Hello friends, welcome to Rough Life.
It is our last transport of the year and it's another bittersweet one.
Probably just for me though.
But as they say, Misery Loves Company.
So I am going to tell you so you can all be sad too.
If you have ever listened to my podcast before, you know my deep love and appreciation for
the shelter right here by my house in Alabama.
If you've been with us for a while, you know my primary focus in Mississippi is getting
puppies before they get to shelters there.
We have lots of fosters.
Okay, well we have a handful of fosters and the shelters are just so detrimental to animals.
It's my goal to get them before they're even surrendered there.
Here in Alabama though, I'm still so new.
I'm my only foster and I still mainly have Mississippi fosters staying with me.
But I somehow almost accidentally partnered with this local shelter at the beginning of
the year and I just love them so dearly.
I really, I really do.
I pull from them whenever I can and whenever we have empty spots on transport, they're
always filled with their animals.
There were actually supposed to be 20 plus puppies, kittens, and moms on the van today
from the shelter.
Unfortunately, literally the absolute worst case scenario, they informed me earlier this
week that one of their puppies that was brought in was suspected for distemper.
If you don't know anything at all about distemper, all you need to know is it's bad.
It's big bad.
Like has the potential to bankrupt an entire rescue or cause an entire shelter to have to
euthanize every animal.
Now it's very possible that none of their other puppies were exposed because they caught
it so quickly.
They may be totally fine and I may be telling you their stories in January.
But it's just not a risk we can afford to take or are willing to take on behalf of all
of our other animals on the van who would be exposed as well if we sent them this week.
I'm trying very, very hard to focus on the fact that A, they are not a kill shelter.
My babies that are in there are not going to be euthanized over Christmas.
And B, they may not even get distemper and they may be totally ready to go by the first
transport next year, but regardless, it is a very tough pill to swallow knowing the
Christmas that those guys were going to have if I sent them and the Christmas that they're
going to have now.
Not to mention the sick puppy who I love so, so much who is so deathly sick right now.
Okay, so I'm sad today, but I'm holding on to the fact that their spots were not empty
on the van.
They were filled with other animals who were not in the safety of a shelter and could have
and would have probably been dead or given away by our first transport next year.
So let me get out of my doom and gloom and I'll tell you their stories.
Oh, these pregnancy hormones are so brutal.
Okay, so we sent 61 total animals today and that is fantastic.
Don't let my doom and gloom fool you.
I am very happy that 61 animals got out of the south.
My plan is to do an end of the year wrap up episode for all my other data loving friends
to go over our stats for the year and share some of my favorite stories.
But y'all know how I am with plans, so fingers crossed that it actually happens.
Okay, finding Christmas.
Okay, I don't want to toot my own horn, but Jessica and I are pretty fantastic at remembering
when we commit to animals and we get them out of their unsafe situations as soon as
possible.
With that said, there are the occasional few who fall through the cracks like finding Christmas
who should have been named finding the first day of school because that's when we committed
to her.
I don't think it's any secret that I do not prioritize single adult dogs.
Mamas and the few daddies we have come up with their babies, except in situations like
TBD who needed some extra time to acclimate to being an indoor dog and the wrong missy
who stayed behind to nurse another litter of puppies before going on transport.
We prioritize mamas and puppies and puppies have to go as soon as possible.
One, for their safety, get them out of the environment that they're in before they're
eaten or given away.
And two, because the longer they wait, the bigger they are to transport.
Obviously, I can fit more eight week old puppies than I can five month old puppies and therefore
can save more dogs in the long run.
So single dogs are often bumped because they don't have a litter of puppies that are going
that they need to be with and they're as big as they're going to get so there's no rush.
There's a lot of other factors that go into it too.
Of course, it's not as simple as I'm making it sound.
But the point I'm getting at here is Jessica and I committed to this dog in August.
She wandered up to someone's yard all beaten up in pitiful and they were looking for a
rescue to take her so they reached out to us.
Automatically, I love these people because they're looking for a rescue and not just
trying to re-home free on Facebook.
They were so sweet and they were like, she can stay here as long as she needs to and
we will take care of her.
So on the back burner, she went, then a couple weeks ago, I tell Jacqueline, our foster coordinator,
all the dogs that we have in our system down here that I'm hoping to send before the end
of the year.
These are our like skips and kool-aids that I'm talking about, not our mama dogs.
