Hello friends, welcome to Rough Life. Today is no ordinary transport day. It is one of
my favorite types of transports to do. We are doing a transport and a half today. So that
means instead of my one van being loaded up with critters, meeting the Virginia van halfway,
swapping and coming home, we've got four vans total tonight. Two of my vans, meaning two of the
Virginia vans. We have so many big animals needing to go. This was the only way to humanely do it
without adding a whole extra transport day. This is also only possible because two of our vans
that are going tonight were donated 100% completely free to Wolf Trap several years ago. We love,
love, love our vans. We use ours down here just about every day shuffling puppies and supplies
around. So we are so grateful for these vans. Okay, we've got a lot of stories to get to today. So
let's jump in. The theme is cities and that is partially because one of the dogs, Memphis,
was already named and he knows his name. And partially because I've been getting so much hate
for my names from the last transport that I thought I better just stick with an easy theme this week.
Okay, so up first is Oklahoma City. She was brought into a vet to be euthanized right after
Christmas. The parents had gotten her as a Christmas gift for the kids and quickly realized that
puppies are a lot of work and kids don't really take care of them themselves. So they just wanted
to euthanize her instead of finding her home. The vet reached out to one of our rescue partners
and asked if we would take it. Otherwise, they really were just going to have to euthanize it.
And of course, we snatched that baby up. Side note, we have group names for the animals that we pull
for for us down here when we're talking about them that are not their actual Wolf Trap names.
I typically don't do the Wolf Trap names until the night before transport when everything is
finalized. So until then, we have no way of knowing who we're talking about. So some of the group names
for animals on this transport are the male carrier to the parbo three, the ninth puppy,
things like that. I'm sure you'll be able to figure out who all those puppies are and why we named
them that when you listen to this episode. But this puppy's name was the Heartworm Test Puppy.
For those of you who don't know, heartworms have an incubation period of six to seven months. So that
means if a puppy got infected with heartworms the very first day it was born, it would still test
negative all the way until it was six to seven months old. That's how long it takes to be able
to register that it really does have heartworms. So there's no reason to ever test a puppy younger
than six months because no matter what it will be negative. Well, the vet heartworm tested this
10 week old puppy and he's not a quack. He's an actual vet. So the only thing I can think is that
the owners had to pay the bill for what this puppy needed before they surrendered it instead of paying
to euthanize it. And I'm guessing he did whatever he could to get that bill just a little bit higher
for them because he was so mad about them trying to kill this totally healthy puppy. Thus the
Heartworm Test Puppy. Little Rock was found in a ditch on one of the coldest nights of the year
so far. The finder looked around and didn't see any litter mates and even went back the next day to
check again and still didn't find any litter mates. She took her to the vet herself and even paid for
the puppy to get everything that it needed. Tupelo is the ninth puppy from the tea litter of eight
on the January 3rd Matthew Perry Transport. Remember his litter was being bottle fed by the same
foster who had Linda and her 10 puppies. This puppy wasn't taking to the bottle very well so they
stuck him in with Linda and he did fantastic. But then a few weeks later all of Linda's puppies
got pneumonia and so did this little guy. So we just decided to hold him back and send him up with
Linda's group when he had finished all of his antibiotics. The e-litter of two were found by
a mail carrier in a cardboard box on a back road on her mail route. Apparently she wasn't allowed
to pick them up which is actually the first I've heard of that. So she called one of our rescue
partners who ran out there right away to get them. The b-litter of three were owner surrenders. The
owner asked for a doghouse a few weeks ago when it started to get really cold out because she knew
her mom a dog was getting close to having puppies. We gave her a doghouse and told her we would take
the puppies when they were old enough and spay the mom for her. Several of the puppies died right
after birth and these were the only three that lived. The h-litter of three parvo survivors
were actually brought to someone in our town that is a known cat rescuer. She ordered door dash one
night and side note we just got door dash in our town like two months ago. Like it is brand new.
Because we live in such a small town the driver knew it was her that he was delivering the food to.
So on his way he saw several dead puppies run over in the middle of the highway and three puppies
still alive hiding in the ditch on the side of the road next to them. He stopped, grabbed them up
and delivered them and her food to her house. She does cats though not puppies so she didn't know
what to do with them and called us for help. They unfortunately broke with parvo just a few days
later and we really weren't sure if they were going to pull through at all but we are so glad that
all three survived. Memphis Miami and their six m-pups are owner surrenders slash stolen.
We got a call about two puppies that were living at a quote abandoned house. It was super cold and
rainy that day and Jessica happened to be just right by there so she drove by and saw six puppies.
She went home changed her clothes and she went back to get them and saw that they also had a
mama and a daddy who came running over to greet her. She wrangled them all up took the puppies to
Mama Becky and put the parents at the dog house. She told the concerned callers not to worry that
they were all safe and warm now and then the next day she got a call from the owners and they were
wondering why they saw her on their security cameras taking their dogs. Apparently they had moved out
and they couldn't, they wouldn't, they didn't, I don't know, take any of the dogs with them. In their
defense though they were going back several times a week to feed them but they just left them there
to roam around and do whatever they wanted. Jessica apologized and explained that we got
calls saying that it was an abandoned house and that these animals were left behind running loose.
