AB1 Tour 2014 - Week 29 - Kanab, UT

Kanab, Utah … It’s called “The Greatest Earth on Show.”
     That’s not too far off.  It’s in the center of Utah’s tremendous beauty consisting of a whole host of national parks.  Kanab is a bit rustic, though.  We were kind of cut off from civilization there: no newspapers, no ESPN, limited Wifi, and their McDonald’s had no drive-through … it was like we were living back in the Stone Age.  There was no way to keep up with the really important things that were happening in the world, events such as the mideast crisis, the Ebola outbreak, or the baseball scores.  Somehow, we survived.
     After Diedre Kaye, the four most important things in my life all begin with the letter “C”: cats, chocolate, comedy, and Cooperstown (OK, well, that’s “baseball,” but I needed a “C”).  So our week in Kanab (Canab?) was not to be dedicated to baseball, it was not to be dedicated to theatre, it was to be dedicated to our furry feline friends, the cats.

     No, not our three cats, Charlie, Casey, and Samantha, who so earnestly made this seven-month RV odyssey with us and have been such good sports about being cooped up in (to them) a cramped RV space with no chance to see the sites other than from the front dashboard windshield.  No, these would be the cats of “Best Friends,” (BF) the largest animal rescue sanctuary for abused, abandoned, and neglected animals in the country.  On their incredibly scenic red-rock 3,000 acres, they have massive and spacious indoor/outdoor enclosures for cats, dogs, birds, horses, pigs, and rabbits.  At any given time, there are usually around 1,700 animals on campus.  And that’s where we would be spending the week doing volunteer work at “Cat World,” Best Friends’ feline sanctuary, Diedre’s allergies to cats be damned.
     On Monday, October 13, we checked in at 8 a.m. at BF and went through their strenuous volunteer training.  It took about 10 minutes.  We were then assigned to “Casa De CalMar,” which specializes in cats with the feline leukemia virus.  These cats don’t necessarily have a good prognosis, but they were all incredibly social cats.
     Cat World has 11 houses for their feline friends including one that’s named ”The Biggest Losers’ Club” for overweight cats.  To the credit of the BF staff’s careful watch of nutrition for their cats, only four were in that house.
     Each house has a different specialty.  They all have a good sized central lobby area with 2-4 offshoot wings.  Each wing is about the size of a single car garage.  These wings are split in half with the indoor portion and the outdoor enclosure connected by myriad cat doors at several levels.  The cats have more than enough room to roam. 

 Our volunteer time was 8:15 A.M. to 11:30 Monday through Friday.  We did whatever we could to help the staff of each house with cleaning, feeding, and socializing with the cats.  In the very first wing we entered in the outdoor portion, I had no sooner taken a seat on the floor than “Mister,” an amazingly friendly tabby, climbed up on my lap and became my buddy for the day.  We found that in any house we entered, there were timid cats, shy cats, and casual cats, but there were always at least one or two, like Mister, who had no fear of humans and desperately wanted to be loved.  They’d come up to you immediately, asking for no references, and before you knew it, they’d be in your lap getting their pets and taking their naps.  The purring from those cats resounded throughout the sanctuary.
   

 Some of the cats were actually very good at taking walks on a leash.  While DK was walking Barney, a giant orange tabby, we found the cutest, gamest little kitten at the house next door.  “Montana” was a tiny ball of Birman fur.  He was missing his right, rear leg, and had little use of the left one, but that did not deter him in the least from scooting around the yard pulling himself around with his two front paws.  He was just an incredibly sweet little boy.  I would have adopted him on the spot, but his medical care is both expensive and requires a lot more training than we’re probably up for at our age.  Still, what a little buddy!
     As you’ll recall from last year’s blog, we had already stayed in Kanab and seen most of the sites in this two stoplight town.  So on our first afternoon back, we just walked the town to refamiliarize ourselves with what they had to offer.  Our RV park was an easy walk to anywhere in town, so that made it extra nice.
     On Tuesday morning, we were back at it, this time at Quincy House, the home for cats with special needs (handicapped) and social cats.  I had chosen it because I wanted to spend more time with my new buddy, Montana
     After doing a total cleanup of one of the wings, Diedre got the cat comb and brush out and started spiffing up the kids.  Like Mister yesterday, she was immediately set upon by “G.I. Joe” who could not get enough of the combing.  While this kept my better half busy for quite awhile, I grabbed the specially built cat-buggy and took new friends Spanky, Oliver, and eventually G.I. Joe for rides in the forested area.  This also helped me get in part of my daily three-mile walk.  The cats seemed to love seeing new sites from the buggy, but the really amazing part for me was that almost any staff member who happened by knew my buggy‘s occupant by name, even if they were from a different cat house.  There were 200-300 cats there that week, but all the staff knew each one as if they were their children.  Pretty neat!
   

