Camo has been one of my project dogs at
AFF since this past summer so when I was asked if I would consider a crazy last minute trip to
Best Friends in Utah for a meeting with a possible adopter, I couldn't say no. We were driven down to JFK and although Camcam pooped while we were waiting in line to get checked in, he was overall an amazingly well behaved traveler. Once we landed in Las Vegas we rented a big SUV (with tinted windows!) that could hold both me & Camo and the huge plastic carrier he flew in. We were already getting comments about the fact that I am so small/short and the fact that Camo is so tall/big, I bet anyone seeing me climb out of the SUV (yes I had to CLIMB) would have had a good laugh. It took us four hours to drive to Kanab and we arrived at 3am.
We quickly settled in to our hotel room at the Holiday Inn and went to sleep.
In the morning we took a walk around town and stopped in a place called Laid Back Larry's for breakfast. It was perfect. They had a tofu "egg salad" sandwich so I got that and some coffee. The woman behind the counter as well as the other patrons all fussed over Camo and gave him lots of treats. There were pictures of animals all over the walls and I saw that they had lots of fake meats and vegan "dairy" products in their fridge. Awesome! We ate outside on the deck in the sun and it was a nice way to start the day.
Around noon, we made our way to
Dogtown HQ at Best Friends and met Sherry, Lisa, and Whitney who were all in on Cam's adoption. Whitney, one of the trainers at BF, had fostered Camo for about 6 months previously so when he saw her he went nuts with excitement. She told me that he was originally supposed to be named "Camel" but that she thought it was weird and changed it to Camo. While we waited for the potential adopters to arrive, I got to follow a dog caregiver named
Skip around for a few hours. John, a volunteer from Brooklyn, and I walked a few dogs, got to watch new dog introductions, helped put together the second daily feeding, and cleaned and washed lots of food and water bowls.
When I was done, the adopters had arrived and had already started to hang out with Camo in one of the office rooms. I showed them some of the tricks we had worked on like "spin" and weaving through my legs and I talked to them about the ins and outs of Camo-life; what he likes doing, what he doesn't like, how to get his attention, etc. I really hoped that they would connect with him. We went out to the parking lot and the family took Cam to their car and off they went for a sleep over. I got teary-eyed knowing that I would probably never see him again but was happy that he was getting a really good shot at a new home and that if it didn't work out, I had met all the people that would take care of him again at BF and they all adored him and had missed him since he had come out east a year and a half ago.
When I finally got home after more driving and more flying, I was told that the family had fallen in love over two sleep overs and that Sherry was driving him to do the dog introductions to their current two female dogs. So as I type this entry, he is out west somewhere most likely getting to know his new siblings. Good luck Camo!
The other end to this story is that I came home to MORE animals than when I had left. Our neighbor's cockatiel who Dave agreed to watch was in the turtle room whistling away and the next day we found a very skinny kitten up the driveway screaming and wailing. She is now also housed in the turtle room in a big dog crate for the time being. Dave decided to name her Teen. More news on her very soon.
A trip to Utah for me and Camo
