1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:18,400 Hello friends, welcome to Rough Life. New year, new me, right? So I am trying a new strategy 2 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:24,800 with this whole podcasting thing. My goal is to have the transport episodes done before 3 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:30,880 I even leave to Mississippi to do the transport. That way, y'all don't have to wait for me to get 4 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:38,080 home so late at night, eat dinner, take a nap, go through all the pictures, record the episodes, 5 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:43,200 and then upload it to the Fosters page. Fingers crossed that this actually works out. 6 00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:51,600 So the first transport of 2024 is off with a bang. We've got 56 total critters on board, 7 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:59,840 so let's get started. The theme was Matthew Perry, and I'll be honest, when I started doing names 8 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:06,560 for that theme, there was not 56 critters that I was going to have to name. But by the time so many 9 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:12,720 were added, I had gotten so many names done, I couldn't scrap the theme and just start over. 10 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:20,960 So some of these names are a bit of a stretch. End of longing was an owner surrender. 11 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:26,320 We got a message asking if we could help treat an adult dog and a puppy for sarcoptic mange. 12 00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:31,120 Remember that's the super itchy, super contagious to other dogs and people mange. 13 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:36,480 When Jessica was dropping off the medicine, she just casually mentioned that if she decided to get 14 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:41,040 rid of the puppy, we would be happy to take her. Apparently this was not even really her puppy, 15 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:46,480 it just wandered up and she was taking care of it. A few days later, she messaged us back and said 16 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:50,240 she thought about it and she realized the puppy would be better off with us than living in her 17 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:55,200 carport. She kept her for a few more days until her mange wasn't contagious anymore, 18 00:01:55,200 --> 00:01:59,040 and we sent her to one of our fosters down here just a few days before Christmas. 19 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:07,760 Remastered the lion's share. Wandered up to someone's yard in the middle of nowhere. It had 20 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:13,360 been so cold here at night, it was like down in the 20s. We went and got her immediately, so she 21 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:18,720 didn't freeze to death. We held her for over a week waiting for an owner to come forward, but no 22 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:24,160 one did. And this home was out in the middle of nowhere. She was definitely just dropped off. 23 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:32,160 Justin Trudeau, if you are wondering who the heck that is and how it relates to Matthew Perry, 24 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:37,360 turns out it's a kid he beat up when he was younger who then ended up being the prime 25 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:43,680 minister of Canada. I'm telling you all, I was heartin' for names by the end of this. 26 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:51,600 JT was posted on Facebook by his owners. Apparently the mama dog and the siblings died in a house fire. 27 00:02:52,160 --> 00:02:57,840 When our rescue partner got there to pick him up, she said it was most definitely a drug related 28 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:05,840 house fire. Oscar Madison wandered into someone's yard and just never left. She asked all the neighbors, 29 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:11,040 but after a few days realized that it was very likely that he was dumped. After posting him on 30 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:16,400 Facebook looking for a new home or rescue to take him, one of our rescue partners grabbed him up, 31 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:19,840 sent him to one of her fosters where he has been for the last month. 32 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:26,640 The B letter of two were dumped at a nursing home in a nearby town. The employees posted 33 00:03:26,640 --> 00:03:30,800 their picture on Facebook trying to find the owners, but when it was obvious that they were 34 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:35,440 abandoned there, one of our rescue partners went and picked them up and has fostered them ever since. 35 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:41,200 The N letter of two were owner surrenders. After they were posted on Facebook as free to a good home, 36 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:46,640 the owner was very excited to surrender them in exchange for a spay voucher for his mama dog. 37 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:53,760 The A letter of three were found in a blue tub on the side of the road by an elderly couple. 38 00:03:54,400 --> 00:04:00,640 They just happened to stop and look inside and they were so shocked to find three tiny little puppies 39 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:06,640 in there. They brought them home and they contacted someone who fosters for us the day before our last 40 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:11,440 transport last year. We told them that it was already full, there's no way we could add them on, 41 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:16,080 but if they could keep them for a few more days, we could get them set up with a foster and then 42 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:22,400 send them to Virginia in January. They held on to them until a foster was found and these have 43 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:28,960 turned out to be the sweetest puppies ever. They are so thankful to be going from thrown away puppies 44 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:35,200 in Mississippi to finding their forever homes in Virginia. The P letter of three were owner 45 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:41,360 surrenders. The mama dog wandered up to their house and they realized immediately that she was 46 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:47,680 super pregnant. She had 11 babies but eight of them died. We're pretty sure that they froze to 47 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:52,560 death. When the puppies were five weeks old, we went ahead and got them set up in our foster care 48 00:04:52,560 --> 00:04:57,360 so that we could make sure that these puppies lived. We gave the owners a spay voucher for them 49 00:04:57,360 --> 00:05:04,320 because they are wanting to keep her. The T letter of eight are actually a letter of nine. 50 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:10,320 They were posted on Facebook when they were just barely two weeks old. Their mama dog had disappeared 51 00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:16,080 and the owners couldn't get them to eat from a bottle. They had gone between 36 and 48 hours 52 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:22,480 with no food before our amazing bottle feeder stepped up to take them. Eight of them took to the 53 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:29,760 bottle perfectly when she got them but one of them was having a harder time. It just so happened 54 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:35,440 that this foster was fostering Linda, the pregnant dog that I pulled from the shelter over Thanksgiving 55 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:40,640 