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 #41: Buddy

I am embarrassed to say how long it's been since I last did a transport, but I'm sure if you scroll down you can see the amount of time that has passed.  Nearly an entire year!  But this year has been a nightmare of ups and downs with my father going through cancer treatments (and ultimately passing away) and my new agility endeavors (there's the "ups" of the "ups and downs"!).  So when a transport came up on a free weekend for this handsome old guy I just couldn't resist.  His story is a sad one:

This sweet senior yellow lab (8-10 years) was found standing in the middle of a highway the other night, not seeming to know what to do or where to go.  It appears he was hit by a car and suffered a stroke.  At first, they thought he was blind in one eye, but after doing some testing, it appears he can see okay.  

He was found by a good samaritan who got him vetted and kept him until a rescue could be found for him.  One in New Hampshire was happy to take this handsome old guy in and so he was sent on transport from Missouri all the way to New Hampshire.  Quite a ways to travels for an old guy!

I brought my Mom along this time as she loves dogs and is happy to have some time out of the house with someone to keep her mind off of things.  We got over to the meeting place early and we buckled in for a long wait as the transport was running behind.  Lo and behold, the person who was coming from the Rochester area was running a bit ahead.  So she got him out, found him a spot to pee, we got him some water and on our way we went!

The trip out was, thankfully, entirely uneventful.  The roads west of Syracuse were pretty hairy and I think the whole transport was a little on edge because yesterday a transporter in the south and the puppy she was transporting were killed in a horrific accident after getting caught in an unexpected ice storm.  I know I felt really nervous heading out, but it ended up that we had a bit of sun and dry roads all the out and back from the meeting spot.

We arrived some 25 minutes early and got Buddy out for a little walking around and some pictures and, since it was only 15 and very windy on the river, we hopped back into the car to love on Buddy and wait for the next person to show up.  My gosh this dog was a love sponge.  He couldn't have leaned any harder into our petting.  I'm pretty sure he was ready to crawl into our laps and I think my Mom was a little bit in love with him.

Once he was passed off, the car felt kind of empty without him.  He was such a silent, sweet presence.  I hope he quickly finds a home to cherish him for whatever remains of his life.  He deserves it!


 


 




 

Transport #40: Cagney (aka Rusty)

My gosh I haven't done a transport in ages!  This has been a really rough winter here and that combined with the agility classes I've been doing on the weekend, made it difficult to do much transporting.  Sure, they were coming through but people doing them in that weather tend to have all-wheel drive vehicles and all I have is a small car!  So for the winter I gave it up.  I still may not do too much of it with all the dog classes, but I'll do more than I have been.

This transport was originally set up to be for a deaf 5-month old Australian Shepherd puppy and a pregnant adult Aussie.  The puppy got adopted before the transport by someone who worked with deaf people and was looking for a puppy she could teach ASL to.  So the transport ended up just being for Rusty (renamed Cagney by ARPH).  The drive out to the meeting place was uneventful.  It was a lovely day, around 40 degrees outside and bright and sunny.  I threw some great music on and tore on off down the highway singing at the top of my lungs!

I arrived and not more than 5 minutes later the person meeting me with Cagney arrived.  Poor Cagney!  She was glued to the inside of the car as far away from the open door as possible.  This isn't usual dog behavior.  Usually, if the dog has issues with the car, it's that they don't want to get in the car and are desperate to get out.  Not poor Cagney.  She was so shy that she found a safe space in the car and wanted to stick with it.  We managed to get her out with a bit of difficulty, but she finally came out.  Once outside she skittered every which way, body hunched over and her tail (which she did have!) tucked so far under that at first I didn't even think she had a tail.

We walked her around for a bit, hoping she would find a place to do her business, but she was too nervous for that.  So we ultimately ended up sitting in the grass with her.  There she finally seemed to settle a bit and even asked for a bit of attention.  I tried offering her some cheese and she at least licked at it.  When I first offered her cheese (inside the car in the hopes that the smell of something delicious would lure her out) she wasn't interested at all.  A sure sign of a stressed dog, unfortunately.

