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Hello friends! Welcome to Ruff Life! Well, it's a bittersweet transport day today, and

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before I even get started, just a side note, I have been wanting to record this podcast

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for over an hour now, but I couldn't because I had to wait for my hiccups to go away. It

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took forever, but they're finally gone, so let's go! For the first time in a long time,

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we actually didn't get enough fosters lined up, so we were not able to send everybody

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on our list this week. Now, you OGs know exactly what that means for us down here, but for

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those of you who don't, I'll explain our system really quick. We have a never-ending

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cycle of animals moving in and out, so on transport days, my fosters down here bring

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their animals to transport and drop them off, and they pick up another litter to take home

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and foster. Now, obviously, it's not always litters, sometimes it's singles, and of course,

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sometimes they go on vacation and they don't pick anybody up. There's also cases where

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we just absolutely have too much going on, or the litter they're sending was sick and

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they want to do some deep cleaning after they leave, so a day or two after transport, we

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send them a new litter. So, in situations like this, today, where multiple litters that we

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thought were leaving don't actually get to leave, nothing happens for them. They stay

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with their foster another two weeks until our next transport day, and it's fine. It's

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the animals that are on our waiting list that suffer the most from it. Puppies that were

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supposed to be safe in a foster home tonight are now still at their original location where

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they're at risk of being given away, disappearing, being run over, etc. And actually, in today's

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specific instance, two litters that live next door to each other were supposed to go on

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transport. It was 10 puppies total. They were not in our foster care because we had absolutely

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nowhere to put them, and their owners were just going to keep them until today. Well,

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those 10 puppies are now down to five puppies total after they gave one away, and four disappeared.

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So we plan to send them today on transport and for Jessica to get a new litter to foster,

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but because these are just in such an unsafe environment, Jessica had to take them on,

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and we just have to hope for the best for the other litter for the next two weeks. But

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enough of the bummer news. The great news is one of our long term adult fosters finally

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got his freedom right today. And the two adult dogs that I was thinking there was no way

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they would get to go and that they would have to stay at the doghouse for the next few weeks

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managed to get fosters signed up for them and they got to go too. So the doghouse is

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completely empty tonight for the first time in a long time. Have no fear though, we have

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plans to fill it back up tomorrow. We just needed a night to decompress and deep clean.

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And if you're thinking well problem solved, Katie, just throw the litter of puppies over

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there. Unfortunately, that's not how it works. We use the doghouse for adult dogs and cats

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and kittens. Animals that don't need the observation that puppies require and don't

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need the time and quarantining that they require. The doghouse animals are only visited a couple

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times a day for just a couple minutes at a time. It is by no means an ideal foster situation

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for anyone. But when your only options are be boarded out of bed in a small run, be left

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wherever you are, or have an entire air conditioned home and a one acre fenced in backyard that

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you can access by a doggy door. It's obviously better than the alternatives.

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Okay, so let's get to the background stories. Our sweet SpaghettiOs is the long term adult

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that I was just talking about. Last month, Dr. Burton and I had a long talk about needing

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to slow down on our random adult dog pools. She explained that they were making room for

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several owner surrenders that were coming back into the system up there. And I needed

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to prioritize my adult dog spots for the mama dogs that couldn't be left behind. So we have

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this long talk. We agree. We're both on the same page. Done. And literally five minutes

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after we get off the phone, I was sent spaghettiOs picture. If you follow me on any Wolf Trap

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pages, you know exactly what picture I am talking about. Someone saw his owner speeding

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away after they dumped him on a gravel road and they watched as he lay down right there

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and waited and waited and waited for his family to come back for him. After about an hour

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of watching, she sent me the picture and asked if she could bring him to me. So after just

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coming to the understanding with Dr. Burton that we would not be pulling random adult

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dogs for a few weeks, I sent her his picture. And I told her the story and just I was like,

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what am I supposed to do? And she replied with, well, obviously go get him. spaghettiOs

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has been with us for over a month now waiting on his freedom ride and he has watched so

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many of his friends come and go. It has been so hard watching him get left behind every

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week. He has been such a great friend to everyone that has needed to stay there with him for

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a few days at a time. And you could tell he really enjoyed the company so much. We are

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so happy that he is finally going to be in a real home with a real family because he

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is truly one of the most deserving dogs. Linguine came to us from another rescuer who we used

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to work with all the time. So this was such a fun throwback to get to do this with her

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again. She was contacted about this puppy by a lady who used to foster for her when

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she lived down here. The lady explained that someone reached out to her and said that they

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let their momma dog give birth outside in a terrible storm several weeks ago. All of

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the puppies died from my understanding. They died at birth in the storm, except for this

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one. So if his new family doesn't name him storm, I'm going to be very disappointed.

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The T litter of four and the P litter of seven are from the same home. Both of the momma

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dogs were found wandering around after a tornado tore through a nearby town a few months

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ago. A family found them and took them in after not being able to find their owners.

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And of course, their unaltered male was all too happy to have two new single ladies living

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with them. So they got pregnant right away. Thankfully, this family was very willing to

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just turn all the puppies over to a rescue instead of trying to re-home them. And they

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are very excited to be getting their momma's spade for free.

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The C litter of 10 is actually just a litter of nine in a stowaway. The 10th puppy just

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wandered up into their yard when they were all about five weeks old. They asked the neighbors

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if anyone recognized it and no one did. So the owner posted pictures of all 10 of them

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on Facebook as free to a good home. And one of our rescue partners contacted them about

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surrendering all the puppies in order to get the mom's spade for free. The M litter of

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seven where owner surrenders after a momma dog was dropped off at someone's house. They

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initially tried to run her off, but when they realized she wasn't going anywhere, they accepted

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their fate as new dog owners and they let her stay. Of course, it wasn't long until

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she was pregnant, but the owner was very happy to surrender all the puppies and get a spade

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voucher for the momma. The E litter of two doodles are apparently registered doodles,

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which is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. But I digress. The owner

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said her preacher gave them to her, but then she had to move back in with her parents and

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her parents live on the four lane highway with no fence. So the dogs had to be created

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the majority of the day every day. And she knew that just wasn't the life she wanted

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for them. As for the cats, only seven of them on transport this week, the R litter of five

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were born at the landfill. But when they were about two weeks old, the workers at the landfill

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noticed that the momma cat hadn't been around in a while and that the kittens were screaming.

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So we got them set up with one of our bottle feeder fosters. And she took care of them

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for over a month for us before Jessica took them over just a few weeks ago. Jessica also

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told me to be sure that I tell y'all they are the sweetest kittens ever. Zedie is yet

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another one of the 15 cats that I pulled from the shelter here in Alabama forever ago. She

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has been staying at the doghouse in our cat room for the last several weeks and we love

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her. Noki is also part of those 15 kittens. She is the momma cat to several of the kittens.

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I think this is actually a first for us, but we're actually sending her before her kittens.

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They're fighting off some upper respiratory infections and she was having to be separated

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from them anyways. And because Zedie was going to be leaving the doghouse today, that meant

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that Noki would be there all alone for the next two weeks. And not only that, but we

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wouldn't be able to put any other kittens in that room because she was there. So we

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are very thankful that she got to go and I know she is going to be so much happier somewhere

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where she's getting some real attention and human interaction. Well, that is all the stories

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for this week. It was a smaller load than usual, but there are some very sweet, very

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deserving babies on this load and we are so excited for them to get to experience a real

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family. Our next transport is in two weeks and we are already on the hunt for fosters

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for it. So if you are needing a puppy fix or some kitten biscuits in your life, let me

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help you get signed up. It's a rough life, but someone's got to do it.