So I do a post and like magic, all of our random adult dogs get fosters by last transport.
It was a true Thanksgiving miracle.
Jessica and I do a happy dance.
We think all is well in the world.
And then we get a message from the sweetest lady ever explaining that she's going to
have to board her stray dog at the vet for the next few weeks because she is leaving
in the morning to travel a few states away to get a newborn.
Immediately I'm annoyed.
Like you couldn't even keep this dog, but you're going to go buy a newborn puppy from
a puppy mill several states away.
Like come on.
Luckily Jessica answered before I did and apparently understood it a lot better than
I did.
This precious couple was leaving in the morning to travel states away to adopt their brand
new human newborn.
She wasn't sure how long they would have to stay there and I'm not sure if that's just
like legal stuff or if the baby was in the NICU.
I don't know.
But regardless, she wanted to make sure that the dog was safe and cared for no matter how
long they were gone.
After profusely apologizing for 100% forgetting about this dog, we told her we will come and
get her the next morning and save them from the boarding fees.
Since all of our other adult foster homes were empty, it was literally no problem.
We were just bummed that she was going to have to stay with us over the Christmas break.
So I confessed my mix up to Jacqueline and she let me make a post about her and like
the dad gum angels that y'all are, she had a foster literally within minutes.
It was just so funny that I made such a big deal to Jacqueline about getting everyone
moved out of here before the end of the year, only to forget one and have to ask for another
spot on the last transport.
I don't know a ton about this dog actually.
She went to doggy daycare when we picked her up and they fostered her for us, but the family
that had her for the last few months took great care of her.
She was kept outside the whole time, but they took her for all her vaccines and her boosters.
They kept her up to date on monthly prevention and they even got her spayed with their own
money to ensure that she didn't get pregnant by any other strays.
Okay, dog named Christmas.
If your dog's foster and you're listening to finding Christmas's story like a dog is
a random adult too, you're not wrong, but you kind of are.
I wasn't asked to take dog until after the last transport had left.
So we told the Wolf Trap team we would only commit to him down here if they wanted him
for this transport and of course they said yes.
So dogs owner left him at a friend's house that he was staying at when he was between
houses.
When he moved out, he just left the dog behind without telling his quote unquote friend.
So the friend reached out to us and asked if we thought he should keep him because he
really, really loved him and he was a great little dog, but he would have to be kept outside
24 seven or if he should just surrender him to our rescue.
And I am certain that you can guess what my response was.
Built More Christmas is actually the sister to Hawaiian Punch from the November 11th transport.
These sisters were all set to go on the 11th together when just three days prior, Built
More broke her own leg.
Literally.
I was down at UAB overnight.
So my mom was staying at my house to take care of my animals and fosters and she brought
her two fosters with her.
I actually have the actual incident on camera from my nanny cams built more jumped up on
the playpen like they the cloth pack and play playpen while my mom was setting it up and
just fell over backwards completely breaking her leg.
Of course the rest of the night was spent telling my mother over face time.
She's fine.
There's literally no way it could have broken that easily.
She's fine.
Turns out she was indeed not fine.
She went to the vet the next morning and he was shocked that it was such a clean perfect
break.
But luckily because it was such a clean break, she only needed to be in a cast for a few
weeks.
We took her back this week for follow up X-rays and she has healed perfectly.
Kiss Mitt Christmas was the last minute add on this morning.
We had a cancellation and you know there is nothing I hate more than an empty spot on
the van, especially when it's the last transport of the year.
And Kismet Christmas was already picked out to be the name for the dog who had backed
out.
So it was Kismet for this Kismet.
She was picked up by animal control in a nearby town after renters left her behind when they
moved out of the apartment.
She was there for quite a long time before anyone noticed and she almost died of dehydration
and starvation.
She had to stay at the vet clinic over over a week to get healthy again before going to
a foster home.
The U-liter of two were found all alone in the middle of the woods.
The finders first thought that they were squirrels but then realized they were actually
itty bitty puppies.
The finders were actually our rescue partners, son and father-in-law.
When her son picked them up he told them, well y'all just hit the jackpot because my
mom is going to make sure you get out of here and go to Virginia.
They were so skinny and malnourished there is no telling how long they were out there
on their own.
The L-liter of five is another last minute add-on.
It was supposed to be a litter of four healers who were taking the place of the shelter 20
but they woke up this morning and they could not find any of them.
They actually think that they were eaten by coyotes last night and again, they never
leave a spot empty.
