Thanksgiving at Daphneyland

Being that my family is 3000 miles away from me this Thanksgiving, I decided to give back this holiday and volunteer....at Daphneyland Basset Rescue :-) 100 basset hounds and mixes all on one large rescue ranch/facility in Acton, CA. Now, when I first saw it was in Acton, I was like, oh goodness, I'm going to have to drive for hours out to nowhere land to get to this place. But surprisingly, Acton is in LA County and only about 40 minutes from NoHo (although my car had to climb a few mountains to get there).

So I got to the ranch around 10am and one of the three employees they have, Raymond, is there. I pull up and there are literally dozens of hounds barking and jumping and howling at the gates at me. I'm intimidated at first because I've never seen so many hounds before and I'm not sure if they are territorial or what. But Raymond yells that it's ok to come in, and after some pushing and trudging I make it through the hound surround and into the main building, which is thankfully heated. It's been horribly cold all week and today was no exception. In the upper 30's and windy as hell! I get inside and am put to work helping clean out the inside dog runs, pick up dirty blankets and food bowls, scoop some poop, etc. After that I go to wash all the dirty food bowls while Raymond, who is very quite, works on spraying down and mopping the inside runs. While I am washing dishes, Dawn, who lives on the property comes in. She is very very gregarious and I like her instantly. So I am washing dishes and she is smoking and talking about the hounds and me at Disney, etc. etc. It's cool. After that we all take a break and then Raymond and I go outside to clean up the outside dog runs. Since that is where all the dogs are, I was again surrounded and followed which made popper scooping much harder. But we scooped all the runs and while Raymond did the hosing down again, I went inside to wash yet more doggie bowls. Dawn had stayed inside and was doing laundry and we chatted some more.
Come to find out the Dawn is best friends with Tia, the Villalobos Pitbull Rescue owner from "Pitbulls and Parolees." And that Raymond had worked at Villalobos for about a year and a half before coming over to the basset rescue. He had been dating Tia's youngest daughter, Mariah, for 2 years, but after it went sour he didn't want to stay there anymore. But apparently they are an on again off again type of item, and he is definitely still liking her a lot. By this time Raymond was really opening up and these two people are really cool. I enjoyed my time there today very much and feel good for spending my time well with the hounds. Even if it was little more then scooping poop and washing food bowls, it felt good to be with dogs and to do something different....and Raymond and Dawn were grateful for my help :-) I got out of there about 2:30 that afternoon, and after taking some pics and vids left feeling fulfilled and covered in basset paws and fur.

See here for pics and vids of my Thanksgiving 2010: