Transport #34: Singin' Simon

I think this is the first time in a very long time that I opted to do a transport for a dog that was not an Australian shepherd. I haven't worked for Kim in ages and so when a transport came up for a dog named Simon I decided to jump on board. Judging by his picture, he's a Beagle/Australian Cattle Dog mix. It certainly seems the most likely explanation for his interesting colouring. Gorgeous dog.

While waiting for the transport to begin for me, I got several updates about Simon and the other dogs on transport. This is one of the things I like best about Kim's transports: She really keeps everyone up to date with the progress of the transport and how the dogs were doing. I had several messages about Simon's antics on transport.

he's been barking the entire way since he left. he also tried to chew through his leash while tethered in linda's car.

he also chewed thru two leashes so keep two on him and watch him he's quick!!!!!

And he IS REALLY QUICK chewing the leashes – did his double leash in about 2 seconds while waiting to load.

Noticing a pattern? Simon is a chewer. Big time chewer. I wonder how many leashes he did actually eat through.

At any rate, I was almost to the service area with Tim Horton's where I was going to get a soda, when I got a call from the folks I was meeting, They were running far ahead of the game and were almost to the meeting spot. I wasn't too far from it and so opted to not stop for a snack and headed right to the hotel off exit 46 where we were meeting.

By the time I got there, they had already had Simon out and walked and were ready for him to head out with me. Luckily, someone along the line had thought of getting a chain leash (not a choke chain -- he had a regular collar -- but rather a leash made out of chain!). Smart move! I easily hooked him up in the car and learned quickly that he still had enough room to get in the front of the car.

He spent the first part of the trip jumping from the front to the back, sniffing everything, trying to find any little crumb that might be in the car, and licking my face. He finally settled down in the back with his rawhide chew and alternately chewed and howled. I attempted to sing to him, as they said he liked to be sung to. And it did quiet him down, but when I hit the high notes he cocked his head to the side and howled. I'm not sure if that meant he wanted to participate or he didn't enjoy my singing! ;-)

He did finally settled down and was so sound asleep that I had to wake him up when I stopped.

Now, at this point, we were running nearly an hour ahead. The problem, of course, was that the people meeting me could not get there that early as they were coming from quite a distance away. So I had an hour to kill with Simon. I ended up taking him down to the Onondaga Lake Park and let him walk off some energy and let the hound in him sniff anything and everything his heart desired. He seemed to enjoy that.

I finally met up with the next folks at 1:20pm and he was off to the next meeting spot. Simon was a really nice dog and very handsome. I have no doubt he'll find a home quickly!

(Excuse the blurry spots on some of the photos -- Simon decided that licking my camera was a good idea and I had nothing to clean the lens off with...oops!)

Transport #27: Phoebe

This began as a very confusing transport. I had no contact from the coordinator at all beyond my volunteering and her putting me down. When Friday evening rolled around and I had heard nothing, I was pretty sure it wasn't going to fly. It was a HUGE transport. 36 dogs and a crate of kittens in all, with multiple drivers for many of the legs. I wrote on Friday and found out the run had been filled. I didn't get a contact sheet for the run until 11pm Saturday night. Talk about cutting it close! Luckily, the coordinator had also coordinated where each meeting place was so I didn't have to set up the places to meet. Phew!

My leg of the transport was for only one dog. It was the end of the road for this one. I was meeting the rescue to give her to them. It was nice being the "ending point" for once, though she still had a bit of a drive up to Canada. All I knew of Phoebe prior to meeting her was this: Phoebe, female Aussie/Catahoula mix, 25-30 lbs.

What I didn't know was that she was a puppy! Only 6 months old. Everyone say "awwwww."

When I met up with the people who had her before me, the first thing she said to me was, "You don't have a crate?" I thought...uh oh! Chewer? It turns out she has carsickness. The woman told me she threw up in a couple people's crates and pooped in someone else's. My thought? Maybe the crates make her uncomfortable. I put down a blanket just in case and decided to hope for the best!

And then I got to meet little Phoebe, who was just the most striking of dogs. Her colouring is beautiful and she was incredibly sweet and soft. She gave me puppy kisses and then rushed off to explore for a short bit. She easily got into my car. She definitely wasn't a shy dog, but she was a calm and adorable and sweet one.

The drive up to Watertown was easy. Phoebe rested in the back pretty comfortably and would, every once in awhile, stick her head up in between the seats and give me kisses or shove her head under my hand for some petting. She was just so sweet. She had no problems with getting sick.

We spent a little time on the grass outside of Cracker Barrel, just wandering around and playing. She started play bowing for me and running around me. I think she was just happy to be out of the car and to have a chance to run around a bit. I finally called the woman we were to meet, who was inside Cracker Barrel doing a bit of shopping and she came out to get her.