So we replaced the four with a litter of five.
They thought they were going to have to wait and send them in January so they were very
excited when they found out that not only were they leaving today but we were actually
on our way to get them right then.
This litter comes from the same home as the A-liter from November 11th, the B-liter from
October 5th, and the S-liter from August 23rd.
You can listen to any of those episodes for more details but to sum up, these people take
in strays, dump to their neighborhood, all of these litters are from different moms,
they wanted to keep all of the moms, and all of the moms are now spayed.
The H-liter of five have been with us for several weeks now going through ringworm treatment.
It's not often that my mama Becky gets to do her own pulls.
Usually me and Jessica just tell her what she's going to foster for us.
But a few weeks ago, someone reached out to her and asked if she could take them and spay
the mom for them.
They were little bitty and we were going to have room on that next transport so I told
her, yeah, go ahead.
When she got them, she was shocked at how much bigger and older they were than what
the owners had said, and even more shocked to see that they were covered in ringworm
with completely bald tails.
So instead of sending eight week old puppies several transports ago, y'all are getting
almost three months old that have been with us forever.
And mama Becky is grounded.
The A-liter of five are another replacement for the shelter 20.
We were asked to take them a few days ago when they were a litter of seven.
We told them our transports were full and we could get them in January if we ended up
with room.
Then the whole debacle with the shelter, we were left with empty spots, so we reached
back out.
She had already given two away but agreed to hold the other five for us until transport.
They are keeping both the mom and the dad and got spayed vouchers for both of them.
And when her son was dropping the puppies off, he told us that he has a litter of Doberman
puppies that are two weeks old and he would like us to take them in January.
So I keep telling myself this is even more puppies that are being saved that wouldn't
have been saved if we pulled the 20 from the shelter.
But I'm still sad.
The C-liter of six have been with us for a while too.
We actually got them when they were just barely five weeks old.
And a pregnant girl almost had to fight another pregnant girl for them.
A super young girl, seriously like 16 or 17 years old and super pregnant, contacted us
about these puppies.
Jessica told her it would be a few weeks but we would be in touch.
A few days later she sent us a video of one of the puppies seizing and foaming at the
mouth.
Classic distemper.
I don't know what the technical right thing to do was in this situation but because we
were all full of our own fosters, we told her we couldn't help.
I did instruct her to give it some honey while it was seizing just in case it was hypoglycemia
instead of distemper.
And then the next day we paid for it and Jessica actually had to go pick it up and take it
either because she's too young to drive or she just doesn't have a car and she took
it to the vet for a distemper test.
We were all shocked when it came back negative.
Unfortunately, after Jessica had been to the house to pick them up, we were dead set on
getting them out of that home.
It was horrific.
One of the puppies was dead when she got there and it wasn't even the seizing puppy.
When we got the negative results, we told the girl and then we also told her we have
a foster spot open for them now.
She then told us she was going to keep a few of them.
When we told her she had to surrender the whole litter in order to get a spay voucher
for the mom, she told us, ain't nobody going to spay any of my dogs without me approving
it.
I'm not, that's obviously not how a spay voucher works, but you're 16 and you know nothing.
That's when I told Jessica me and my baby would throw down with her and her baby over
these puppies if she wanted us to.
But for some reason, Jessica didn't want me to and thought it would be best to handle
it properly.
And because they were in the city limits with literally 500 dogs, Jessica had Animal Control
go over to the house with her.
Legally, her options were to re-home some of the dogs either with us or find her own
homes, or be written up by Animal Control.
And every time he comes back to write her up, the fine is higher and she technically is
at risk of jail time, but no one in the history of ever has been sent to jail for having too
many dogs in Boom Bowl.
So Jessica told the girl that she and Animal Control were coming that day and she told
her it didn't matter and she was only going to give us a couple anyways.
But when Jessica got there, the girl's grandmother told Jessica and Animal Control that it was
actually her dog and her dog's puppies and we could absolutely take them all and she
was so grateful and would love a spay voucher.
Oh, and there was another one dead in the yard when Jessica got there that day.
So she took all seven of the puppies home, but one was clearly not well.
It wasn't even one third of the size of the others and despite Jessica staying up with
it all night, it died that same night.
Most likely from intestinal parasites, anemia from the thousands of fleas they had, and
or just basic malnutrition.
Jess kept the litter mates for three weeks before sending them so we could make sure everyone
was good and healthy.
