On Sunday I opted to help out with the Brittany transports again. I haven't gotten to meet any new Brittanies since the crazy Bindi transport back in April. This transport started off with one dog planned (Seymour) and a possibility of two others joining in. When I found out all three were coming along, I was a little worried about fitting them all in.
I met up with the transport at a Chili's in Victor, NY. The woman who was meeting there is well-known as a bit of a lead foot, so it was no surprise that, even though I was 10 minutes early, she was already there waiting for me. To her credit, she didn't try to call me and see where I was.
We first got little Seymour out of the car (at 35lbs fully grown, he's small for a Brittany). He was a terribly nervous dog and kept skirting behind Kathy a bit when I bent down to approach. They believe the poor guy had been abused or mistreated in some way, maybe treated harshly. We managed to get him into my car easily enough, though he was still a bit skittish.
I got out Ruby, the old gal. She's somewhere around 8 or 9 years old and incredibly sweet. She's a special needs gal -- on some sort of medication for a heart murmur that occasionally causes her to pass out. I saw none of that on the transport, but it's still a concern for a future adopter. For an old gal who was a bit on the thin side, she did really well climbing in and out of cars.
Jerry was the third one out and he was the bigger boy. Boy was he friendly! We're pretty sure that Jerry was indeed NOT all Brittany. I'm not sure what else might have been in there (perhaps English springer), but Brittany was not the first word that came to mind. He was bigger and his ears were set differently. At any rate, he was a sweetheart and so incredibly soft!
We got all three dogs into the car and the amusing thing was they ALL wanted to be in the back. So all three of them curled up together and were absolutely calm during the drive. I loved transporting them! Compared to poor Bindi, who kept trying to get into my lap the entire trip, they were an absolute dream. I would occasionally stick my hand in the back to see if I could get poor little scared Seymour to sniff my hand and each time I did, Ruby put her head underneath my hand. So instead I started to reach back to scratch her head a bit. She's a bit of an attention hog, that one!
When I arrived in Syracuse, I took each dog out one at a time. I spent the most time with Seymour and he very quickly warmed up to me. The next thing I knew, he was licking my hand and leaning up against me as a petted him. Winning him over wasn't tough at all! I just needed a little quiet time with him.
The next driver showed up and we got Jerry and Ruby into his car easily enough. Now poor Seymour? He was scared to DEATH. We're all pretty sure that he was abused by a man at this point. He first kept hiding behind my legs and then made a beeline for my car. Every time I tried to reach in to get him, he would run to the other side of the car. Eventually I managed to catch him on one side, picked him up, and carried him to the next driver's car. Once inside the car he was settled pretty well, so hopefully he warmed up to the poor guy who was driving him.
I took a handful of pictures but unfortunately didn't have my good camera on me and the camera I borrowed from a friend had batteries that were on their way out.
These first two of Seymour are from the overnight stay (taken by someone else):
Jerry
(Yes, he's peeing -- it was the only moment I could catch a picture of him and I didn't realize what he was doing when I held up the camera!)
Ruby
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