Our first stop was at a doggy daycare called Home Away From Home. As you all know, visiting dog daycares is more than just something I do because it is our business, it is my hobby and passion. My count is probably in the 40's now, and of them all, most are quite appalling "from a dog's perspective."
Home Away From Home was really cute. Not a biased statement at all... but it was quite my style... a wood cabin home converted into to a doggy daycare. It was very clean, very well kept, and the dogs seemed quite happy....
From there, we went to four others. They were horrible. Granted they were very successful and had a lot of dogs, they were like most other daycares... old buildings in poor condition, smelled pretty bad, loud, and ALL indoors! Not my dog's fancy!
We made our way into Anchorage and our first stop here, was the SPCA. At first glance...Not at all like our SPCA in Orange County, FL. We walked to the back of the building as we saw someone there.... and there it was. Three large out door fenced in areas, with dogs in each yard. Kind of like the one in Seward.
Immediately, we were greeted by the volunteers, and my camera must have given it away, that we were not local. I was so surprised to hear that every dog they get is from their local County shelter, and they typically did not take in owner surrenders.
They said most of their dogs are those that are much harder to place, and ones that needed a lot of work and attention, as opposed to those that maybe surrendered by owners. I thought that was really cool....
Another really neat sight was that all their dogs had pals to play and stay with. They too (like at Seward) strongly believe in allowing the dogs to play and interact with one another, especially those that were fearful, shy and nervous. This was a great sight! Despite the dilapidated building they operated out of, their dogs did not appear stressed or agitated at all... it was really cool to see that shelter dogs can be happy dogs too.
We also visited the County shelter.... it was a great relief not having to see the volumes we have in Orlando. Granted our city is much larger and we have a much higher dog and cat population... but our biggest contribution to this population is pet shops and back yard breeders... which is a BIG NO NO here in Alaska it seems.
They too have their fare share of cruelty and neglect cases, but we were told they do not have pet shops here.
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