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!







 

   

   

  

  

 

How could they...

This coming weekend I'm going to be doing a transport for three Aussie puppies. Two are only 8 weeks old, the 3rd is all of 7 weeks old. Three tiny little puppies.

1. Puppy one cannot hear.
2. Puppy two cannot hear and is visually impaired.
3. Puppy three cannot hear and is visually impaired.

They all deserve a chance at life. In fact, the first two were going to be taken to the vets to be killed by their breeder because they were, essentially, defective. Why were they defective? Why did one litter have two dogs with hearing and vision problems?

Because of the breeder. The merle coloring, that lovely flecked coat so many people admire in Aussies (and Border collies and some other breeds of dog) comes with a gene for deafness and blindness. When two merle dogs are bred together, some 25% of the puppies are born with these defects. It comes with a variety of names, from Double Merle to Lethal White (many of these dogs are put down before they ever have a chance to live) to much more technical terms.

Any way you look at it, it's caused by bad breeding. No good breeder would breed two merles together. But people looking to make a quick buck will do so and not feel any sadness over culling the innocent deaf and/or blind pups they brought into the world.

Two of the puppies on the transport were part of a litter that was being taken to an open air market to sell to whomever wandered by (good breeder? I don't think so). The deaf and blind ones were going to be taken to the vet to be put down. Luckily someone else got to them first and they're going to be coming to rescue. The pups were only 5 weeks old when this stellar example of dog breeding was going to sell them.

It's just so disheartening to think people continue to breed in such a way. To date, I've transported five deaf dogs. These will be numbers 6, 7, and 8.

Some resources, for anyone who finds themselves with a dog they didn't know was deaf or is considering adopting a deaf dog.

http://www.deafdogs.com

http://www.lethalwhites.com

This is pup #3 for the transport this coming weekend. Cute, isn't she?