Transport #27: Phoebe

This began as a very confusing transport. I had no contact from the coordinator at all beyond my volunteering and her putting me down. When Friday evening rolled around and I had heard nothing, I was pretty sure it wasn't going to fly. It was a HUGE transport. 36 dogs and a crate of kittens in all, with multiple drivers for many of the legs. I wrote on Friday and found out the run had been filled. I didn't get a contact sheet for the run until 11pm Saturday night. Talk about cutting it close! Luckily, the coordinator had also coordinated where each meeting place was so I didn't have to set up the places to meet. Phew!

My leg of the transport was for only one dog. It was the end of the road for this one. I was meeting the rescue to give her to them. It was nice being the "ending point" for once, though she still had a bit of a drive up to Canada. All I knew of Phoebe prior to meeting her was this: Phoebe, female Aussie/Catahoula mix, 25-30 lbs.

What I didn't know was that she was a puppy! Only 6 months old. Everyone say "awwwww."

When I met up with the people who had her before me, the first thing she said to me was, "You don't have a crate?" I thought...uh oh! Chewer? It turns out she has carsickness. The woman told me she threw up in a couple people's crates and pooped in someone else's. My thought? Maybe the crates make her uncomfortable. I put down a blanket just in case and decided to hope for the best!

And then I got to meet little Phoebe, who was just the most striking of dogs. Her colouring is beautiful and she was incredibly sweet and soft. She gave me puppy kisses and then rushed off to explore for a short bit. She easily got into my car. She definitely wasn't a shy dog, but she was a calm and adorable and sweet one.

The drive up to Watertown was easy. Phoebe rested in the back pretty comfortably and would, every once in awhile, stick her head up in between the seats and give me kisses or shove her head under my hand for some petting. She was just so sweet. She had no problems with getting sick.

We spent a little time on the grass outside of Cracker Barrel, just wandering around and playing. She started play bowing for me and running around me. I think she was just happy to be out of the car and to have a chance to run around a bit. I finally called the woman we were to meet, who was inside Cracker Barrel doing a bit of shopping and she came out to get her.

I was incredibly sad to see Phoebe go. She's just an awesome dog. Quiet, calm, sweet, loving, and so soft. She has 7 applications in on her already, so she'll be off to a new home before she knows it. I know whomever ends up with her will just be so thrilled with her.

And now some pictures:

Transport #26: Giggles

The original call for the transport for Giggles described her as this: Giggles is a soft, white, lady-like Sibe who loves everyone, whether 2-footed or 4-footed. On a side note, Giggles was also deaf.

They were certainly right about her being soft, white, and loving everyone. But "lady-like"? Well, this message came later: Giggles is not only hyper, but STRONG. One driver said she walked well on a leash but everyone else said she pulls. REALLY pulls. Pretty far from "lady-like," isn't it? They ended up buying the poor dog a prong collar. I wasn't too happy with that. I don't like using anything that causes pain to a dog, especially one as out of control as poor Giggles was.

Giggles was also advertised as a Siberian husky. We're pretty sure that is not the case. Siberians aren't really prone to deafness, nor to being all white. And her body and ears and face were just not Siberian-like. In looking at pictures, we're pretty sure she's either an Australian Cattle Dog or an Australian Cattle Dog mix of some sort.

Whatever she was, she was a nice dog. My first introduction to her was when she raced out of the car of the driver before us. She made a beeline for me, threw her ears back, and jumped up to greet me. As I bent down to her, she covered my face in kisses. She was an absolute sweetheart but full of a lot of pent-up energy. They walked her a bit and she proceeded to jump and pounce and try to chase the birds. Ok so no going to the bathroom that time!

The trip out to Herkimer started off with my worrying about keeping her out of things. She tried to chew on her tether a couple times but I kept her away. She tried to get into the front seat, but she didn't have enough room on the tether to get up there. She found a water bottle I hadn't removed from underneath my seat and she tried to eat that, but I got it away from her before there was water all over my car. After she paced a bit, panted with this horrible high-pitched noise (hey, she couldn't hear it!), and jumped on the windows a few times in an aborted attempt to get at something outside of the car, she finally settled down and alternately dozed off and just sat there looking out the window.

It turned out to be an easier trip than I expected, considering how the beginning of it went.

The handoff was done easily. I got her out and wandered around for a bit with her in the hopes she might need to pee. No such luck. She was again very distracted and sniffing everything. We got her up into the SUV for the next leg of the trip. She wasn't certain about jumping up into it, so we got her front feet up and then I lifted her from the butt end and helped her get in. Once there, she was a happy girl and ready to go.

I really adored this dog. She was incredibly sweet and the way her ears would go back just sconds before she jumped up on you was sweet. In some ways, those ears can become a good signal that she's going to jump and you can stop her before she even gets her feet off the floor. That ought to help her future people!