Cagney is a beautiful dog, but oh so nervous and shy.  She warms up to people, but it'll take some time to get her through her issues I would imagine.  She hopped up into my car quickly enough and took up the same spot huddled in the back of it.  After about 20 minutes of driving, she managed to settle down enough to fall asleep.

The next meeting place was a carbon copy of the first.  I ended up having to lift a very pregnant dog who seemed more dead weight than dog out of my car and this time, since it was obvious she wasn't going to find a place to pee and wasn't going to drink anything, we put her right into the next car.  She settled in there ok, though she hadn't had a chance to warm up to the next people in line like she did with me.  I'm sure she'll be fine for the rest of her trip.

I just hate seeing what people have obviously done to this beautiful dog.  I'm not sure if she's been abused but it's fairly certain she's been neglected by people.  She's not terrified of us and does warm up, but she's shy and nervous upon first meeting people.  I'm sure the trip and the constant changing of cars is hard on a dog like that.  But by tonight she'll be in her foster home and on her way to a new life!

Update on "Eddie"

It's fairly rare that I get any sort of update on the dogs I transport. Some I see have gotten adopted, but I don't hear much about their adoptive families. The three lab mix puppies I transported back in July got adopted pretty quickly, and we just got an update about Eddie, now named Ollie.

Here are a couple of photos of Ollie (aka "Eddie") the pup. He is now around 6 months old, I think, and is a handsome boy. He is very kind, good natured, likes to please humans and occasionally likes to please himself too (such as when he grabbed a plate full of food off the dinner table)! :-D He a...nd the cat are best friends, and the cat likes to sleep on top of Ollie. Ollie's other best friend is "Jack", my brother's dog. Ollie usually sleeps upstairs with my sister and the cat, but when we were all gathered for a family wedding this weekend, Ollie chose to sleep in the guest bedroom with other family members. He is the most mellow dog I have ever seen, and likes to just lie around like "an old hound dog" much of the time. He'll launch himself into play mode occasionally, but is mostly just happy to hang out with everyone.

Transport #39: Truman (aka Dakota)

I cannot resist puppy breath. It's just impossible. And it's even more impossible when that puppy is only about 8 weeks old, fat, and fluffy. Truman is, they believe, a Golden retriever/Chow mix and he certainly seems to have the physical characteristics of both breeds. He does have the spotted tongue, though that's meaningless as a marker for being a Chow mix, but he has plenty of other physical characteristics of the Chow breed.

I headed out to pick up little Truman at 11:30am. It was an absolutely gorgeous day: mid-50s and sunny, just a great day for a drive! The transport was running ahead and so by the time I got there (also 20 minutes ahead), Truman had been walked and done all his business. I got some kisses, a few little puppy bites, and then he was in my car and we were off (after a few pictures). He settled down really well in the car, which I find is typical of puppies. He was almost instantly asleep with his head on the arm rest (so cute!). I had to make one stop on the way through to run into the bathroom. It was a cool day and so he was fine in the car with the windows down a little. When I got back to the car, he had managed to get down off the seat and was stuck behind the passenger's seat, the poor guy. He was just too short to get back up. So I helped him back up and we were on our way.

The rest of the trip was entirely uneventful. We arrived in Liverpool about 25 minutes ahead of time and I knew that the person meeting me was on another transport which was going to make him a little late. So that meant I got to walk Truman around and play with him for a bit.

"Play with him" actually meant having various pieces of clothing and body parts substitute as a tug toy. At varying times he latched onto my pant leg, sneaker, fleece jacket, elbow and fingers. All with puppy teeth. He also pounced on a woman's toes who came up to meet him. Whoops! Crazy little puppy but SO CUTE.

The next transporter showed up just about the time he was supposed to leave and since Truman had been walked, gone to the bathroom, and had some water, he was all set. We got him into his car and off he went, just about 5 minutes late.

Truman is one of the truly lucky ones. He's meeting up with his adoptive family tonight. So he's already going to a great home. Go Truman!

Edited to add: We have heard from his new family and he is settling in nicely. They've decided to name him Dakota.

