Tune in to Dog Town

Many of you may already watch Dog Town (National Geographic's hit television show about Best Friends Animal Society that airs on Friday nights at 10 PM). If you haven't, I highly suggest that you set your DVR or Tivo to record every episode. Dog Town is a great show for anyone who is into animal rescue (or just plain loves dogs) that chronicles the rescue efforts of the amazing staff of Best Friends Animal Society.

I have to admit that I had never heard of Best Friends Animal Society until I saw my first episode of Dog Town. The first episode I watched featured an adorable mixed breed, named Tuffy, with an amazing will to live (you can read about Tuffy here).

Immediately after the show was over, I went to the Internet to find out more about the organization thinking that it was relatively new. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that Best Friends is a huge rescue organization located in Utah. On any given day there are over 1,700 rescued animals at Best Friends including dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, pigs, horses...you name it! The animals at Best Friends come from shelters and rescue groups all across the country for the special care that the staff at the sanctuary provide. The goal of Best Friends is to prepare each animal for adoption, and they place hundreds of animals in forever homes each year. To me, one of the best things about Best Friends is their promise to give every animal a forever home - for those few animals that are too sick, old or traumatized to be adopted out, they are welcome to stay at the Sanctuary where they will receive special care and lots of love for the rest of their lives.

Best Friends Animal Society, started in the 1980s, will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year and has grown by leaps and bounds. In particular, Best Friends' No More Homeless Pets campaign has helped bring awareness to the problem of homeless pets and has helped to dramatically decrease the numbers of pets killed in shelters each year. Dog Town, a special neighborhood at the Sanctuary, was even the home to 22 of the dogs known as the Michael Vick dogs rescued from the property of Michael Vick.

If I could find a way to work for Best Friends Animal Society I would. Believe me, I've already checked their job postings a number of times. I'm not kidding. Unfortunately, the Sanctuary is located in Kanab, Utah - a small town far, far away from our town in Georgia. Good news is they love to have visitors and volunteers, and they even have cottages on the property that you can rent for your visit. Looks like Utah just got added to our list of travel destinations!