Burrito West Blog

The 3rd and last part of my Best Friends trip story is long overdue!

Grab a coffee, this is a long one.

The third day of volunteering I returned to Cat World while Kim went off to meet some bunnies. This time around I went to Benton's House where special needs cats live. This building is where you really get to understand what kind of place Best Friends is. They don't just save cats, they save cats that other places think are unadoptable. Blind or incontinent or missing limbs - the Best Friends attitude is that these animals deserve love and a happy home just as much as other cats. They take these cats and give them incredible care and medical treatment and love - for life. They work to find homes for them, but if that doesn't happen, the cats get to live out their lives in comfort at Best Friends, doted on by staff and volunteers.

Walking into Benton's House in the morning was a change after the immaculate Casa de Calmar - because the incontinent cats at Benton's make a bit of a mess overnight. So, like Calmar, every day the entire place gets scrubbed down. I rolled up my sleeves and joined in scrubbing and mopping, but not until after I met some of the lobby cats and fell in love.

Particularly with Tumbles (photo at left, which doesn't show how tiny he is) - because I'm a sucker for all black cats (which are usually the last to get adopted at shelters because of all the silly superstitions around them). Tumbles has cerebellar hypoplasia which is a neurological disorder that means he doesn't walk straight (like Roxy in Calmar) - except Tumbles has a pretty severe case and spends a lot of time in padded areas to keep him safe. He's ADORABLE. I put my hand out to let him sniff me and because his head kind of trembles he ended up nose-bopping me in an attempt to sniff me. *LOVE* I played with him for a bit and tried not to think about how easy it would be to sneak such a small little thing onto a plane. I will be extremely jealous of whomever gets to adopt this fellow.

In addition to Tumbles there's Brooke, a gorgeous kitten with paralyzed back legs. We played for a bit too and she didn't seem to care about her back legs - she got around when she needed to. It's hard not to feel sorry for these creatures at first - because you imagine all they're missing - but they don't know they're missing anything and usually they're just playful scamps like the other cats! The good news about Brooke, besides the fact that was just adopted(!), is that the vet team has been working with her and think she may regain some use of her legs!

While at Benton's House I saw the caregivers give meds, bathe cats, manually express bladders, and clean a lot. This extraordinary level of care is just an ordinary day for them. It's hard to find words to express what a wonderful place it is. Animals that so many other places would have discarded or put down as worthless are so loved and doted on at Best Friends it literally gives you hope for the future somehow. That maybe humans, as a species, are not as terrible as the nightly news can make us seem.





I did get some time to cuddle at Benton's House - including two cats at once because Jamie decided she could squeeze on my lap even though Bob, a sizeable boy, was already there. And she was right (photo to left).

Peepers came by for a visit and it actually took me forever to realize that Peepers is blind - she really moves around as though she can see, it's amazing. (Peepers has been adopted!)





Apparently I have a thing for blind cats, because I was also smitten with Miss Dot who is mostly blind - and has permanently dilated pupils so she looks at you with these HUGE wide eyes and your heart just melts (see photo at left).

Kim and I met up at the fantastic cafeteria for lunch to swap tales. A lovely older lady asked if she could join us and we welcomed her. She introduced herself as Charity, one of the founding members of Best Friends. We were later joined by Gregory, another founder and we had a fantastic lunch talking about Best Friends and what had brought us there and what our impressions were, etc. They told us about their vision for the place and a bit about how it started. It was a wonderful experience.

The next day, Kim and I both bought copies of the book "Best Friends, The True Story of the World's Most Beloved Animal Sanctuary" (I read most of it in one night), and reading the story, it somehow all made sense - both the experience we'd had at the sanctuary and the lunch with the founders. These are just good people. Good on a level that we don't experience in our day to day life. They set out to do good, to devote their lives to doing good, they found their outlet with saving animals and they approached it with honesty and hard work and continue to do so. It was inspiring to be in a place that was so infused with goodness, that's the only way I can explain it.



I returned to Benton's House for the afternoon shift and when the day was nearing its end, I asked the caregivers who most needed to go on a sleepover and they suggested Blackjack, who I hadn't met yet. But he's a black cat so I was guaranteed to love him; it didn't hurt that he was adorable.





We took him to our cottage for the night. Turns out he's quite the character - he desperately wants to be on your shoulders nuzzling your ear and kneading your neck. Seriously, it's his life goal to do that (see photo of him trying to get to Kim's neck and her preventing him. she's so mean). We had a good time with him, especially in the morning when I woke up to find a cat nuzzling my ear (for the record, that tickles) and massaging my head.

I fell in love with at least half of the cats at Benton's - they're so unique and special and.... lucky to have landed at Best Friends where they get such a standard of care - you just want to hug them all and tell them how very fortunate and loved they are. It really is a magical place, in a very down to earth kind of way.

Best Friends just posted a video about Benton's House - which features Tumbles a few times - check it out:


Seriously - go donate a few dollars to your local animal shelter if you can, or to Best Friends (if you donate $25+ you get a subscription to their seriously awesome magazine) - these places deserve all the support they can get to do the incredible work they do.

I suspect that when the time comes to adopt another cat, I'll be looking for a senior black cat that is blind, has cerebellar hypoplasia and is FIV+, thanks to my days at Best Friends.


Special thanks to Kim for being so enthusiastic about the trip when I suggested it, making it a great time, and for being just as floored as I was about how magical a place it was!

I'll end with a few photos of the scenery - Kim and I visited Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park after our volunteering was done (and Vegas, but that's another story). There are more photos on my flickr account.