Transport #38: Geri, Jack, and Precious

This weekend I was away from town and heading back home via one of the common transport routes so it seemed ridiculous for me to have an empty car the whole way home.  I volunteered for a transport early last week and took the last three legs of it.  Of course, I should have known it would never be that simple.  Because, of course, the transport went from two dogs to four rather quickly.  Two I can handle.  Three I can handle if they're not huge dogs.  Four?  The only time I've had four in my car is when most of them are small puppies in a crate.  This transport was for one overweight lab (80 pounds), and three medium sized dogs (30-35 pounds each).  That's just too much for my little Saturn Ion.

In the end, it was agreed that I would take the three smaller dogs as they were going the farthest and I could fit them all the in car.  It meant that I would have three dogs in the car for approximately 2 1/2 to 3 hours and I wouldn't make one stop between the pick up and drop off points.

Except, well, I had to make a stop.  I met up with the transport at 9am in the morning and met all of the dogs.  The overweight lab, Lucy, was a huge sweetheart who wanted to play tug with her leash (yikes!) and wanted belly rubs.  She was enthusiastic, but the poor thing was breathing so heavily from just a little bit of exertion that she broke my heart.  I know whomever ends up with her will knock that weight off the poor girl and make her life a little easier.

The other three dogs were Jack (a Boxer/beagle mix who was a huge sweetheart), Geri (supposedly a Lab/basset mix -- I see lab and some sort of hound but I'm not sure it's basset), and Precious (another lab mix).  Precious was super calm and very relaxed.  Jack was sweet and just wanted to give you kisses and curl up.  The problem was Geri.  Originally I decided that it would be easiest to put Jack in the front seat as he seemed to be the dog who required the most attention.  I thought the girls would be ok in the back.  Huge mistake.  Precious immediately settled down but Geri could not.  She paced back and forth, kept trying to get in the front seat (both from the middle area and around the left side of my seat, which would never happen).  She irritated Precious who growled at her a couple times.  I was starting to get worried about the two dogs in the back.  I ended up getting off the highway and stopping at a gas station to switch the dogs around.

And here comes the other scary moment of the trip.  In order to do this I had to get two dogs out of the car: Jack and Geri.  I started with Geri who, thankfully, I had on a slip lead as she pulled so hard on the other lead (I had her double-leashed) that she snapped her collar right off.  Phew!  Then I got out Jack.  I was trying to get them situated and into the car when Geri suddenly leapt up, knocked me off balance, ran into Jack's leash and I discovered a problem with slip leashes: they also slip right out of your grasp!  The leash flew out of my hand and suddenly Jack was free.  He didn't race off, thankfully, but instead sort of ran around near me a bit, sniffing and checking things out.  He saw people at the next car over and ran over to them and when they stopped to pet him I was able to step on his leash and capture him.  That had to be my scariest moment ever.  I thought that I would lose him and what a horrible thing that would be.  I was, honestly, starting to get really angry with Geri, though I kept myself in check.  I got her into the front seat and Jack into the back.  I tied Geri up pretty well so she couldn't get into my lap or move much.

And then we were on our way.

Geri finally settled down and I was able to loosen up her leash from where it was tied enough that she was able to curl up and sleep.  Jack and Precious were sound asleep in the back.  I heard only one more growl from Precious when Jack suddenly got up and, as far as I could tell, stepped on her head.  Otherwise the two of them curled up together and slept.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful.  I arrived at the meeting place in good time.  I got out Jack and Geri and we quickly got them into crates in the next car (which belonged to the woman who runs the rescue these three characters were ending up at).  And then, since I hadn't had much time with Precious, I took her out for a little walk around the area.  I pretty much instantly regretted not having her in the front seat.  She was wonderful.  I was trying to get photos of her and at one point sat down on the ground figuring she would wander around and I might get a few.  Nope.  Instead she saw me sit down and immediately jumped into my lap, gave me kisses and leaned heavily on me, trying to roll over in my lap.  She was just the sweetest dog and reminded me a lot of my own: She's a calm, relaxed dog who really likes her own space!  I got the impression pretty quickly that she'd be a great companion for Dahlia.  But alas, no more dogs for me, as we all know!

I was sad to see Precious go.  Jack was sweet but he wouldn't be the dog for me.  Geri was adorable but I was glad to see her off as she drove me a little bit crazy.  I'm sure they'll all find some good homes quickly!


Lucy





Jack





Geri





Precious