It’s estimated that four million dogs are euthanized every year…just in the Untied States. That’s about 80 million each week. 213 today. 8 during this next hour.

I want to tell you about a place where this doesn’t happen.

There are many great no kill animal shelters and I encourage you to support as many as you can. I simply want to highlight one very special place.

Years ago, my wife I and started donating to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary (http://www.bestfriends.org) in Kanab, Utah. It’s been such a long time, I don’t recall how we first heard of them, but we did learn that it was a no kill shelter and we wanted to support their efforts. At the time, there weren’t many no kill shelters, at least to our knowledge.

Several years ago, we were vacationing in Couer d’Alene, Idaho. We had driven there from Phoenix. On the way home, we noticed that, with a slight detour, we could visit Best Friends and see it for ourselves.

We had envisioned a place where the animals, though kept alive, spent most of their time in cages with an occasional reprieve to go outside for brief periods. We were in for a shock.

Kanab, Utah  is in the middle of the proverbial “no where.” It is located in Southwestern Utah, about seven miles from the Arizona border. Kanab has 5400 residents. The nearest town of any size is St. George, Utah, 81 miles away with a population of about 125,000. “Isolated” describes the location.

But because of this “isolation,” Best Friends is a place of tranquility and peace, surrounded by ancient looking red rocked hills similar to those found in Sedona, Arizona. We stopped at the Welcome Center where we were greeted warmly and encouraged to tour the place. Since it is spread out over quite a distance, we got in our car and began our drive (today, thanks to the popularity of Best Friends, there are scheduled, guided tours. Call to learn more at (435) 644-2001 ext 4537. Full tours take approximately an hour and a half).

Since you and I are interested primarily in dogs, I’ll skip detailed descriptions of the places we passed and stopped into for a short visit:  “Horse Haven” (a huge pasture where horses run free), “Cat World” (where cats literally live in cat houses and I do mean houses), “Bunny House” (a private hutch for every bunny), “Parrot Garden” (the name describes it), “Wild Friends” (for birds) and The Clinic (as the current web site describes it, “Here, you’ll see lives saved, pregnancies prevented, shots given, and oh yes – have a look at Woolly Bear’s big smile. He’s just had his teeth cleaned!”). Judging from the accompanying picture, “Wooly Bear” looks like a Border Collie.

Finally, at the end of our journey, we approached “Dog Town.”  We knew we were close because we began to hear barking dogs who had, evidently, heard our car approaching. Turning a bend in the road, at least 20 dogs lumbered towards our car, eager to greet us. This was a far cry from the cages in which we had expected dogs to be imprisoned.

One of the people on staff gave us little dog treats to distribute and the dogs eagerly accepted our largesse. We spent the next 15 minutes petting, hugging and receiving the kisses, cuddles and licks from as many of the dogs as we had time for. Visualize the love you receive from your dog(s) and multiply that 20 or 30 fold to approximate our experience of Dog Town. Click  http://video.bestfriends.org/media/p/196.aspx to see a 2-minute video of Dog Town (the picture at the top is one of the dogs at Best Friends).

I don’t think you’ll be surprised to learn that Best Friends is located in what’s called Angel Canyon.  What a great name for a great place that I’m delighted to tell you about.

Thanks for caring.