Joe's Jeans and Cream Cheese Frosting! Ahhh, 37 is a good year. Daron bought me a yummy cake that read "Good God in Heaven, Jen's turned 37!" Mom and Dad bought me my first pair of designer jeans - Joe's Jeans. They fit like a glove and are very cute! Now that I have a pair of jeans that cost over $150 bucks you can call me Paris! On a good note, we have heat in the house! But this morning we woke up and NO HOT WATER! The propane tank is now empty! So we are getting that filled up and all should be good for awhile I hope.

It all started on my birthday. Dan drove my parents from Vegas to Kanab. They damn near froze to death when they got here. They literally were so cold they were giggling and mumbling.






I was quick to show them the backyard and the red cliffs before the sun went down.










After chilling in the backyard (literally) we moved inside. Daron started building a fire and I turned on the space heaters. Unfortunately, we have an old oil furnace that is completely out of oil. Daron and I thought it was a propane furnace in which we had enough propane, we just didn't know how to light the pilot light. So Dad and I went down into the basement which is basically a hole under the house - dirt no walls. We couldn't figure it out and we were so cold that the "oil furnace" label on the motor didn't clue us in. We figured it was an electric start not a pilot light. Which many folks have around here. Needless to say, the next day, Dad and Mom made sure I stopped by the propane place to get someone to service our furnace. Makes sense right? Well, we stopped by Coastal Gas and Amerigas only to realize that we had GARKANE Gas whose office is located 60 miles away. Things were looking bleak. I could tell on the drive home that Mom and Dad were checking out the local motels, Holiday Inn, Shilo Inn, Best Western, even Bob Bons Inn was looking WARM....
So I went to our neighbor Suzette's house. She works for the police, has lived in Kanab her whole life and OWNS a house. Unfortunately, she has her furnace serviced so she called her boss the police chief. He came by to take a look at the furnace. Why is it than even when you have not broken the law a policeman makes you nervous? Apparently, they are not overly talkative even when your not on the side of the road, lights flashing in your rear view... anyhow, back to the story. He went down and said, "This is an oil furnace and the only man left in town who can work on these old things is my Dad". So he called his Dad and left a message. Next thing you know I am on the phone calling the Kanab Truck Stop (which I can see from my front yard) asking them to deliver me some oil! There is an extra charge if they come at night and by the looks of my parents they were willing to spend all of our inheritance just for an ounce of heat. We decided the next day would be fine because the police chief's dad might have to come and service it anyway. To be continued...

Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday to Me!



Hi Everyone, it's my birthday! Yup I am 30 plus seven. Yikes, three years til the big 40, over-the-hill, middle age.... Anyhow, today is just 30 plus seven.



The morning started off with a call from Lisa in KY and a birthday kiss from Daron and Rodeo and Zeena. When I got to work Gloria had put colorful streamers all over my desk and Kristy called from TX to wish me a happy birthday and Marissa called from Kanab. Awwww. Darons parents send a BIG gift that I am opening tonight and MY PARENTS flew in to Vegas last night and Dan is driving them to Kanab today!!! Karen called me from Chicago to wish me a happy birthday and it is now 11:30 a.m. So I will update later with the rest of the birthday news.

Do you think you know what a pit bull looks like?

Test yourself at http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/findpit.html Out of the 25 dogs only one is an American Pit Bull Terrier aka "Pit Bull".

Zeus the 120 pound stray from Miami Florida



I met Zeus today. He is huge and gentle and quiet. I got to pet his big ol' head and he is so soft! He doesn't get along so well with other dogs apparently but loves people. I took a few quotes from the article about how he made it to Best Friends.
His flight:
"This big softy really enjoyed the great blue sky (no restrainers necessary). Now and then he’d even flop his big ol’ monster-sized mastiff head on Sherry’s shoulder for drool-filled hello’s. Apparently, it’s the copilot’s responsibility to absorb dog slobber. "
What we found out once he made it to Best Friends:
"Zeus is in congestive heart failure. In fact, he may only have a few weeks left. "
They are looking for a hospice house for him. A lot of people, including me, want to take him home for his last few weeks but you cannot have another dog. I think ALMOST everyone at the sanctuary has at least one dog. Currently, he is happy in the Dog Managers office.

