Transport #44: Sprite

Another deaf Aussie.  Watch me not able to resist again!   I had nothing to do this weekend and it was an absolutely gorgeous weekend, perfect for a drive down to Binghamton and back.

I was hanging out this morning and got an e-mail message stating the transport was running an hour early. This is unusual.  Apparently the first person had to take off early and so it set the thing off much earlier than anticipated. It really says something about the type of people involved in these transports. Every single on of us was able to do it an hour earlier than planned. So instead of taking off around 11:15am, I left at 10:15am. I stopped for a quick lunch and arrived just a few minutes before the person I was meeting. Perfect timing!

Poor Sprite.  He's a 5 month old Aussie, all white deaf. Adorable as can be. But obviously he's been through a lot. He's super friendly but a bit skittish. He did not want to get out of the crate in the SUV.  We ended up pushing the crate back as far as we could and coaxing him out.  The person I met lifted him out and then he was ok.  He shook it off and wandered around for awhile.

Getting him into my car was difficult as well. The other person tried to lift him but had trouble with it. Finally she just swooped in to grab him and he sort of freaked out, snapped at her (but didn't make contact). I suspect the issue was that he couldn't hear her and she just grabbed him suddenly.  She went to her car to find some treats and I decided to tempt him in with my fuzzy squeaky ball.  I got him interested in it, tossed it a few times and then tossed it into the car.  He wasn't quite willing to jump up, but put his front feet up.  So I rubbed his belly and petted him and then got my arm beneath his rump and helped him up.  No problems.

We spent the first little while before we took off playing with the ball and having a ton of fun together. He was such fun puppy. We played tug with the ball, he chased it in the little space he had. He kept standing on the console between the seats and bopping me in the face with his nose.  Once he tried to grab my hair (no go there puppy!). He definitely needs to learn a bit of bite inhibition (he tried to grab the ball at the same time I did and got me instead...ouch!). No breaking of the skin but it definitely hurt!  So he's got some manners to learn but oh did I enjoy him!

He played for awhile as we set off, occasionally came to visit me, and about 30 minutes into the trip up north he fell soundly asleep. When we arrived in town and I had to drive through town, stopping at lights, he woke up briefly and then fell asleep again, this time with his nose on the "snout rest" (read: console), the same place Dahlia loves to lay on car trips.

The hand off happened easily enough. Getting him out of the car was difficult but I managed to coax him out. And he was easy to pick up for me to put into the next vehicle. I was sad to see him go!


 

 

   

Transport #43: Aiden

As always, I cannot resist a transport for a deaf Australian Shepherd.  When this transport lost a driver, I volunteered to take one of the legs.  After a bit if finagling to figure out which one of the legs that came through my area, we finally settled on my driving down to Binghamton this morning.

The drive down wasn't too bad.  The worst of it was getting out of my neighborhood.  We got some snow last night (I have no idea how much; maybe 3-5 inches) and they hadn't plowed the neighborhood, as they so often don't. especially on the weekends.  But once I got out to the main roads, the going was easy.  The further south I got the better it was.  The roads about a half hour south of here were dry and there wasn't much snow on the ground (oh lake effect!).

I arrived shortly before the person I was meeting and the handoff happened quickly.  Aiden, as it turned out, was a feisty little buggar.  He wanted to play and play and explore and bite my hands and my coat.  Almost immediately he latched onto the papers I had stuck behind the seat and I had to pull over and remove them all.  With little in the back seat outside of his toys and bone, I set out again.

He spent the rest of the trip playing with stuff and finally, nearly an hour into the drive, he fell hard asleep.  He didn't even wake up when I pulled into the parking lot for the meeting place.

I arrived at nearly the same time as the person we were meeting, so we got Aiden out, gave him some water, and into their crate he went.  It was a soft-sided one.  I hope that he didn't eat it!

I adored Aiden.  He's an incredibly sweet an smart puppy.  But oh does he remind me why I want adult dogs!







 

   

   

  

  

 

Transport #42: Wager and Leo

By now you folks probably know I cannot resist a transport for special needs dogs, especially if those special needs dogs happen to be deaf Australian Shepherds.  And this is especially true if those deaf Aussies happen to be puppies.

So when a transport  came up for 10-week old Leo (the most amazingly adorable ball of white fluff you'll ever meet) and 7-8 month old Wager (an amazingly sweet and affectionate and adorable pup), I couldn't say no.

My Mother decided to join me on this transport, as she did for the one on Buddy.  It gives her something fun to do after my Dad's passing and really, who can resist puppy breath x2?

We took off from her place around 9:30am for Binghamton, NY.  I hadn't driven down to Binghamton from my Mother's house so I looked up the timing on Google maps: 1 1/2 hours.  Since I was supposed to arrive around 11:10am, that seemed perfect.  It would put us there around 11:00, just in time to meet them.  Right?