I was incredibly sad to see Phoebe go. She's just an awesome dog. Quiet, calm, sweet, loving, and so soft. She has 7 applications in on her already, so she'll be off to a new home before she knows it. I know whomever ends up with her will just be so thrilled with her.

And now some pictures:

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 #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 #15: Blesk and Butterscotch

It's been a long time since I've done any transporting. Between the move and spending time with Dahlia, I just haven't had much of a spare moment on the weekends. I had some time this weekend and a transport was set up to head out to Trish (where we got Dahlia from), so I jumped back on the bandwagon.

The transport was for a collie mix puppy now named Blesk (which means "lightning"), about 6 months old, supposedly 45 lbs (though probably half that in reality), from the same rural pound that Dahlia came from, and a lab/hound mix named Butterscotch. Butterscotch was one of the cell dogs. If you haven't heard about this program, it's a pretty neat one. Inmates are carefully selected (good behaviour, non-violent crimes, etc.) to work with dogs who need training. The dog lives with them in their cell and the provide all the care for it: walking, food, water, etc. A trainer comes in and teaches the inmates how to train the dogs. Once the dog graduates, it moves on to become someone's pet. It's a great program for both the dogs AND the inmates.

I met the transport in Rochester. I had been warned that Butterscotch was not an easy dog to get into the car and boy where they right! We got the collie in quickly and easily. But Butterscotch? Nope. No go. As soon as you tried to get her near the car, she backed up, legs stiff, and wouldn't budge. In the end, the other woman hefted all 55 lbs of her up and shoved her in the car. Once there, she was fine.

The collie pup, who we had put in the front seat, quickly crawled in the back to be with Butterscotch. The pup seemed to really like the older dog. Butterscotch attempted to get into the front a couple times but was easily put off by my arm blocking the way (and gave me kisses on the side of the face -- so sweet!). I've dealt with dogs who would barrel through my arm without batting an eyelash so it was nice to have one who didn't!

The ride itself was pretty uneventful. Butterscotch eventually settled down and slept. The collie pup seemed to be asleep before I even left the parking lot. We arrived in good time to the meeting place in Syracuse, and after some cojoling and shoving, got Butterscotch into the next person's car.

It was really nice to be back "in the saddle" as it were and help out a couple of great dogs. Blesk went to her new forever home the day after the transport and Butterscotch will be going home soon!

A few pictures, some from another of the transporters.


Blesk:





Butterscotch:





Both:


A few more can be found here.

Transport #13: Dahlia

Lucky #13! And boy was I lucky. My weekend was supposed to consist of two transports. The first one was for a random couple dogs (which kept changing, finally ending with an Airedale mix named Kelly). That one was set up for Sunday morning. Well, Friday rolled around and suddenly it got switched to Saturday and I could no longer do it. They found someone else and the transport went on without me. The second transport was for three Brittanies. A woman had written to find out if I could help out. I volunteered for a leg and never heard back from her. On Friday I finally got in touch with her and she said she didn't need me. So, since those two got canceled, I contacted the people who needed help with Dahlia, a BBD (big black dog). For those who don't know this, BBDs often have a harder time getting adopted than dogs (and even cats) of lighter colours. Some of it is attributed to not photographing well in the confines of a shelter, some is attributed to people not being able to read their expressions as easily, and some is attributed to people finding BBDs more frightening. Whatever it is that causes it, BBDs are euthanized more often than other dogs. Dahlia was scheduled to be euthanized last Tuesday and a rescue pulled her for transport this weekend. I stepped in at the last minute to relieve a driver from having to drive 164 miles each way to help this beautiful dog. And wow am I happy I did!

Today was a beautiful day. Mid-70s, sunny. I drove all the way out to Rochester with my windows down partway (of course, some of this is attributed to my air conditioning being broken!). I arrived about 15 minutes early, relaxed, and then met up with the other people and Dahlia. My first impression of Dahlia was that she was a wonderful dog, and seemed much smaller than the 50 lbs they said she was (I would guess more like 40-45). She was utterly sweet and wanted to do nothing more than snuggle up to you. She immediately came over to me and gave me kisses. She walked over to the other women that had brought her on the previous leg, sat down, and put her leg up on her. She was just utterly sweet. We got her into the car easily enough and then it was on our way!

Unlike last week's crazy transport, this one was incredibly easy! Dahlia curled up in the back seat, not even tethered, and slept the whole way. She popped her head up a couple times and I reached back to pet her a bit (and was rewarded with some kisses), and then she'd just curl back up and sleep again. She was quiet and mellow.

