1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:19,620 Hello friends! Welcome to Rough Life! What a rough life it has been since the last time 2 00:00:19,620 --> 00:00:26,480 we talked. We have had a lot of pretty serious issues come up the last few weeks, but for 3 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:32,120 the sake of those of you who are only here for the background stories, I will save our 4 00:00:32,120 --> 00:00:39,200 personal drama for the end. So let's jump into today's transport. We were supposed to 5 00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:44,920 have a cat transport several weeks ago, but it ended up being cancelled. In exchange, 6 00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:51,040 we are doing two full vans of critters. If you catch me referring to everything in the 7 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:57,520 future tense, that's because transport hasn't even happened yet. It is actually still four 8 00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:04,840 more days away, but I will not be there because I will hopefully be coming home from the hospital 9 00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:11,040 that day with a sweet baby girl. So it is very possible that some of the animal stories 10 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:16,120 that I mentioned won't end up getting fosters and therefore won't be making it on the van 11 00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:22,280 this transport, but they will make their way up sooner or later. And any stories that I 12 00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:28,600 miss, I'll make sure to include them in the Facebook post on the fosters page. Okay, on 13 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:35,200 the first van, we have all of our Mississippi animals. Jackfruit? Oh wait, I should tell 14 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:40,880 you guys, there were so many animals that there literally were not enough letters for 15 00:01:40,880 --> 00:01:49,760 any theme whatsoever. So the dogs are fruits and the cats are vegetables. So this is our 16 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:56,200 fruits and vegetables transport. Jackfruit was dumped at a kill shelter. One of our rescue 17 00:01:56,200 --> 00:02:01,440 partners brought him home before the shelter even took him in. Dragon fruit was dropped 18 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:07,160 off in front of someone's home way, way out in the country. They were afraid a coyote 19 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:13,280 would eat him so they brought him in and looked for a rescue to take him. Fig was found on 20 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:18,280 the doorstep of a church. She stayed there in the same spot for two days till one of 21 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:24,200 our rescue partners sent a foster out there to get her. The K letter of two were found 22 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:28,720 dumped. The finder couldn't leave them on the back row that she found them on. So she 23 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:34,000 loaded them up and then begged one of our fosters to take them because her husband would not 24 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:41,400 let her bring them home. The H letter of two were born to a feral mom in the woods. They 25 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:46,840 wandered up to a school teacher's home the day before our huge terrible ice storm hit 26 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:51,400 back in January. They were able to coax them into their heated garage where they stayed 27 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:58,160 during the storm but they were very very skittish. They finally after several weeks warmed up 28 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:02,160 enough for our rescue partner to pick them up and send them to a foster who had more 29 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:07,960 time and more experience to work with them. They love being around other dogs and cats 30 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:14,320 and they have made great strides and trusting people. The B letter of three were surrendered 31 00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:22,360 by a very old lady. She had kicked her deadbeat son out of the house and he left a puppy behind. 32 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:26,800 She had the shelter come pick it up and they of course asked us to take it so we went and 33 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:33,160 got her. A week later the son showed back up just to leave two more puppies on the porch. 34 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:38,200 The shelter went and got those two and of course called us. The animal control officer 35 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:43,640 said the house was so awful he doesn't know how anyone lives there. The windows were all 36 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:51,280 broken and lined with black garbage bags. The A letter of three are our parvo survivors 37 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:56,360 and they have such a pitiful story. They were found roaming around a dead end street in 38 00:03:56,360 --> 00:04:01,040 town and the neighbors just assumed after a few days that they had been dumped so they 39 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:04,800 put them in a playpen in one of their yards just to keep them from being run over while 40 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:10,440 they tried to find someone that would take them. We actually got the call about them 41 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:18,040 the day of the last transport but we were adamant that we were not pulling anything 42 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:24,840 until the end of March. Well when Jessica sent me the video of them I knew we were going 43 00:04:24,840 --> 00:04:29,880 to get them as soon as the transport van left that day. In the video you see these three 44 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:35,080 puppies pitiful definitely not feeling well at all and it looks like they're laying on 45 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:40,720 a blanket. It takes a few seconds but then you realize it's actually a dead puppy that 46 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:45,440 they're laying on. It was still warm so they were probably snuggling him for warmth because 47 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:50,360 it was still fairly cold that day. Jessica parvo tested them and got them started on 48 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:55,560 meds before helping some transport off that day and they ended up staying with her for 49 00:04:55,560 --> 00:05:01,120 quite a while. Once