WRONG.

First of all, we actually arrived around 10:30am (way to go Google Maps for giving the totally wrong timing for the trip!).  And we got a call around 10am telling us the transport was running at least a half hour behind.  Oops.  Since we were already on our way there was not much we could do!  So we got  to our meeting location far too early.  Since our meeting locale was in a parking lot for the Cracker Barrel, we decided to duck in and check out the store.  I walked out with some Sweet potato pancake mix that I'm super excited to try out next weekend.

Anyway...they finally arrived around 11:30.  We spent a little while with the dogs, tried to get Wager to pee and let Leo play in his water bowl (which seems to be a favourite past time with the little guy).  Wager wasn't much interested in bathroom duties and instead wanted everyone to pet him.  He was incredibly affectionate and liked to leap up on you and stretch.  He was just an incredibly nice dog.

We loaded them up fairly quickly and took off.  Here was where the fun started: the two dogs had gotten themselves all tangled up and so my Mom had to lean into the back and unhook their leashes to try to untangle them.  While I was driving.  And trying to get back onto a major highway!  Fun stuff, that was!  She managed to untangle them and then spent about half the trip trying to keep them from jumping up into the front.

Partway through they both finally settled and fell asleep and the trip was peaceful until we arrived in Syracuse (though it was slow-going at times due to construction!).

We arrive a little bit after 1pm, got the dogs out quickly, chatted for a few minutes with the other folks that were there for a different transport (this one for cats), and then sent them on their way.  My mother was very concerned that Wager seemed to be in too small of a crate for him (he was much bigger than we thought!) but he curled up into a little ball and hopefully slept for their section of the trip.

Both arrived safely last night at their rescue destination!  While Leo was cute, Wager was the dog I would have totally adopted in a heartbeat.

I took a handful of photos yesterday but due to the rushed nature of things, they weren't my usual quality unfortunately!

Wager
 




 


Leo 

Transport #33: Charlie, Charlene, and Chai

I signed up for this transport over two weeks ago. Who would resist puppy breath x 2? Which then became puppy breath x3? Not I, of course. I love puppies. Who doesn't? But when it comes to these little special needs guys, I just can't refuse those transports.

You see, all three of these pups were special needs. All were deaf; two were visually impaired as well. Charlie and Charlene, the older pups (8 weeks old) were going to be put down for their visual and hearing impairments. Their idiot BYB was selling his puppies in an open air market and these two were going to be put down. Luckily someone was able to convince him to turn them over to her and so now off to rescue they go. The third puppy, also deaf and visually impaired, was Chai. I don't know her story, but she's a bit younger than the others (6-7 weeks old) and so no doubt came from a pretty awful place. Despite where ever she came from, she was just the sweetest little ball of fluff ever.

I picked them up in Binghamton in the last light of the afternoon. I tried to frantically take pictures in the lousy light in the hopes of getting some good shots in. Lucky for me the flash made some pretty good pictures up in Syracuse. We loaded all three of them in the car pretty quickly and easily. Charlie and Charlene just wanted to play; Chai just wanted to curl up and sleep. They had very different personalities.

The trip up was pretty easy. One of them kept crying and I felt bad, but eventually all three settled down. When we arrived I had the biggest scare of my life. Charlie and Charlene were moving, but Chai was not. She was pressed up against the backseat and not moving at all. Prior to Charlie and Charlene getting up, they had been squished in there with her. I reached out and touched her. And did not get a response. I nearly panicked, afraid they had somehow suffocated the little girl and I didn't know. So I started to really push at Chai. And she woke up. Phew! Wow does that dog sleep hard. She didn't even try to snap at me or anything when I pushed her around and shook her a bit. You can't imagine my relief upon finding her alive and well.

I got all three puppies out of the car then. Getting them to the grass was a bit of a challenge. Charlie wanted to forge ahead, but Charlene was more cautious and Chai just did not want to move. Eventually I picked up Chai and let the other two walk. Charlene was a bit more bold than Chai with her brother at her side.

Once there, the puppies wanted to play and play and play some more. Charlie and Charlene were mostly interested in each other. And Chai was interested in me. She spent a lot of time crawling around my lap, playing tug with my pant leg, and trying to untie my shoes. So cute. I loved that little dog so much. Seriously. If I could have taken her home with me I would have. She was just so really awesome.

The most amusing thing about the whole situation were the Gulliver and the Lilliputian moments. They kept getting their leashes tangled around my ankles and they'd cross and go in the opposite direction around me, therefore coming close to knocking me over. It was amusing. Frustrating, but amusing nonetheless!

The person I was meeting finally showed up. He was a bit late. He had heard that the transport was running behind. That was yesterday's. Oops. It was kind of nice though as I got to play with the puppies.