We arrived a bit early, which was just fine with me! I got her out of the car and we wandered around a bit. She only pulled a bit on her leash and frequently ran back to me and looked up to me. She seemed like she'd be an easy dog to train. She already knew sit and shake, that much I discovered! We spent a bit of time out on the lawn. I sat down and let her explore around me and she would return to me and press her face up against mine. She was SO sweet. I would have adopted her in a heartbeat if I could...in fact, I may get in touch with the rescue she's going to about possibly adopting her. I just totally fell in love with her!

The other woman showed up way too early and I think she could tell I didn't want to let her go. Oops! They finally took off and now Dahlia is on her way to Vermont. *sniffles*

Here are a few pictures. The rest can be found here.

Transport #3: Bernie, Marvin, and Buttons

Today started off with a phone call from my somewhat frantic parents telling me I shouldn't go on the transport today because the weather was going to be awful (lake effect snow and all that). I told them it was on and I would deal with it. A short while later my Dad called and offered to help out. So we took his car (a Chevy HHR we call the Great Pumpkinmobile) and he and my mother accompanied me.

The weather was fine the whole way out. Windy, cold, but clear and sunny. We picked up the dogs at the same exit I've been meeting everyone at. The St. Bernard/Bernese Mountain dog puppy (who everyone has been nicknaming Bernie) was MASSIVE. I knew he was going to be, but you never realize how big 85 lbs of dog is until you meet him face to face! Marvin was a sweetheart, but he definitely was not a big fan of Bernie's -- whenever the big clumsy oaf would get near him, he'd growl a bit. Some of that might have been because he had JUST been neutered, still had the stitches and all. Poor kid! Buttons, the Shih Tzu, was as sweet and calm as could be. He so desperately needed a trim and a bath, but other than that he was doing well.

Buttons ended up curled up on my mother's lap. Marvin we put in the back seat with me. And we put Bernie in the back part (it's a station wagon). Things were going along fine until Bernie decided he wanted to get some attention from me. First he stuck one foot over the seat and kept tapping me on the shoulder. I started paying attention to him and the next thing I know, he's trying to crawl over the seat to get up with me. Bernie was absolutely convinced he was a lapdog, despite the fact that he weighed at least 85 lbs! We managed to get him to stay in the back and he finally settled own and slept the rest of the way there. Marvin also settled down and slept most of the way (after having to give everyone a kiss! awww!). Buttons spent part of the trip curled up on my Mom's lap and part of it laying on her feet, sound asleep.

All three were absolutely sweet dogs. When we arrived at the site, the people who were taking Marvin off to his forever home were already there. We walked him, let him do his business and passed him off to them and he was off. We walked the other two dogs and then hopped back in the car with them (poor Buttons was so cold he was lifting his feet off the ground). Bernie crawled over into the back seat with me and tried to crawl into my lap. Like I said...massive lapdog!

The other people finally showed up and we handed them off easily enough. And then they were on their way to the rescue association. I hope they both find good homes!

As always, I took some pictures. My favourites:






Bernie:







Buttons:


The rest can be found here.

Transport #2: Buddy

Today was my second transport. I had agreed to take Buddy, a cocker spaniel/poodle mix from Syracuse to Rochester. I met Patti, the woman who had the leg before me at exit 38 and got to meet Buddy. My first impression of him was "spaz." He ran all over on the leash, couldn't calm down. But he seemed to love me on first sight (and I felt the same!). He rushed over to me and jumped up to give me a big "hug." He was so sweet!

We got him into the car really easily and we were on our way. The trip out was rather uneventful. Buddy paced back and forth for a little while, looked out the windows, stuck his head between the seats to get a pat, and took to ripping apart the the paper thing I had put down to keep the pet blanket from slipping. Note to self: toss that thing out! lol

He finally settled down and slept for much of the rest of the trip.

We arrived some 45 minutes early at the meeting place. My first thought was to call and let them know I was really early. But then I decided...why should I? That gave me a lot more time to hang out with Buddy. So we walked around the ground of the Hampton Inn a bit. He had a ton of energy and so it was more like a pulled run. After making the rounds, I decided I was too cold to stay out in that wind much longer, so I got into the back seat and Buddy followed me in. Once in there, he was TOTALLY calm. All he wanted to do was crawl onto my lap and get petted. Every time I stopped, he would look back to me and curl up a little closer. He was such a sweetie! We had quite a time to bond and he really seemed to like me.

He didn't seem to like the people who showed up to pick him up (lovely people, I'm sure). He growled at them, barked a little, and immediately tried to run back to me. It was really strange. I SO wanted to take that dog home with me. He was such a wonderful sweetheart. Whomever adopts him is going to be REALLY LUCKY. He's perfect: sweet and cuddly, but with plenty of energy to burn off on long walks! It was really hard seeing him continue on the transport.

I managed to get some great photos of him (and a few of me with him, despite having to take them myself! lol).

A few of my favourites:











The rest can be found here.