Hello friends, welcome to Rough Life.
It's another transport day and I am super excited because I'm actually recording this
podcast before transport.
If you listened to last week's episode, you'll remember that it was like 2am after transport
when I was recording that one, so I'm trying to avoid that this week.
I am hoping everyone shows up who's supposed to show up, and that no one shows up who's
not supposed to show up.
And what I mean by that really is that I don't get stuckered into taking any extras when
I go to the shelter in a few minutes.
But let's get started.
Hey Steven and his littermates were posted on Facebook as free to a good home when one
of our rescue partners reached out to her and offered to take them all and spay the
mama dog for free.
The owner told her that she just couldn't get rid of them all at once because it was
too emotional for her.
A month later, she reached back out to our partner with two puppies left, but gave one
away before the foster could get there to pick them up.
So hey Steven is an only child now.
Getaway car was pulled from our Alabama shelter.
She was brought in as a stray.
Nice to meet you was pulled from our Alabama shelter as well by accident.
And see this is exactly what I mean when I said I hope no one shows up.
That's not supposed to show up.
I stopped by last week just to drop off vaccines.
I was not picking up anyone.
I didn't even need to go into the building.
I was just walking into the office.
I didn't even bring my phone in.
I was absolutely not staying or walking through.
But then the manager asked me if I wanted to see the puppies that were pulling in a few
weeks, not any of these.
And stupid me said, well, sure.
I took a whole dang tour of the facility and halfway through she goes, Oh, remind me to
show you the newest baby.
We just got her in this morning.
The owner dropped her off and said she couldn't handle her because she cries too cuss word
much.
And for some reason, that story made me go, huh, okay, I'll take her with no fosters
lined up for her and no idea when she'll go on transport and nowhere to put her at my
house.
But she was so pitiful.
She was in a crate in one of their closets because they were just absolutely beyond capacity.
So I took her with me to Mississippi and she cried the entire way there.
I'll be honest, I thought about dumping her at some of the shelters along the way, but
nevertheless, we found a foster for her down here and we ended up having room for her to
go on transport this week.
So it wasn't a bad pull after all.
You belong with me was also pulled from our Alabama shelter.
He was brought in as a stray.
It's me.
Hi.
Otherwise known as my poppy girl.
This baby will forever and always hold such a special place in mind in Justin's hearts.
She is the closest we have ever come to foster failing and we are so sad to give her up.
But ultimately, there's just nothing wrong with her to justify keeping her.
She is totally adaptable and she would fit in in any home.
Justin did tell her this morning though that if she isn't happy in her new home, just
bite the family and Dr. Burton will send her straight back to us.
I don't recommend that advice, but he's not wrong.
She was dumped in my vets driveway a few months ago and I brought her home with me where we
just fell in love with her.
And listen, there is nothing wrong with foster failing, but I am like our hospice foster.
I'm our adult dog foster.
If I have all the puppies that I've loved stay with me forever, there would be no room
for the hospice dogs and the feral dogs and the ones that no one else is going to take.
So I just, I can't justify keeping her and obviously I'm still having a hard time with
it.
But it's fine.
She's going to have a great life in Virginia.
We know that.
1989 was seen being thrown out of a car by one of our, wait, no way.
That sounds like one of our fosters threw her out of the car.
That's not what I meant.
One of our fosters saw 1989 being thrown out of a car while they were looking at a vacant
house.
They ran up to her, grabbed her and took her straight home and she was covered in road
rash.
Her rings was picked up as a stray by animal control in Mississippi.
The A litter of two are part of the washer machine home for their full story.
Make sure you listen to the S litter of eights story from the June 2nd transport episode,
but to sum up an older man has way too many animals and way too many washer machines in
his yard.
I wish I could say this is the last you'll be hearing about this house, but their mama
is still here with us.
I'm hoping she'll be ready for transport by next week, but if not, she's definitely
coming in August.
She just needs a little bit more time to work on her leash training and get some confidence
being in a home.
She had never been outside of her kennel until we pulled her last week.
The R litter of two were owner surrenders.
They took their mama dog to be spayed and then found out she was already pregnant.
So they just let her have the puppies and they have another appointment scheduled already
to have her spayed for real this time.
The L litter of two were found wandering around an elderly man's home with their mama.
The owners were contacted, but they wouldn't come and get them.
So animal control came and got them when they contacted the owner to tell them that they
were all at the shelter.
He came and got the mama, but left the puppies there.
One of our rescue partners, fosterers went there to get them so that they wouldn't be
scared at the shelter all by themselves.
The C litter of four were born at the shelter here in Alabama.
Their mama was a stray brought in when she was pregnant.
They were sent to a foster after they were born and the foster fell in love with the
mama dog and she adopted her.