I cried when I handed over Chai. I really loved that dog and I barely knew her.

Some pics.


Meet Charlie.



And his sister, Charlene.




And Chai.

Transport #29: Tucker

I can't resist an Aussie. But even more, I can't resist an Aussie puppy. And even more than that I can't resist a deaf Aussie puppy. So when a transport came up for a 4-month old deaf Australian Shepherd, I jumped on it. The folks who work for and transport for ARPH (the Aussie Rescue and Placement Helpline) are also awesome folks so I love working with them. They're really easy-going and just love their breed. I don't blame them. Aussies are awesome dogs!

Tucker, the young man in question, was being transported from New Jersey up to Ontario, where no doubt someone will quickly adopt him. How could they not? He's incredibly sweet.

I met up with the transport in Syracuse, which means driving down from the north side of Oneida Lake as we had spent the night up there. It was a bit more travel than usual, but it was well worth it. I got to the meeting spot a bit ahead of time and the folks meeting me pulled in just a couple minutes later. We were running a good 15-20 minutes ahead. Tucker and one of the transporters raced off to burn a little energy and hopefully pee, while I chatted with the other transporter for a moment. We got all his stuff loaded up (food, but most importantly his paperwork -- without that it would be tough to cross the border into Canada!) and then got Tucker into the car. He jumped right in, no problem.

The first part of the trip was a little worrisome. He was down behind my seat and I could see him, it felt like the leash tying him to my backseat was really taut, and he wasn't moving around...at all. He was a 4 month old puppy so I expected more out of him. Since I had to visit a restroom anyway, I got off at the nearest exit and high-tailed it to a gas station. When I pulled in and stopped, I leaned around the seat to see if he was ok. And there he was, all curled up. He had been sleeping! Phew. I quickly hit the restroom (luckily today's temps are only in the 60s, it's overcast, and really breeze...he was fine in the car for a couple minutes) and then we were on our way. Luckily he got up on the seat where I could see his back end. He promptly fell asleep again and not another peep was heard out of him until we arrived in Watertown.

I was a good 20-25 minutes early and since I knew the person before me was doing a wee bit of shopping, I decided to just get Tucker out and burn off some energy. We raced across a big field of grass (which was unfortunately rather wet!) and I discovered his current favourite game: "attack the leash." He really wanted to play tug of war with it. So we did. A few times he jumped up to get the leash and almost got my hand in the process (and once he did get my coat -- I didn't see any holes in it amazingly). I played a bit of fetch with his Nylabone and eventually we sat down on the pavement (where he proceeded to eat rocks -- I had to rescue a few from his mouth -- luckily no signs of resource guarding there!).

The other transporter finally arrived and it was a quick and easy shot to get him into her car and into a crate (mostly to stop him from eating the food in the back with him as he was quite into trying to get the treats). And then they were off to head into Canada and I was off to head back to Syracuse.

All in al it was an easy transport, but I was sad to see him go. He was a really cute and really nice dog!

All of my pics from the transport can be found here. A few of my favourites are below.

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!

Transport #17: Sophie and Lily

The transport for this weekend began with my volunteering to help out with one dog heading from Syracuse to Rochester. I had worked for this coordinator before transporting our favourite deaf Aussies and jumped on the chance to transport, yet again, a deaf dog. This time, it was to transport a Louisiana Catahoula Leopard dog named Sophie. This isn't a breed many are familiar with and I had never met one in person before, so I was excited to not only help out another deaf dog, but also to meet a dog of a breed I hadn't met before.

Of course, things always seem to change on these transports. One thing I'm learning quickly is to always expect the unexpected. Toward the end of the week, I heard from the transporter and she wondered if I or another woman could switch legs and do the Binghamton to Syracuse route. I volunteered to switch and so suddenly I was transporting two dogs. The deaf Sophie and the hearing Lily, both Catahoulas.

The trip down the transport was a bit rushed as I couldn't find the entrance to I-81S. I went a different direction at David's instruction and it turned out they were missing an important sign, so I couldn't find the entrance. I had to backtrack to a different entrance, thus wasting about 25 minutes of time. So I booked it down to Binghamton and arrived at just about the same time as the other woman.

I found out that apparently Sophie was having some issues with Lily. They said that she had attacked Lily, though there was no bite marks, "just slobber." On the previous segment of the trip, Sophie had suddenly started growling and barking at Lily. They suggested keeping them tethered and separated, which we succeeded at for the most part.

