Well, morning eventually came, and I was not the least bit disappointed! Red clay and white stone made up the layers of the surrounding hills. Green grasses and cacti could be found all around us. Red clay boulders were another common sight.

We got Blossom's crate from the van and put it inside the living room of the cottage. She was thrilled to see it and jumped right in. We turned on the t.v. for her to keep her company while we went to do our scheduled activities.

First on the list, meet up with Loki! He and his handler met us at the Welcome Center. Bobbi and I jumped out of the car almost before the engine was off. We ran over to see him, and he recognized us! He'd just been bathed and had a red bandana with the words "Best Friends Animal Sanctuary" on it. Bobbi and I couldn't stop commenting on how gorgeous he looked! A photographer wanted to take pictures of Bobbi and Loki together, so they did that while I stood and talked to one of the lovely staff members. Bobbi later told me that when I stepped out of view to avoid being in the background of the photographer's shots, Loki whimpered and tried to go to me! How awesome!

Soon, we had to hand Loki back, but only for a little while. We were scheduled for a 10:30 tour of Best Friends. Afterwards, we'd take Blossom to the clinic and pick up Loki for good. I was really happy about picking up Loki, but I knew it wouldn't be easy to hand over Blossom. She is such a great dog, and we'd grown attached to her very quickly.

The first part of the tour consisted of an introductory video in the Welcome Center, which is a gift shop with some offices and a small theater type area. All the items in the gift shop were adorable. The best part of all? The staff members' dogs wandered around freely! There was a big Samoyed, like my Moose, as well as an adorable little dachsund, a few poodles, and some other dogs. They were all so sweet, and followed Bobbi and me around a lot. Of course, that was most likely because of our pockets filled with Loki and Blossom's doggie treats!

The tour itself was great. I loved driving through those amazing hills and seeing the dogs, cats, rabbits, and horses. We only got out of the van to visit the kittens, cats, and dogs. It was really interesting and educational. The sanctuary covers 300 acres and is home to 2,000 animals. It was started in Arizona by a small group of best friends who frequently rescued animals from shelters. They chose the ones scheduled to be euthanized the soonest and did their best to find homes for them. When they couldn't, they kept the animals as pets. Well, they quickly ran out of room and that's when they bought land in Utah, and Best Friends Animal Sanctuary was born. Their goal is to have Utah be the first no-kill state, in 2005, and to have the U.S. be a no-kill country by 2010. They said they know it sounds ambitious but only ten years ago, the rate of euthanasia was 17 million cats and dogs per year. Today, it's between 4 and 5 million. That's a pretty drastic drop in just ten years, and with enough education out there, they hope to reach their no-kill goals. Their motto is "No More Homeless Pets." Pretty cool stuff. Spay and neuter your pets, everyone!

After the tour, Bobbi and I ate some of the leftover food we had with us. Then we took some pictures of each other with Blossom and headed over to the clinic. Everyone there was so nice and there were tons of dogs just walking around over there! They could go in and out of the building as they pleased, and they all got along with one another. It was so wonderful! Blossom met a few dogs and seemed to like them pretty well. Then Bobbi and I hugged Blossom and kissed her good-bye. And off she went... I hope someone adopts her and takes her to their child-free home to live out the rest of her days happily. I'm sure she'd do okay in the sanctuary, but I would be thrilled if she got adopted! She is such a great dog.

And then, the moment we'd all been waiting for... Loki!!! Everyone made a fuss over him and wished him well in his new home. Bobbi put his new purple harness on, and we dressed him up in some of the hats she'd bought for him. We all laughed a lot as Loki modelled first his beanie, then his biker hat. He has always been really great about wearing hats and not shaking them off. And since he is a big, black dog, and most people find him scary, dressing him in hats gives him a cute, goofy, style that might ease strangers' minds as they pass him on the streets of San Francisco, where Bobbi will regularly take him to work with her.

The trainer at Best Friends, V, came out to speak with us and it turned out that she and Bobbi had gone to the same dog trainer's academy. They had mutual friends and hit it off right away. V seemed so excited to have another trainer to talk to that she offered to show us around a bit. We saw their new training center to get adoptable dogs used to things like stairs, tile, linoleum, hallways, etc. The whole place was filled with these various things for dogs to walk on and try out, so they can have a chance to get used to them before going home.