Click link below for full story.


http://news.bestfriends.org/index.cfm?page=news&fps=1&mode=entry&entry=C445F864-BDB9-396E-91C0A4A29104EA35

I heard about this website on the radio. You can search your name and find out how many people in the U.S. have your exact name. There are 59 Jennifer Nagle's! Here I thought I was unique :) http://ww2.howmanyofme.com/ Since my new name is Jennifer Andrews I checked that... 755 girls named Jennifer Andrews :( I checked Daron Andrews - THREE people in the US are named Daron Andrews.

By Daron: My blog spot is much less interesting than this one so I'm posting my Saturday's events here. 2 workers from Kruger (the company putting in the satellite equip for our new internet) are in town with a company car which happens to be 4WD so the 3 of us took off down the 61 mile dirt road across the Arizona Strip to Toroweep which is a secluded and barely accessible rim of the Grand Canyon. It turned out to be way better than the more touristy North Rim. You could actually just walk off the edge and fall all the way to the bottom! I had to take it easy on the risky stuff since Zeena was with me. Check out these pics, Amazing!!

SweetHeart, The Burro



So yesterday I am hanging out with our elderhostel group in the horse area. The ladies in the group are excited to muck, brush, and love on the horses. Only a few horses like being groomed so we headed over to the Donkeys, Burros and Mules. Jennifer, the horse manager, warns us that SweetHeart likes to tug on clothing and hats. How cute! SweetHeart has beautiful big ears (the photo doesn't do her justice) and soft soft fur. So eventually all the ladies head over to another burro and I am alone with SweetHeart. I push her nose away from my new white sweater that she has been eyeing and feel her soft fuzzy lips on my hand. So I let her lip my fingers. Her lips are big and soft and funny feeling. "Oh, you are so sweet, don't you have any teeth?" I ask. Next thing I know she has bit down on my finger. Luckily it was bent and sideways so I wasn't in danger of losing it (hopefully). So here I sit, the Humane Educator, the one who WARNS others not to do stupid things, "Don't put your fingers through the fence" "Watch the body language of animals" blah blah blah. Here I sit with my finger in the Burro's mouth trying to CASUALLY pry it out of SWEETHEARTS mouth. Talking doesn't seem to work, enticing her with the glove doesn't seem to work, not even offering her up my brand new white sweater! Eventually, I pried my finger out. No blood just some big ol indentions in my skin and a near heart attack. I could only picture myself walking to the group with a bloody nub! Yikes, that would be soooo embarrasing. A dog might not sound so wimpy, Even a pig but a burro, A cute Doe eyed burro. The kind of burro that took Jesus and Mary across the desert... Well, all is well my finger is intact and physically looks as normal as my other fingers but on the inside it feels a bit foolish!

A Raise, Firewood, Basketball! Daron is in Heaven.

Daron got a raise the other day at work, we got a truck load of firewood from one of my coworkers and Basketball season has started. Daron is a happy man! The leaves are falling from the trees and there is a wonderful smell of woodburning stoves filling the air. My parents will be here in two weeks just in time for my birthday and Darons family will be here in about 6 weeks to go skiing!

My new boots. That is not real fur! Unfortunately, they do have some leather on them. Ideally, I would like to get away from buying leather. Baby steps...

The Sanctuary is absolutely beautiful in the fall. All the leaves are changing colors, the deer are starting to migrate down from the mountains, and the air has a crisp clean feel to it. It has been far too long since I have felt the first sting of cool morning air or smelled fireplaces heating up houses. These photos were taken during the Art Retreat by one of the attendees. I don't have any good photos of all the yellow and orange leaves because I am usually driving when I see them! The turkeys like to hang out in the horse pasture by the old barn. That barn was part of the movie set to "one little indian" an old disney movie. We left the barn up for the horses and because it looks really cool. The turkeys must know we only serve vegetarian food here at the sanctuary because there are ALOT of turkeys around. The photo with the Yurts (pronounced URTS or ERTS) is the area we call Little Lebanon. The Yurts house the cats and the dog shelters are in the background. The Yurts were used as animal hospitals during the Katrina rescue. Enjoy!