Sophie road up front and boy was she an active little kid! I spent most of the trip making sure she didn't turn around to see Lily and making sure she didn't eat my entire car. She managed to get distracted by trying to get at a candy wrapper underneath the mats (which, mind you, she never got) and eating the water dish. At one point she tried to grab the water bottle and I was afraid she's puncture it with her teeth, thus leading to an entire liter of water getting dumped on the floor of my car, drenching not only my purse, but my book and the info for the transport. *smacks forehead* I managed to shove it out of her range and she went back to chewing on the bowl.

Sophie did eventually start to bark a bit (not really growling, but more barking). First she barked at ME, probably in frustration because I wouldn't let her get in the back with Lily and I wouldn't let her eat things in my car. Then she barked at the windshield wipers when I had to put them going. She was fairly close to them as she had stood up and was trying to reach the water droplets that were hitting my car. I guess they startled her. And then she did finally start barking at Lily. But I saw no aggressiveness in her -- just her being startled. I think I might feel a little off if I couldn't hear too!

Now, all that aside, Sophie was a VERY good girl. She was really sweet and affectionate, walked well on a leash, and would be a total cuddlebug if given the chance.

Lily, on the other hand, was a dream -- she's a WONDERFUL dog and the type I adore. She settled down in the back and slept most of the trip. When Sophie started barking at her, she just kind of turned her head away and didn't really respond. When we got her out of the car at the handoff, she was just so wonderful. She would give you big kisses all over your face and just wanted to be close to you. She's a fantastic dog. From what I understand, she has potential adopters meeting her today and I'm sure they're going to fall totally in love with her.

This transport was definitely one of my more challenging (along the lines of the Morey transport), but they're both wonderful dogs and will make someone very happy someday soon!

I did manage to get a lot of pictures this time, so here are a few. The rest can be found here.


Lily




(with one of the other transporters)





Sophie

Transport #7: Jack and Tanner

When the call came out for this Aussie transport, I just couldn't resist. I

Jack is a super-sweet snuggler whom you will surely fall in love with in less time than it takes to drive a leg. So be prepared to leave a bit of your heart behind when you hand him off to the next driver.

Reading further told me that Jack was deaf, leading me to believe that he was a double merle, since deafness is common when you breed two merles together. Merle colouring, for those who don't know, is a sort of dappled colouring. It's a gorgeous colouring (you can see an example here), but it also contains a gene for eye irregularities, sometimes resulting in blindness of some sort and deafness (generally caused by inner ear hair having no pigment...this lack of pigment causes them to atrophy and die in a few weeks, resulting in deafness). Reputable breeders don't breed merles together, but others do, and so you end up with these utterly precious deaf dogs who are often dumped off at shelters when their owners discover the "problem."

Jack was indeed a super sweet snuggler. We also got the addition of the gorgeous Tanner, a 6 month old deaf Aussie. He was incredibly sweet too.

David (my partner) decided to join me for this trip. I've been wanting him to go along and today seemd like a good time to. We had plans in the morning and afternoon, which meant he wasn't likely to get much work done, and I knew he would love these two dogs. Besides, I thought I could use the help with the two dogs.

And boy could I ever! We got the dogs into the car with little difficulty. They were all too happy to go with us. We spent the first bit of time trying to calm them down. Tanner immediately was in the front seat and David got him over to the passenger seat. I kept Jack in the back with me, though that was a constant chore. As we got going, we had a few hairy moments as Tanner kept trying to get into David's lap.

But finally, we made it onto the Thruway just fine. What we discovered about the dogs was that they were both very smart. Tanner turned out to be incredibly laid back. He laid down on the front passenger seat and when David started to pet him, he just shut his eyes in pleasure and then fell asleep.

Jack spent much of the trip either throwing himself into my lap (and I do mean throwing! he was almost violent in his affection) or nibbling on my hands (which sometimes hurt -- I managed to communicate ok to him that it hurt a bit) and then finally, in the last 20 minutes or so, managed to calm down enough to sleep. Poor Jack had gotten into something recently as his hair was matted some places and he had a couple burrs in his fur. I didn't dare remove them for fear of upsetting him.

These were really special dogs and it's hard to describe them correctly. Both had amazing blue eyes with strange eye defects (starburts, dropped pupils, extremely blue eyes). They were smart, gorgeous dogs. Neither had any problem with us petting them when they couldn't see us. Neither appeared deaf, though you could tell they were by the way their ears did not move when we talked to them. But they were so smart that they picked up on small body movements.

Outside of a few hairy moments when Tanner tried to crawl into David's lap, it was a pretty easy trip. John, who was picking them up from us, called as we were arriving and we met him in a slightly different place than we expected. It worked out well though. We very sadly passed the dogs off to him (and worried a bit as he was only one person and it took both David and I to control the dogs) and went our separate ways.

David, especially was saddened to see Tanner go. He really bonded with that great dog.

Here are a few of my favourite pictures:

Jack







Tanner








The rest of the collection can be found here.