and her 10 puppies. Because it was struggling so bad, she stuck it in with Linda's litter 56 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:50,720 and Linda took it right in. He has thrived ever since. However, Linda and all of her puppies got 57 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:57,360 pneumonia a few days later. We think Linda got it when she was at the shelter and she had just been 58 00:05:57,360 --> 00:06:02,080 trying to keep it at bay but nursing puppies just took everything out of her and she just couldn't 59 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:08,320 fight it off anymore because one of the orphan puppies was in there with her crew. It ended up 60 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:13,360 getting pneumonia too. Everyone is totally fine and healthy now but they still have just a few 61 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:18,640 more days of antibiotic to finish up. Otherwise, we would have sent the orphan puppy with his real 62 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:24,960 litter today. The M letter of eight were owner surrenders from a lady we've taken puppies for 63 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:31,040 before. She contacted our rescue partner again when her new dog had puppies. When our rescue 64 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:36,240 partner was there vaccinating the puppies, the owner started telling her about all the cats she 65 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:43,120 had inside her house that were about to or had just had kittens. So she told her, you know, 66 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:49,600 we would love to help you with all your kittens and your mama cats too and she started bawling. 67 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:55,440 She hugged her, she cried, she cried some more. These people are so thankful for our help and we 68 00:06:55,440 --> 00:07:03,360 are so thankful to be able to help them. And with that, let's get into the cat stories. The L mama 69 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:10,720 and her four kittens and the G mama and her two kittens are from the same house as the M letter 70 00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:16,000 of eight puppies. There's also another mama and kittens that we're taking from her today, 71 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:20,560 but they're just going to go and foster care down here until the transport next week. And there's 72 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:25,840 also a mama that she wants to keep, but will be surrendering her kittens in a few more weeks 73 00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:30,480 when they're old enough. From what we can tell, it seems like this owner just takes in animals in 74 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:35,600 need, but doesn't really have the means to have them spayed or neutered. So when they start reproducing, 75 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:41,600 she of course gets very overwhelmed very quickly by all these new animals. These mama cats were 76 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:47,440 all just cats she had taken in and kept inside, but weren't her actual cats that she was attached to 77 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:53,520 and wanted to keep. The F letter of three actually have a mama who is hanging back with us until 78 00:07:53,520 --> 00:08:01,680 next transport. She is the sister of view master from the November 18 toys transport. So these F 79 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:08,320 kittens are cousins to the three V kittens from the November 11th drink transport. 80 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:14,640 Remember, this is the owner who was somewhat reluctant to surrender the kittens in November, 81 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:18,320 but when he heard what great lives they would have, he asked if we would take the mom too. 82 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:24,400 So the next week when we got view master, their mom, he asked us about taking her sister, 83 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:31,280 the F mama and her kittens too. The F mama would have been on transport today, but she has a super 84 00:08:31,280 --> 00:08:38,400 wonky leg. It's very strange. So we're going to get her checked out at our vet this week to make 85 00:08:38,400 --> 00:08:44,000 sure it's nothing major and more importantly that it's nothing painful before we just load her up 86 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:48,640 and send her on her merry way. So hopefully she will be joining the rest of her family 87 00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:54,880 on next week's transport. The H letter of two were free to a good home on Facebook. One of our 88 00:08:54,880 --> 00:09:00,080 rescue partners, Foster's, saw them on Facebook and snatched them up before they could fall into 89 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:06,960 the wrong hands. All of the other cats on today's transport are from our veterinarian partner. So 90 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:13,680 the W letter of two were born to a feral mom under someone's trailer. The owner trapped the mom and 91 00:09:13,680 --> 00:09:18,960 gave her away before she even contacted the vet, but then contacted the vet to see if she would 92 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:23,520 take these two kittens. They were feral at the time. So she sent them to one of her friends 93 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:29,040 who worked with them for over a month to get them friendly. The D letter of two were from a shelter 94 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:34,880 in Jackson, Tennessee. They, some of their litter mates and their mom were going to be put to sleep 95 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:40,000 when the vet here pulled them. They were only two weeks old. The mom and the other siblings have 96 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:47,120 been adopted, but these two never were. The S mama and her four kittens were owner surrenders. 97 00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:51,920 The owner contacted the vet in May of this year when the mama was pregnant with her first letter. 98 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:57,680 She surrendered the kittens but didn't want to have the mom spade. The owner contacted her in 99 00:09:57,680 --> 00:10:02,560 November and asked if she could bring her in to be spayed then. When the vet looked at her, 100 00:10:02,560 --> 00:10:09,200 she could tell she was super pregnant and way too far along to be spayed. So the owner decided to 101 00:10:09,200 --> 00:10:15,840 just surrender the mom then before the kittens were even born. The C mama and her three kittens 102 00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:21,040 were found at a gas station on Christmas Eve. The finders were a friend of the vet and they 103 00:10:21,040 --> 00:10:25,840 contacted her about what they needed to do. They told her one of the kittens was dead in the parking 104 00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:30,880 lot from being hit by a car just a few minutes earlier. The vet told them load them up and bring 105 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:38,080 them to her that night. With that, it is now time for me to head on over to transport and make sure 106 00:10:38,080 --> 00:10:43,680 all of these critters really show up. It's a rough life but someone's got to do it. 107 00:10:43,680 --> 00:10:55,920 Okay wait, I am back from transport and I have an update. We actually did not send the F kittens 108 00:10:55,920 --> 00:11:02,240 or their mom. The owner could not get off work in time to bring them so he is going to bring them 109 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:09,840 sometime this week so that we can for sure have them for next transport. So we actually only had 110 00:11:09,840 --> 00:11:21,360 53 total animals on the van today. Okay, time to go.