Beautiful sights, or sore eyes?
When I returned from my recent vacation, friends asked if I’d had a “ball” or a “blast.” I wouldn’t express it that way, and so I had to think about what a vacation is anyway. For me this was about taking a break from the entanglements of everyday life and seeing something new. With my six dogs I traveled to Arizona and Utah, to areas where I have spent a lot of time sightseeing the national parks and back roads. The new sights that I wanted to see were the work being done for animals in some of the really difficult places.
I stopped in the new Kayenta Animal Care Center in the Navajo Nation. Dr. Begaye took time from the spay/neuter surgeries she was doing to talk with me. She was open and hopeful that I might be different from other bilagáanas who have passed through, offered help, and then gone away to write totally negative, destructive, discouraging stories about how horrible the situation is. She then asked a volunteer to help me photograph the dogs in the shelter, and she went back to her surgery.
It took many years and the efforts of a lot of people to make this shelter and clinic a reality. Every single dog was a beauty, in apparent good health, very adoptable, and lucky to be in a safe place.
While spending some time at Best Friends, the amazing sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, I had a chance to chat with Jana de Peyer, one of the founders, about the work they are currently doing with Albuquerque on trap, spay/neuter, release, and about their work in Los Angeles, where stores will no longer sell pets. We agreed that, thanks to the work of so many, improvements are happening all over the country.
On my way home to Corrales, I stopped in Chinle, Arizona, by Canyon de Chelly. I met with Cindy Yurth, the president of Blackhat Humane Society, a group of fosters spread through the Navajo reservation. In the last light of day, in the cottonwoods, I made some photos of her foster dogs, and then we spent some time talking about our shared goals in rescue work.
Last, I made a brief stop in Gallup, where shelter staff helped me photograph a few of their great dogs, like Poppy, the little border collie mix (see opposite) and her five adorable pups. These babies have “tickets” to get on the Rescue Waggin’* to Colorado later this month, where there are more available homes.
As I travel through the Colorado Plateau — a place that always thrills my soul with wonder — what should I look for with my camera? The beauty of the scenery? The ugliness of the neglected animals? We already know about both of those. I found another kind of beauty, in the hearts of people dedicated to helping, and in the souls of the animals. My vacation pictures are at www.broandtracy.org and www.facebook.com/Bro.and.Tracy. Please visit and see all of the beautiful dogs I met in our travels.
* PetSmart Charities® Rescue Waggin’® is a unique shelter transport program that moves adoptable dogs from shelters in areas of high pet overpopulation to shelters where dogs are more in demand, to increase the chance of permanent placements.
Photographer Joyce Fay founded Bro & Tracy Animal Welfare in 2000, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping individual animals find the right homes. The intention of this column is to share some of those stories.