It's been far too long since I've done a transport. I always want to do one, but I find every weekend seems to be tied up in something. I think maybe some of it is just wanting to spend time with Dahlia. I work all week and during the school year also disappear some evenings, so my weekends are my Dahlia time. With session every other week, I find it hard to pull myself away from her and do a transport.
But when one comes up for a black dog of a similar size and mix? I couldn't resist. Betty was billed as a lab mix, possibly a purebred. She's definitely not purebred and from the way she moves and the shape of her body and especially her tail, I would guess she's a border collie/lab mix. Whatever she was, she was incredibly sweet! Which is really amazing as Betty's story is quite a sad one. Her people went on vacation for four days and left her tied up outside with no water, no food, and no shelter. She was found suffering from sun stroke and removed from the house. She was taken to a shelter after that where no one wanted her. Luckily someone from the rescue did and so off she was going to Vermont!
I met up with the transport here in Syracuse around 10:30am. I usually take an earlier leg so that I have the rest of my day free, but the transport had 4 dogs on it and I just cannot handle 4 dogs in my little car! At Syracuse, three of the dogs were heading north to Ottawa and one was heading west. I opted to transport the one heading west. Three is still a lot for my little car. And considering the personality of one of the other dogs boy was I happy I only took the one!
When I arrived, I found his huge van already parked there. I knew who I was meeting thanks to the din coming from his car. One dog was barking. And barking. And barking some more. Thankfully it turned out not to be Betty! It was, instead, Mia the pug. Mia was 12 years old. I tried to walk her around but all she did was frantically run around on the end of her leash and bark. And bark. And...well, you get the point. She was a noisy little bugger!
I also met Jose the Chihuahua. The poor little guy was scared to come out of his crate, but once we got him out, he did just fine. I can honestly say I have never walked a dog that small before! Wow it was like having nothing at the end of my leash! He was cute though and very sweet. When I sat down near him he came over to me and licked my hand with his teeny tiny tongue.
Then I finally got to meet Betty. She hopped out of the van and started slinky around, very nervous at first and seemed rather unsure of herself. She moved like a border collie but very much had a lab head and the lab coat over a much narrower body than you'd see on a lab. Beautiful dog! And so sweet. She immediately warmed up to me and started giving me kisses. I got her into the car and she explored it before quickly settling down in the back to sleep most of the way there.
The trip out to Herkimer was very easy and we arrived in good time. Alas, the person who I was to meet was already there. Most unfortunate! I was hoping to have some time with Betty. Luckily we were ahead of the game so we had a bit of time to get some pictures. Now here's the interesting thing. Betty refused to get out of my car. She just laid there and looked up at us like "uh huh no way I'm staying here thank you very much." I felt bad making her move! She did finally and I walked her around a bit, got a few pictures.
At one point I sat down and she immediately crawled into my lab and leaned against me. Ah Betty! I would have taken her home with me in a heartbeat! Such a pretty and sweet girl. Everyone who met her at the transport spot just loved her and couldn't believe she was homeless. I was very sad to hand her off, but finally I had to part from her and then I was on my way home to my own dog!
Some pictures, of course.
Betty
Jose