My Parents return from their Cruise


Brian and Mary set out on a seven day cruise with their buddies Jack and Jolynn.
They had a great time. As you can see they worked on their tan, went to shows, dined on fabulous food and visited the beaches. They are planning to visit us in Utah in the middle of November. Daron, Rodeo, Zeena and I are anxiously awaiting their arrival!!!

Sepi my favorite Moluccan Cockatoo







Yep, That's Sepi alright! The group settled into sketching Friday morning at Feathered Friends. No one was sketching Sepi so he yelled "Pretty Bird" "Hello" "I'm a pretty bird" along with a few screams. I got the hint (ha ha) and went over to his cage. "Sepi would it be okay if I sketched you?" Quiet and coy was his only response. As if he was saying "Who ME?" His caregiver Al brought him out and set him on a rock in front of me. So for about 30 minutes I sketched and more and more participants gathered round and more and more of us encouraged him to dance and sing and sure enough he did. Amazingly enough it took alot of coaxing. (If we all turned our backs and walked away he would of responded much quicker!) Anyhow, a girl in the class has a photo of me showing Sepi the sketch I did of him and he actually turned his head to the side (his eyes are on the side of his head) and looked at it, moved closer and touched it with his beak. I went ahead and let him grab the corner of the book knowing full well that these birds rip apart phone books for fun! He took two gentle nibbles on the paper and moved on. The photos show various stages of Sepi fluffing his feathers, bobbing his head up and down sideways and spreading his wings.

ART FOR THE ANIMALS WORKSHOP

Well, I have spent the past week in an Art Workshop at Best Friends. It was wonderful. We sketched cats the first day, dogs the second, horses/pigs the third, bunnies the fourth and birds the fifth day. The afternoons were spent at one of the artists house/studio. Wow, I now have 4 new artist friends here in Kanab. Really good artist. I discovered I can sketch cats, bunnies, horses pretty good. Dogs are an entirely different story. Not so good at dogs or birds but I am working on it! It is probably that I like them the best and really want to capture their essence. I experienced two things I haven't done before - print making and ceramics. Very cool.

Monday and Tuesday were overcast and cold - winter jacket weather. Wednesday - Friday were t-shirt and shorts weather!

This is EGG-actly what I am talking about!!!!

How cool is it to have fresh eggs. Daron gets them from a lady on the reservation. YUMMY. Of course, the first thing I said when I opened them is I want to paint a room that green color...

Fall Party on our New Old Table



Our Girls WhINE Night was crashed by Daron and Bill. I guess girl talk is exciting after all. Although by the look on their faces they don't look too thrilled! Marissa and Gabriella made it and "Ella" as we call her was very very good. Our friends Laura, Renee, and Kathi didn't let the "boys" bother them. ha ha.


The most exciting part of the night was using my new old table. I have been wanting an old beat up dining room table with "history" for about 8 years. They are hard to find. Actually, let me rephrase that "They are hard to find at a cheap price." Anyhow, I was talking to the "dog whisperer" who has been here 20 years and who just moved into his new house on the property. A few weeks later he asked if I was still in the market for a table. He had a wooden table in his old trailer that he was going to throw out. It was from an old western movie set. It has a stamp "Fox Film Studios" underneath and a small metal tag on its side. YES I WANTED IT. Whoo hoo. So, you can see the table in the photo. I need to clean it up a bit but I like the worn look. Oh, he also said that the gum underneath the table was there before he got it. He left it because you never know whos it might be. Just think he said "The actors were sitting around and the director yelled "Action" and John Wayne, Paul Newman, or Clint Eastwood had to quickly stick his gum under the table. Yes, I am convinced it is one of those three :)

Best Friends Makes the CBS Evening News!!!!

This week, viewers are sending Steve to welcome 300 refugees to America — all from the recent conflict in Lebanon, all four-legged. How'd they get here and who's taking them? Steve will find out.

Watch Friday's CBS Evening News with Katie Couric to see Steve's report.