As we walked around, an old german shepherd girl followed us. Her name is Liza, and she seemed interested in what we were doing, or at least interested in keeping us company. So V talked to us about the ups and downs of working in a sanctuary, and some of the training problems she's experienced because of other peoples' views, not the dogs themselves. We walked up into the dog area where visitors don't get to go. To the kennels where dogs have been court-ordered to spend the rest of their lives, alone, behind a fence. You know, to live out their lives in peace and harmony at a sanctuary. Yeah. Too bad it doesn't always happen that way. Dogs barked fiercely and lunged and ran along the fences. Worse, some dogs sat dead still and stared intently. I've learned even in the short amount of time I've worked with dogs that those are the most dangerous, the ones to look out for. In the midst of all this, Loki didn't even bat an eyelash. Liza seemed a little concerned, but nothing she couldn't handle. She just stayed close to me and I got to pretend I had a dog, too, for a while.

It's interesting that sanctuaries are strictly no-kill facilities. Where Bobbi and I used to work, we were a no-kill facility for adoptable animals only. Those words are key, because many of our adoptable animals became unadoptable from the sheer stress of living in a shelter. It all became too much, and they'd start snapping and baring their teeth, as Blossom did, or develop barrier frustration, as Loki did, or simply a horrible generalized fear disorder, the way Zeke did. To force those animals to continue their lives as they had would have been inhumane. So Loki and Blossom got to go to Best Friends. And then Loki got to get adopted! And Zeke had to be euthanized. If the goal of Best Friends is to have a no-kill nation for adoptable animals only, I'm all for it. Because, even though it's hard to admit, it actually is best for some dogs to be euthanized. A life of stress and/or fear is simply no way to live.

Bobbi and I were really grateful to have the chance to see the "other side" of sanctuary life for the animals, and it was great exchanging stories with V. She offered many congratulations to Bobbi and Loki and sent them home with tons of gifts: rawhides, a dog brush, etc. It was really awesome!

The sentences I heard most from that point on were from Bobbi: "He's perfect," "He really IS 'my dog' now!", and "Can you even believe how perfect he is??"

And it's true, Loki is an even better dog than he used to be, and he seemed perfect then! He now gets along great with many children (he used to be unsure of them), he was so not bothered by strange dogs running up to him and sniffing him while he was peeing, he didn't bark once the whole trip, he often looks back while you're walking him to "check in," and well... he's perfect!

Bobbi and I made a stop at the world's smallest liquor store (government-run, by the way, and right next-door to the police station), and bought Kahlua mudslides to celebrate. We ate dinner at what V called "the best restaurant in town." I call it "the best restaurant I've been to in years and I wish they had one near me in California!" The food was amazing! Loki napped in the van, and we checked on him every few minutes. The weather was nice and cool, so we didn't feel too terrible about leaving him for a little while.

Back at the cabin, we got into our pajamas and broke out the mudslides, then went out on the balcony to drink and relax. One couple we'd seen a thousand times during the day, starting with the tour, was staying at the cabin next to ours. The wife was very sweet and cute, and we'd spent a long time chatting with her about Loki and shelter work and dog stuff earlier in the day. That was just after we went to pet the horses and Loki got to see them up close. He didn't know what they were, and he was a little worried (he kept looking at Bobbi with a furrowed brow), but she kept telling him it was okay, so he believed her. No barking or anything. Yep. He is. He's perfect.

Anyway, the husband of that same couple saw us drinking mudslides on the balcony and asked how things were going. We said great and invited him to share in our celebratory drinking. He came over and seemed nice. He was fairly easy to talk to. But in between his nice conversation, he'd do and say weird things that pissed Bobbi and I both off. For one, we said something about having seen the dogs that had been court ordered to live at Best Friends, the ones who are too dangerous for any man or beast to have contact with, and dude says, "I don't mean to brag, but I have a way with animals." People like that kill me. Then you go in there with them!, I wanted to say. He also made goofy faces and weird noises to Loki at one point, who'd just been through the world's most emotionally exhausting day. Loki whimpered and puffed air through his lips, and the guy kept doing it. We had to tell him to stop and then gave him treats to give Loki so that Loki wouldn't make any bad associations with men. Way with animals, my ass. He can't even recognize clear signs of distress in a dog! Most annoyingly, he kept flirting with Bobbi and me. Mostly Bobbi. When Bobbi told funny stories, he would laugh and touch my knee. I just shot him dirty looks. Not that he's one to pick up on signals, as we've already discussed. Every time he said Bobbi was hot, or something of that nature, she'd make a joke of it in a very clear "I'm not flattered by that" way. Dude didn't get it. Then, when I went to the restroom, he totally hit on Bobbi, and that was essentially the end of our night. Bobbi and I ended up having a good venting session about him in the car the next day, in which we alternately laughed at his lame ass and complained about what a jerk he ended up being. Oh well. Some guys are just sleazy, I guess. I feel sorry for his wife. She seemed sweet.