Well, we (Bob, our dog, Frankie and I) went to Utah for my sister, Cathy's booksigning. What a whirlwind weekend! There was something planned from the time we got there to the time we left. We arrived Friday and went to Zion National Park with my brother and his wife who had come from Idaho. It's always fun going places like that with Mike because he's an ornithologist and works for U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, he points so many things out to us about birds, plants, animals, it's educational. Zion was beautiful but pretty warm. That evening we went to dinner in Kanab at the nicest restaurant in town. Mind you, this is a really small town but Rocking V Cafe was great, really nice people who own it. First thing Saturday morning we all went to Best Friends Sanctuary which is breathtakingly beautiful, and had a 3 hour VIP tour with one of the original founders of the sanctuary, Faith Maloney. What a place! It sits on over 30,000 acres and the way the Best Friends' animals live is like nothing you've ever seen. It's all about the quality of life for these animals who have been abandoned, tossed aside, abused, whatever, there are countless stories of how and why they came to be at Best Friends. After the tour we had a special lunch, all vegetarian, in their green cafeteria. Ali MacGraw and her son, Josh Evans and daughter-in=law Charis were there, Cathy's editor, Pam, from Wiley Publishers in Chicago Cathy's agent, Susan from New York, and many friends, rescuers and volunteers who all had started arriving Friday. The lunch was great and Pam from Wiley presented Best Friends with a $5,000 donation check and designated it to be spent on the pot-bellied pigs' facility. After lunch there was the booksigning. My gosh, they sold a couple hundred books and many people brought their own books which they had purchased before coming so they could read it before the booksigning. While I was there the line was over 2 hours long! The line-up at the booksigning table was my sister Cathy, the author,
Cliff Deutsch, the rescuer who is on the cover of the book, Clay Myers the photographer of the photos in the book and on the cover, and Ali MacGraw who wrote the forward and is an animal lover and activist. So the four of them were at that signing table from 2:00 pm 'til 5:00 pm without a break. The positive energy was amazing. Then there was a dinner on a grassy area overlooking Angel Canyon which is breathtakingly spectacular. There were those who came with pets who had been rescued from Katrina, Marina, Lois Lane, Mia, Ginger. They came from all over the country. They came because they have this bond with eachother after working together for weeks and months rescuing the animals from evacuated homes and abandoned streets, treating them and caring for them every day. Working day and night, endlessly, sleeping in tents. It was a magical day and I'm so glad Cathy was able to tell the wonderful stories and document their accomplishments and the lessons learned in New Orleans after the storms.
I have my autographed copy of the book and I am almost finished reading it. I read it aloud to Bob while we were on the road home. It's touching, inspiring, happy, sad - all of that. And now it's back to reality and work.
I think it's the first time ever I've been on a trip and not done any antiquing along the way. Well, we did stop in one shop that was closing right when we came up but she let us come in anyway and have a quick look around. We ended the weekend with a hike in Angel Canyon on Sunday morning. It's so beautiful and serene, we thoroughly enjoyed it and needed the exercise before we got on the road again.
Just a footnote, I loved meeting Ali MacGraw who is so beautiful just as she has always been through the decades and is a very gracious, down-to-earth human being.
It was a pleasure. A side note, our dog, Frankie, is a Best Friends' dog. He was rescued by the great folks at Best Friends about five years ago from a breeder/hoarder in Los Angeles. We love to travel with him and stay in hotels and inns that allow dogs as guests.
Angel Canyon
Tylertown, Mississippi
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