 At the end of the day’s shift, I had one last moment with my little buddy, Montana, while Diedre said good-bye to “Zulu,” her funny little kitten who was intrigued by boxes.  Today we would be taking our lunch at Angel Village, the vegan lunch room available to all staff and volunteers.  It was a $5 buffet that, coupled with the incredible patio view, would have been four times the cost at any other restaurant.  We once again finished the day by walking the town of Kanab.
     The next day’s house was called “Mondrian’s” and it cared for both social and shy cats.  Today a little girl kitty, “Skadi,” stole my heart.  We must have played with her string toy for 30 minutes.  You know, Diedre and I can both really see now how people become “Crazy Cat Ladies/Guys.”  As would happen every day, Diedre and I would each have a favorite in whatever house we were working.  We would each find at least one (usually more) cute as all-get-out cats whom we wanted to take home.  We had to keep reminding each other that THREE was our limit, although as children, Diedre had at one time kept 17 cats on the family’s hobby farm while I had eight at about the same time.  That was back before we knew about “Kitty Kontraceptives.”  But as adults, we’ve decided that after three cats, you do officially become the neighborhood’s “Crazy Cat Lady/Guy.”
     Instead of a vegan lunch that day, we ventured out into BF’s massive park lands and tried to find “Hidden Lake” where we had visited last year.  Somewhere along the way, we took a wrong turn.  Didn’t matter.  Wherever you were in their great outdoors, the views were incredible.

     Thursday, October 16, 2014, would be a huge day for me.  I’ll fill you in on that a little later.
     Today we volunteered at “Morgaine” house.  It was a lot of fun because in addition to the special needs cats it housed, there were also a boatload of kittens.  Sylvester, a little cuddler, seemed to be DK’s favorite du jour; she actually liked him so much that she wanted to turn our “Three Stooges of Cats” into “The Four Feline Marx Brothers.”  I had to put my foot down, which wasn’t easy what with the cat-do all over the place.
I had became enamored with three cats that day: “Heidi,” “Dolores” (Seinfeld note: rhymes with a female body part), and Sequoia who was just so sweet.  Her story was one of a dedicated mom protecting her kittens after being abandoned in the wild until BF finally stepped in.  We got to go to an adjacent wing to see Sequoia’s kittens who were being specially cared for.  They were all just so darned cute.
     OK, the reason that October 16, 2014, was a huge day for me was because it would be the 1,000th day of my streak of walking at least three-miles a day (or playing at least two softball games) going back to my heart surgery in January of 2012.  To celebrate my 3,000 mile journey, we again hiked the area, this time taking the correct route to Hidden Lake where we had a wonderful picnic.  In my celebration picture, I’m utilizing my high school Latin by flashing the Roman gang sign for one-thousand (a 1 with one hand and the letter “M” with the other).
     The celebration of “The Streak” hitting 1,000 continued with dinner at the top restaurant in Kanab (right after “Jack-in-the-Box”), “The Rockin’ V Café Fine Dining.”  The Food Sheriff said that since this was my 1,000th day of three-mile walking, she would not be on patrol that night.  It was like turning the fox loose in the hen house.  I was able to order chicken and LINGUINI!
     Friday would be our last day on the kitty-campus.  We opted to work at “Jill’s Diner,” yet another of BF’s cat houses for social and shy cats.  Now, nobody had said it was going to be easy working on this gigantic, industrial cat farm on the mean streets of Cat World.  First off, Diedre banged her head so hard on a cat shelf while cleaning that her mind went all ker-flooey.  For a moment, she thought she was on the Broadway stage doing a performance of “Cats” with Henry Winkler.  Fortunately, she recovered before they took the show on the road.
     I, on the other hand, had problems of my own.  Two cats, “Z” and “Day Dream,” had made their ways up my legs and had both decided to spend the afternoon in my considerable lap.  Apparently, though, not considerable enough for the two of them.  A cat fight ensued and I, the innocent bystander, nearly had my right arm bitten off by a fierce mountain-lion type kitty who was probably all of six pounds.  One band-aid and some Bactine later, I was back in the game.  My toughness is why I’ve been called “The Alley Cat.”
     After bidding BF a fond farewell until next year, we started a new walking streak.  Mine was still at 1,001, but Diedre vowed to start one also.  Her’s stands at “1” after today’s hike up and down Kanab’s local mountain.
     On Saturday, our only free day in Kanab, with planning help from the kids we decided to make the most of the region’s beauty by venturing about 35 miles east to hike the Wirepass Trail slot canyons at Buckskin Gulch Park.  We were not disappointed.

     My lovely bride had helped me celebrate my 1,000 days of hiking by getting me a special commemorative T-shirt being sold all over town.  Check it out.  There are both front and rear views.  Contact Diedre for the team price if you’d like one too.
     The scenery at the park was incredible even before we got to the slots.  Once there, we squeezed our way through parts that were only 2-3 feet wide with 100’ high walls.  And when the slots opened up, there were amphitheater-like settings that would dwarf in size anything Broadway has to offer.
     In one damp area, we saw mud of a rich, deep brown color that was partially dried.  Diedre immediately saw how wonderful it would be to make clay pots out of it, while Alexx’s childlike mind thought only of milk chocolate.
     Parts of the trek were hand-over-hand and called for assisted climbing, but we two senior citizens teamed up to make it there and back.  It was a great day to end a wonderful week.
     All right, we’re on the home stretch now.  The last blog will be about the three final stops in our adopted home state of Arizona: Monument Valley, Flagstaff, and Lake Havasu.  It’ll then be followed by the year’s wrap-up and a preview of 2015’s RV Extravaganza.  Stay tuned!