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 

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?