Valentino and Raphael at Useless Bay

Epic play.

Valentino and Raphael at Useless Bay

On July 14th, we went to Useless Bay, just because, but also because it was the lowest tide of the month, -3.9 feet, exposing miles of sand to play on.  Tino and Raphi are great friends.  They have a lot in common.  Their parents love them more than anything in the world.  Also, each of them was abandoned in the wilderness, apparently, and left to die.  Tino was not born yet when someone left his mother in the mountains and never came back.  He was born the day after I trapped his mom.  Raphi was about six months old when someone left him and his three brothers at a trailhead in the mountains.  It took volunteers 3 days to capture Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael.  Tino is a search dog that finds lost dogs, and has saved many lives in his years of work.  Raphi is in training to find lost cats, and I feel confident he will have a great career.  These boys, unwanted by their original owners, are our greatest treasures.  Watching them play, seeing them happy, is priceless to me.

Useless Bay is a shallow bay exposed to the southern storm winds, and not useful for the men in ships who went around naming landforms and bodies of water like they owned the place.  Useless Bay is great habitat for wildlife and absolutely the best off-leash park in the world.  When I started our nonprofit for stray dogs, I named it Useless Bay Sanctuary because it was a place I loved, and also because the dogs we saved were apparently unwanted by someone and highly valued by the people who adopted them, dogs like Raphi and Tino.

July 14th is the birthday of Kelsy, who is the reason I got started doing all of this. It is also the birthday of Brenda, who adopted Raphael and lets us play with him.

Please watch the video.  No need to turn up the sound.  Seeing them play, enjoying life so much, is our reward for saving the lives of these dogs and others like them.