Best Friends: The True Story of the World's Most Beloved Animal Sanctuary

The largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the country, Best Friends houses between 1,800 and 3,000 creatures--from dogs, rabbits and birds to sheep, pigs and horses--75% of which are adopted and many of which have special needs. Located on 3,000 acres in Angel Canyon (formerly Kanab), Utah, the shelter was founded in 1982 by several friends. This is the story of their efforts to execute their grand plan, from locating an appropriate piece of land to building various shelters, taking in ever growing numbers of abused and abandoned animals, finding a reliable veterinarian and raising the funds needed to keep their huge project afloat. Not quite as wonderful as its subject, the book gets bogged down in extraneous details and the introduction of numerous secondary characters. Readers curious about the practical side of this endeavor may find it frustrating that, in the first half of the book, it's not clear how the sanctuary supported hundreds of animals and its staff of a dozen or more; only later do we learn of generous donors, fund-raising efforts, the beginning of Best Friends' excellent magazine and the sanctuary's canvassing efforts. Still, readers drawn in by the authors' 25-city radio tour and 20-city television campaign will find distinctive, memorably drawn portraits of many animals--such as Tomato, the head cat of the TLC Club and the main source of local gossip for Best Friends magazine editor Michael Mountain. Agent, Meredith Bernstein. (Feb.)