Day 1 at the Best Friends No More Homeless Pets Conference

Wake up Call!
The alarm went off at 3am but subconsciously I was already wide awake. Remember that feeling you had when you were a kid the night before Christmas… you may have slept 3 hours but subconsciously you were awake the entire night getting ready for the great morning ahead you! Typically if my alarm went off at 3am I would have a mental and physical war just to get out of bed. On this particular morning I popped right up and started what would be one of the best, most inspiring days of my life to date.

My wonderful husband had the task of “Taxi Cab” this morning so we fueled up on caffeine and at 4:45am off we went to the airport. I hopped out of the car with the biggest smile my face could take and gave my husband a big bear hug and as we started our separate ways he turned and said, “Babe, be the change!” This was my moment; I could feel it in every bone in my body.

Airport Adventures
As I sat at the terminal I was giving everyone the once over to see if there was anyone else from Arizona going to the conference. I was hoping to meet at least one person before I got to the conference just so I know I wouldn’t be there alone. To my surprise there wasn’t anyone wearing a cat shirt or carrying around a canvas bag with dog prints…. I then quickly realized that I myself didn’t have any such attire and realized that I probably had a skewed view of animal lovers.

The First Encounter
I was waiting in line to board the plane when I heard two women talking about rescuing a cat. I instantly turned and asked in what I soon realized was a much too peppy tone for 6am, “are you guys going to the conference?!” One lady gave me a rude look and said yeees and turned back to her friend , just for the record she DID have a canvas bag with a cat on it J. SO I found my seat on the plane and eagerly awaited Sin City.

Madison May
Going 2 years back in time (January of 07) I walked into a petsmart and found the love of my life… at least another one J there she was, lying peacefully in her metal prison. The most beautiful blue Pit Bull I have ever seen. There was a group there I had never heard of before, “Best Friends Animal Sanctuary” from Kanab Utah. They were in Las Vegas the previous weekend and had to take Madison May( then M&M) to the vet for the weekend because so many “thugs” as they called them, tried to steel her right from her cage. At one point they had to zip tie her cage together and they found someone cutting the zip ties off. The next weekend they drove her and the other animal that hadn’t been adopted in Vegas to Tempe Arizona. I hadn’t been to this particular Petsmart in about a year and for some reason I decided to go in to get some treats for my other dog Roxy, our red nose Pit Bull. There she was J I was mesmerized and a nice man named Larry came up to me and said “wow, you really have a connection with this dog.” I guess I was standing there for a while and before I know it I was signing papers to take her on a sleep over. We ended up adopting her and Larry told me that her foster mom would love updates because she really had a connection with her. Connection was an understatement. I found out later that Madison was the last dog she ever fostered because she cried for days, weeks even months about Maddy being adopted.

Anna
Two days before the conference I e-mailed Madison’s foster mom, Anna, to see if she would be at the conference in Vegas. I thought that she probably would because she works for Best Friends. She e-mailed me back letting me know that she would be there and that we had to meet up to talk! It was a done deal, we exchanged phone numbers and were both tickled pink to finally meet each other!

Emotional Waterfall
I arrived at the conference a few minutes after the opening remarks and found a spot against the back wall to stand. They had everyone attending the conference send in a short story about why they are attending the conference with a picture of you and your animals. They started the slide show and being all emotional animal lovers over 650 attendees already started tearing up. They only picked 10 peoples stories/ picture and mine was one of them! I was SO excited that I turned to the woman standing next to me and said, “Those are my kids!!” The woman looked back at me and said, “you have got to be kidding me?! I am Anna! Madison’s foster mom!” Out of over 650 people I was standing right next to her. It was fate. We embraced and instantly starting talking about our favorite Maddy stories.

For the next 12 hours I would be in for the ride of a life time. From lectures to networking it was so overwhelming I had to sit and take it all in for a while. I met some of the most amazing people all of which had the same goal I did, do our part to save the animals for homelessness and death in the shelters. It was the most inspiring and emotionally satisfying crowd I have ever been in. A few people called it the “re-fueling” site. Just when you feel like you are the only one out there we come together and refocus on our common goal. It is a feeling I can’t put into words being around over 600 people who all have the same passion; a true, raw, overflowing passion for living creatures.

The end to a life changing day
As the day came to an end I felt like I had just ran a marathon, yes I have done this so I know what it feels like, physically, mentally and emotionally. As I walked through the casino of the jam packed Rio I felt like I was walking in slow motion, I needed sleep lots of well deserved sleep. I wonder what tomorrow will bring….