And I mark our spay vouchers with codes like just numbers.
So we are definitely going to be following up and make sure that that mama gets spayed.
The W litter of four were another litter that got added because of the shelter 20.
I got a call from one of my rescue partners who said she had just gotten a call from the
sheriff's department and that six puppies were dropped off at their door.
She said she would go get them if I would take them in January.
I told her how about you go get them and I take them in three days.
They don't have a shelter in their town and their animal control officer would much rather
euthanize than have to take care of them.
So the sheriff's department knew that they needed to find a rescue for them.
Unfortunately, by the time our rescue partner got there, which was literally less than one
hour, I have the time stamps from our texts.
One of the officers had given two away.
So frustrating.
The sheriff was furious and he told her no one had even checked with him to make sure
it was okay to give any away and he was very sorry.
The teal of six are from that same rescue partner.
One of her good friends found them tossed out on a back road in their town a few weeks
ago.
They were scattered all over the road somewhere in the ditch.
Some were just laying on the gravel road.
She went and got them and she fostered them until transport for us.
And now for the cats.
You me and the Christmas tree came from an older man who was just going to drop him off
somewhere when one of our fosters intervened and got him before anything bad could happen.
Good morning Christmas is from one of our veterinary partners.
He was surrendered to her clinic by one of her clients.
I'm not sure why, but I'd be willing to bet that he was just a stray.
She neutered him, got him up to date on everything and he hung out at the clinic until transport.
I'll be home for Christmas was found as a baby and bottle fed by one of our bottle feeders.
Everything Christmas was part of a litter of four that was supposed to go last week,
but the morning of transport they could not find any of them.
A few days later they found one of them dead.
We think it was either attacked or run over by a car, but everything Christmas somehow
made it back to the house and we got him in a foster home right away.
Okay, why do I do this to myself?
There were so many other names that I could pick that I wouldn't have had to say.
Joy Noelle?
Is that French?
I don't know.
French fries and french toast is about as French as I get, so if I butchered that, I
am very sorry.
She was brought home by one of our fosters when one of her coworkers was telling her
a kitten wandered up to her house and they kept having to shoot away every time they
opened the door because it wanted to come inside so desperately.
They told her a few days after it showed up, it was beaten up by one of their Tom cats,
so she followed them home that day and picked it up.
The end, litter of four, were part of a litter of eight that our bottle feeder took in as
newborns.
Several died in the first few days and one of these actually remained pretty sickly for
several weeks.
We spent lots of money at the vet to figure out what was wrong with it.
I don't actually know what was wrong with it originally, but they think its biggest
problem was all the medication it had to take caused it to become impacted and then it just
stopped eating because it didn't feel good because nothing was coming out.
But Jessica texted me Thanksgiving Day to let me know her kitten passed a nice big rock
hard turd and we had never been happier.
The R litter of three is actually supposed to be a Q litter, but there is not a single
Q Hallmark Christmas movie ever made.
Road to Christmas is the mama of quack and flap from last transport.
If you listen to that episode, you'll remember when the foster went to pick it up, the owner
heard what a great life it was going to have and told her she had two kittens from the
same litter that she would surrender to.
Later in the week she asked us to take the mama.
Now looking at these kittens, I am very skeptical that they are actually from the same litter
as quack, but they are from the same house regardless, so we will roll with it.
The S litter of four came from a stray mama cat that came up to a house to have her babies.
She was so sweet and friendly that they took her in and just fell in love with her.
They are keeping her and having her spayed.
The M litter of five are supposedly Maine Coon mixes.
They were posted on Facebook as free to a good home and we nabbed them up.
Okay, that is all 61 stories and officially the last of the critters that were sent on
transport this year.
Hopefully you will be hearing from me in a few weeks for our end of the year wrap up
episode.
Otherwise, our next transport won't be until January 2024.
Oh, and for anyone listening who's wondering about my pregnant girl, I busted her out
of the shelter the morning after last transport and I was hoping to send her today.
But a few days later, she gave birth to 11 puppies.
Oh my goodness, I thought like maybe five.
Like she was so skinny, her belly was so low, maybe five.
11.
All healthy, all doing great.
So she may not be home for the holidays, but she is safe, warm, loved, and most of all,
very well taken care of this holiday season.
They will stay with us over the break and make their Virginia debut in January.
It's a rough life, but someone's got to do it.