Transport #19: Sebastian, Willie, and Jett

This transport turned out to be the one that was perhaps the MOST fun I've ever had on a transport. I ended up laughing and giggling and talking to the dogs the entire trip. It started out with an easy drive out to Victor to meet up with the person driving before me. The only problem? We agreed to meet at Chili's and she drove to TJIFriday's because that was where she met someone last. Oops! After a bit of a miscommunication, she pulled into Chili's and we did the handoff. The dogs this time were Willie, a 6 month old Brittany pup, Jett, an 8-month old something (all black, funny ears, no clue what his mix really was), and Sebastian, a 4-year-old Border collie/Brittany mix. We got Willie and Jett out first and the two hadn't had a chance to meet yet. They were hilarious together, bounding over each other and wanting to play. I decided to put the two of them in the back seat together and see how they did. As soon as we got them in, they started to play, jumping on each other in the car. They amused me terribly! Then we got out Sebastian, who was 30 lbs of underweight border collie. I'm almost positive that dog doesn't have a bit of Brittany in him. He looks 100% pure border collie and as a huge border collie lover, I was thrilled. He was just as sweet as could be. I got him up into the front seat without any problem.

Much of the trip was spent laughing at Willie and Jett in the back and petting Sebastian, who decided that my lap was where his head belonged. He didn't try to crawl all the way onto my lap (which he could have). Instead, he put his head, and sometimes his paws, on my thigh and looked up at me with very happy brown eyes. I was in love! Totally. I wanted to bring that dog home with me. He was just so wonderful.

Partway through the trip, I stopped paying attention to Willie and Jett and suddenly found myself with TWO dogs on the front passenger seat. Willie had jumped up there, pushing Sebastian off my lap and against the door. Sebastian looked none too happy but took it ok. Willie crawled around and finally Sebastian had had enough. He crawled OVER Willie and put his head back in my lap! He successfully managed to trap the guy on the seat. He couldn't get back to Jett (who seemed somewhat lonely in the back by this time!). Eventually, after crawling around and Sebastian keeping himself tight to my lap, Willie settled down and fell asleep laying on Sebastian. So. darned. cute.

Jett laid down and relaxed in the back and the last 10 minutes of the trip were quiet in the car.

I really adored those three dogs and especially Sebastian. I really would have taken him home with me if I could have more than one dog. I was none too happy to pass them off, especially since the people after me didn't seem to care about my wanting to say goodbye to the dogs. Ah well. They're off to their foster homes now and I hope they all find wonderful homes!

As always, some pictures! The rest can be found here.

Sebastian





Willie





Jett





More than one dog

Transport #16: Seymour, Ruby, and Jerry

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

Transport #8: Wendy, Pepper, and Roxie

I was set up to do a transport for the Brittany rescue last week, but due to weather in Ohio it fell through. Then they added another two dogs to the group. I contacted the person in charge of it and said I didn't have the room. Rather than find an extra driver, she pulled me off it, found someone with a larger vehicle, and suggested I contact another coordinator who had two senior dogs and a puppy who needed to go. I was all to happy to!

From what I understand, Wendy was a poor dog found as stray and brought into a kill shelter. Some good samaritan, who was there to adopt a younger dog, saw her and since they were going to almost immediately euthanize her, brought her to the Brittany rescue. Pepper was an old guy whose owner was going in for major surgery and then going into a nursing home. So off they went to a new home. Roxie was a sweet mix-breed puppy (Brittany and something else -- we think she looked a bit like a Weimaraner), whose origins I don't really know.

I headed off this morning to pick up Wendy, Pepper, and Roxie in Victor. The drive out was basically uneventful I hit a little bit of snow in Rochester, but nothing that was really worrying. I met up with Roger, who had the trio in his SUV. We got them out, walked them, let them do their duty and all. We chatted for a bit, as I was running ahead and he was quite the talkative type! Really good guy. He had this way of doing the dogs up in his truck that was brilliant and he offered to make me some of those tethers. He also offered me his crate for Roxie (the 4-month old puppy), but I declined as I was worried about room in my vehicle.

We got Roxie into the car first and he managed to tether her up really well. There was no way she was gettng into my lap, which was perfect. Then we got Wendy and Pepper in. I was told we had to help them in and out of the vehicle and that held true for Wendy, with her strange dislocated leg (likely a bad break that healed poorly), but Pepper was able to get in and out with no problem. Luckily, my car is pretty low to the ground.

The drive was entirely quiet, especially compared to yesterday's insanity! The two old dogs immediately curled up and slept. Roxie settled down nicely within the first few minutes and also slept for most of the trip. I couldn't believe how well behaved they all were!

When we arrived, the people picking up Roxie were right behind us. We got her out of the car, walked her and the other two, and then I finally convinced him that it was ok to leave me alone with the old kids. They took off and I crawled into the back seat with Wendy and Pepper and the three of us spent some time snuggling up. The guy who was picking up the seniors finally showed up and after chatting for a bit, we got them into the car and off on their way. They were already curled up before he even took off.

I took a lot of photos and managed to get good shots of all three. Here are some of my favourites:

Roxie





Pepper





Wendy





The rest can be found here.