The B litter of six great Pyrenees are actually purebred great Pyrenees.
An older man has two great Pyrenees and didn't mean for them to breed, but that's exactly
what happens when you don't spay and neuter your pets.
This story is actually a hot topic in the rescue world.
So these six puppies were about six weeks old when we were asked to take them.
We said yes and we gave him two voucher cards to get the mom and dad spayed and neutered.
He told us he didn't want the cards because he wasn't going to have them fixed.
Now some rescuers have a rule where if you don't spay your mom or surrender your mom,
they won't take your puppies.
And I like that rule in theory, but these were six week old purebred great Pyrenees
puppies.
Even if they weren't purebred, they were so cute.
He could have put a sign in his yard and said free puppies and they would have all been
picked up by random people that afternoon.
And he would still be left with two unaltered adults who would keep breeding.
So my philosophy is don't burn the bridge.
We left the voucher cards in case he changed its mind and he told us when the next litter
comes along he was going to sell them.
Why he didn't sell these?
I don't know.
But I'm hoping that once he sees pictures of these babies living their best life, he
will either listen to us and get the parents fixed or at the very least give us the next
litter instead of offering them to whoever will pay.
The S litter of nine, I think they might be awesome mixes, they have become one of my
absolute favorite stories we have ever had.
I have told everyone this story and I could not wait to tell you guys.
One of my rescue friends, friends works at a liquor store.
Couple weeks ago, some man came in and was just doom and gloom and moping around the
store.
I don't know if she asked him what was wrong or if he just volunteered it.
But he told her, yeah, I just dumped 11 puppies in the woods down the road and I'm feeling
really bad about it.
So I'm just going to drink until I feel better.
And this girl tore him up.
She called him every name in the book, everything, everything but a child of God.
And he was like, man, I'm just trying to check out.
And she refused to sell him anything.
She kicked him out of the store and she said, I'm not selling you anything.
An hour later, he showed up with all 11 puppies, five weeks old and absolutely as cute as
can be.
She did end up giving two away to her brother before she gave them to us, but we are in
contact with him and he knows if he wants to give them away, we will absolutely take
them.
But I love that story.
I love that she wouldn't sell him anything.
And then he's like, all right, well, I'll go back and get them all for you.
Here you go.
James Dean Daydream is an absolute daydream.
He is my favorite cat ever.
He was picked up by Animal Control here in Alabama when his owners left him in a hotel
room.
I loved him from the first time I saw him, but he was adopted out before I could get
him on transport.
I was so sad.
I literally, I literally said to the manager, I hope he's awful for them and they bring
him back.
And they did.
They said he wasn't friendly, which I absolutely cannot believe because when I brought him
home, all he did was snuggle with me and follow my every step.
I love him so much.
I'm so glad we got to pull him.
Olivia Benson Swift was pulled from the shelter here in Alabama last week when I temporarily
lost my mind and left the shelter with 15 cats for no reason.
She was so tiny.
She was probably only about four weeks old at the time.
So we sent her to a foster down here just until she could get a little bit bigger and
stronger.
Karma is a cat is our sweet one-eyed kitten baby.
I don't know what happened to his eye originally.
I imagine it's some sort of trauma, but we were contacted about him when he wandered into
someone's carport with his eye literally hanging out of his head.
Obviously we raced him to the vet and he had the eye removed like within the hour.
The E litter of two kittens were owner surrenders.
The F litter of three kittens are actually from the same house as the A litter of five
and the C litter of three kittens from the June 28th transport episode.
They have just been overrun with stray cats and we're doing some trap neuter release work
for them.
The M litter of three were found in someone's yard when they were very young.
They weren't even eating on their own at the time.
One of our fosters picked them up and got them healthy again, which was no small feat.
They were definitely on dust or when she got them.
The W litter of five were given to one of our fosters when the momma cat disappeared
and the kittens were only about three weeks old at the time.
The T litter of eight kittens are actually not all litter mates, but they have been fostered
together for about half their lives.
So we're just calling them family at this point.
One of the girls was found in a tree.
The finder thought it was a baby raccoon until they climbed up there and got her down.
She was about three weeks old at the time.
Two of the kittens were found the same night about half a mile away from each other by two
different neighbors.
They looked identical and they were the same age, so they're likely actually related and
were dumped by their owner.
One of the males was rescued from being eaten by a pit bull and four of them were owner
surrenders.
Well, I am back from transport now.
Everything went as smooth as it could, I think.
We sent, oh I don't even know, let me see, we sent 58 animals today.
Whoa, that's crazy.
I didn't even know that.
And 26 of them were cats.
Awesome.
Okay.
Well, good job team.
Everything went well.
I did not come home with anything extra.
And we will see you guys again next week for our next transport.
It's a rough life, but someone's got to do it.