We assumed that they were not being taken care of. Thankfully the owners were actually super
happy to hear that an actual rescue and not crazy dog themes took them and they were so happy to
surrender all of them to us. The P litter of six were owner surrenders. When our rescue partner got
out there to vaccinate them and pick them up she found out that the owners were actually
planning on keeping one of them and if you know me at all you know I want the whole litter every
time. It makes no sense to me to spay your mama dog for you if you keep one of the puppies behind
to keep reproducing. What is the point? So after explaining all of that to her and telling her what
a wonderful indoor life that this puppy would have in Virginia the owner agreed to surrender all of them.
Linda is now Savannah and her 10 s puppies. Remember Linda was at the shelter here in Alabama
when I went back and walked through there back in November. She was in a wire crate and so insanely
pregnant. I think our pregnancy hormones synced up because I was just so upset at the thought of it
so I went the next morning and I brought her home. I was hoping to send her to Virginia on transport
the very next week but she ended up giving birth just a few days before the van left.
She had them at the doghouse and we could tell that she was so lonely there by herself. So we asked
our bottle feeder foster who did not have any bottle babies at the time if she would be willing
to foster her over the Christmas break and she was more than happy to. But because Linda was pulled
from the shelter here, the shelter that just right after that one on distemper lockdown,
she had such a terrible cough that we thought she might actually have distemper. So we had her in
distemper quarantine for several weeks until she had two negative distemper tests come back. Luckily
it was just a weird cough. Okay for everyone else that is the N litter, the C litter,
and the A litter of Dobermans. They are all owner surrenders from the same home. I actually already
had a full transport for this week and next. And when we were asked to take 20 Doberman puppies,
I sent it to Dr. Burton almost as a joke. Like oh my gosh, can you imagine like if I agreed to take
20 puppies on top of like the 80 that I've already committed to. But she was all for it.
She even offered to add this second van to this week's transport just so we could make it happen.
I think we were all a little stunned and surprised when I wrote back and said,
yeah, we'll take all the Doberman puppies next week. From what I can figure out, the owners had
one purebred Doberman mama. She is the mama of the A puppies. The other two mamas are her daughter
from previous litters. So they are half Dobermans. The owners think that the daughters slash the mamas
are Doberman mixed with Rottweiler and German Shepherd. But I'm just gonna be real with y'all.
This is just a side note. Someone asked us to take a litter of puppies, completely different
puppies for a completely different transport. And they said that the dad was a purebred Saint
Bernard. So we asked for a picture of the dad. And he is probably a purebred Great Pyrenees
through and through like not a drop of Saint Bernard in him. So what people say they think
the daddies are means nothing, literally nothing. So anyways, the A litter is half siblings to the
moms of the C and N litters. Their mom is the grandma to the C and N litters. The C and N
litters are cousins to each other. But it doesn't matter because all three moms are getting spayed
and will not be having any more babies. And none of these babies will be having babies either.
Okay, and now for the cats. Kansas City and her kitten Knoxville are from the same home as the
M litter of nine new fee mixes. Lizzie Kaplan and her three L kittens, and good wife and her three
kittens all from the January 3rd, Matthew Perry transport. Kansas City had a kitten die just a
few days before the January 3rd transport. We were just about certain that it had just got
entangled up in the bedding and suffocated. But just to be sure we held her and her remaining
kitten back just to make sure they were good and healthy. And actually at the time of this recording,
Kansas City does not have a foster yet. So I am really hoping somebody comes through and she
does not get left behind until next transport. Otherwise, it will just be her kitten making the
trip. The W litter of three were owner surrenders. The owners are keeping the mama cat and are happy
to have Wolf trap spay her. I really don't have anything else significant to add about them other
than they are from the same home as the S litter of puppies from the July 19th 2022 podcast transport.
That's a little throwback for you. Fort Lauderdale and her three F kittens. Okay, so this is the
mama and kittens that were supposed to be on last week's transport. And because I did my podcast
pre transport, their story was still included. Remember, she is the sister of view master from
the November 18 toys transport. So these F kittens are cousins to the three V kittens from the
November 11th drink transport. This is the owner who was somewhat reluctant to surrender the
kittens in November. But when he heard what great lives they would have, he asked us if we would
take the mom to on the next transport. Then the next week when we got view master, he asked us
about taking her kittens, her sister and her kittens, the F mama. And the F mama's leg is
just so wonky. We were going to hold her back from last transport just to get her checked out by a vet.
And it turned out it's just a birth defect doesn't affect her at all. She's not in any pain. It's just
a little wonky. The D litter of five kittens were found outside in a nearby town when they were just
a couple weeks old. They couldn't even tell if they were old enough to have their eyes open because
they were so sick with upper respiratory infections that their eyes were matted shut with green gunk.
They are actually friends with our bottle feeder. So they called her directly and she ran out there
that night and got them. And with that, that is all the background stories for all hopefully 69
critters on this van. I'm really hoping that they all show up and that they all get to go and that
you won't have to hear me come back at the end of this with an edit. But for now I am off to transport.
It's a rough life, but someone's got to do it.