Demi & Wyatt

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One year ago this month I took a journey halfway around the globe to the world renowned Elephant Nature Park. This trip profoundly changed my life. The experience of coming nose to trunk with all of those gentle giants was humbling and incredible, but hearing their painful stories was what really moved me. Their traumatic pasts were heartbreaking and gut wrenching but I also found their resilience to be so uplifting. I was frequently overwhelmed with emotion. It was very intense.
After spending the first week caring for the eles,  I decided to venture off to the other part of the park and spend my second week volunteering some time with the dogs of ENP. There were so many beautiful babies to interact with, to walk and de-tick, and although I fell in love at least 100 times that week, there were two special dogs that absolutely stole my heart.  It was love at first sight!

I gave it some thought and decided that since a tee shirt wasn’t enough of a souvenir to immortalize this trip, and since I couldn’t bring home an elephant, that the only thing left for me to do was to arrange to adopt the 2 dogs I simply could not leave behind. And so I did exactly that and chose to take Demi, formally Dek Dee, saved from the meat trade and Wyatt, formally named Why, who was a wayward street dog. I chose to adopt them because I wanted to continue to share and participate in the wonderful experience that I had at ENP and what better way to do this then to invite these 2 wonderful babies to become part of my forever family. And so now, when I look at them, I think fondly of ENP every day and the love and joy in my heart lives on! It was the best decision I ever made.

These two dogs were the first adoptions for Carolina who was in charge of the dogs at ENP at the time, and we had a lot of obstacles to overcome. She was amazing though and I am so grateful for all of her help in getting the job done. She worked tirelessly with Christine Sudman, a woman who facilitates the adoption process by lovingly opening her home in Bangkok to adopted dogs waiting to board their planes. Both Carolina and Christine were absolute angels and took such great care to ensure that Demi and Wyatt would arrive safely in Los Angeles.

It seems that once we worked the kinks out that so many more wonderful adoptions were soon to follow!
It’s amazing how many people are involved with these adoptions when you think about it really. Lek and Darrick opened their hearts and their land to save all the animals. So many people worked so hard to rescue all the ENP dogs from certain death. So many incredible volunteers who have come to the park over the years and have walked and cared for all the dogs, including my precious Demi and Wyatt. I am so grateful to all of you! They say “it takes a village” and in this case it did. A village known as ENP and I could not be more proud to be a part of this incredible family!
As for Demi and Wyatt, they are now happily settled in their forever home with me and love to travel.  They have adapted to life with me quite well and we split time between  Los Angeles and Arizona. They are always eager  to join me on a adventure. It doesn’t matter to them if we are walking around the neighborhood, taking a ride to the dog park, traveling to San Francisco, hiking in the hills of Malibu overlooking the Pacific ocean or climbing up in the red rock canyons of Sedona Arizona, they are thrilled to be living this life with me. They sleep in the bed next to me, often sharing my pillow. They are spoiled with tons of affection, organic food, and far too many treats, bones and toys. But one  thing for sure is that they will spend the rest of their lives knowing that they are incredibly loved, that they are special, that they are safe and that they are home.  Thank you to everyone at ENP for the beautiful gift you have given me with these two amazing dogs!

If any of you have volunteered at the elephant nature park and met a dog that you fell in love with, don’t hesitate. Contact the park and make arrangements to adopt the dog. It will be the best decision you’ll ever make in your life.  I guarantee it!

Lisa Wojciechowski