way to talk myself out of everything cool/exciting, but with all the love and support of my boyfriend, my friends, my family, the Godfrey's Gang, and my phenomenal professors... For the first time in my life, I knew that I would be able to do this!

       Now that April FLEW by, and the Spring semester is over (woohoo!), the day has come for me to venture out to Utah. I'm anxious, I'm scared, I'm beyond excited, I'm feeling a million different emotions... But in my heart, I know I've made the right decision! It will be my first 'real' time away from home, and as scary as that is for me, I know that it will definitely help being surrounded by thousands of animals everyday. Who knows what will happen when I'm out at Best Friends... All I know is that this experience is going to be life-changing.

       I can't help but think of all of the people who made this adventure possible. Because we all know that I couldn't have done it with the help of so many generous, kind, and wonderful people! (too many to name!!!) This whole experience has taught me how many people truly care about me, which can be easy to forget sometimes. Unable to find the right words.... I just want everyone to know that I am so incredibly grateful and humbled by all of the love and support that I have received through this stressful, nerve-racking process. I know that I could not have done it alone, and I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

       Feeling pretty apprehensive about a lot of things right now... Which brings me to the question, "What was I thinking?". My plane departs in about 7 hours and I can honestly tell you that I still don't really know what I'm thinking. I just know that as soon as I found out I got accepted, there was a little voice inside my head that said, "You're doing this!". So here I am, writing my blog, telling myself that I am going on this adventure and I am going to love it! Sometimes, you just have to follow your heart and trust your instincts, right...?

Here goes nothing! :)