they had fully recovered from their parvo spell we sent two of them 50 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:12,520 to doggie daycare and the other one to a foster. The M litter of six. Okay listen. Sometimes 51 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:17,640 I love her more than anyone in the world and sometimes I wonder why I even still partner 52 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:24,560 with her. I didn't pull these puppies. The owner contacted Jessica directly and asked 53 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:31,240 if we could help. So when I asked Jess for the background story for this podcast she 54 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:41,440 said and I quote owner surrenders. That's literally all I got out of her. So I guess 55 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:48,520 the owner surrendered them and I'm sure we're spaying the mom if there is one. The P litter 56 00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:56,280 of seven. Their mama showed up to a family's house the day of the ice storm back in January. 57 00:05:56,280 --> 00:06:01,080 The owners were certain that she belonged to somebody because she was so well mannered. 58 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:05,520 They took her in and they posted her on Facebook trying to find her family. After a few weeks 59 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:12,080 they realized she was probably dumped and then they figured out why she was pregnant. 60 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:16,120 In the meantime our rescue partner saw them post her on Facebook looking for a family 61 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:21,040 or a new home and after messaging them back and forth the finders changed their mind and 62 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:26,400 they decided to keep the mom and just give away the puppies for free on Facebook. But 63 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:31,360 thankfully they were finally convinced to surrender her and her puppies when the puppies 64 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:38,160 were just a week old. They are beautiful puppies but the mama is so ready for them to go. 65 00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:44,520 Mama Poppy however will not be on this transport. She will be staying behind because she has 66 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:50,080 found her forever home with our rescue partner. They had just put their beloved black lab down 67 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:55,240 the week of Thanksgiving and they have just fallen head over heels in love with Poppy. 68 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:59,360 She will be spayed in a few weeks when she dries up and she will be spending the rest 69 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:07,280 of her days being pampered and spoiled. Okay as for the cats on the first van these are 70 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:12,640 all of our Mississippi cats. We have Yam an owner surrender that we tried to get last 71 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:17,040 year when she was just a kitten. The owner decided not to surrender her and was just 72 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:23,080 going to have her declawed instead despite us talking her trying our hardest to talk 73 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:27,160 her out of it and explaining how cruel and inhumane it is. She was still going to go 74 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:32,520 forward with it until she realized how much money it would cost and then she decided to 75 00:07:32,520 --> 00:07:40,360 surrender her for real. Toes and all. The O litter of two again I will use a direct quote 76 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:45,960 from Jess when I asked what the background story is for these two kittens who she has 77 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:53,040 fostered for over a month she said well my two kittens are the spawns of Satan so I guess 78 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:58,880 they came directly from hell. Then she said I'm just kidding I do love them they were 79 00:07:58,880 --> 00:08:07,160 owner surrenders. She is a woman a few words I tell you. The K letter of four are our bottle 80 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:12,680 babies two of them were found laying outside near the pound in a nearby town this is actually 81 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:17,400 the pound from my last podcast episode where they found one of the puppies dead in the 82 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:22,640 kennel and realized it had drowned when they were cleaning it. Anyways two were found outside 83 00:08:22,640 --> 00:08:28,640 on the ground then later that day they found two more no mama cat was ever seen or anything 84 00:08:28,640 --> 00:08:35,880 our bottle feeder took them in. The W letter of two were being given away on Facebook and 85 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:40,160 one of our rescue partners fosters message them and told them that she would foster them 86 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:47,280 until a rescue could get them on transport. The F letter of three were owner surrenders 87 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:53,280 the owner reached out to our rescue partners cat foster the day before our last transport 88 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:58,120 and asked if she would foster these until our rescue took them. The owners are so thankful 89 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:02,240 that the kittens are going to a rescue where they know they're going to find great homes 90 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:09,080 and that their mama cat is going to be spayed for free now. The G letter of three fondly 91 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:15,480 referred to as the camper cats. A lady lives in a camper and just tries her hardest to 92 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:21,360 save every cat she sees. She's got well over a dozen and has gotten all of the females 93 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:26,680 spayed on her own with her own money. She wanted to find good homes for these three boys where 94 00:09:26,680 --> 00:09:30,720 they would have more room to run and play instead of the tiny camper that they were confined 95 00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:38,720 to. She is still debating on surrendering any of the female kittens in the future. The 96 00:09:38,720 --> 00:09:46,600 A letter of four are from the same home as the new fee and litter Lizzie Kaplan and her 97 00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:53,920 kittens and good wife and her kittens from the January 3rd Matthew Perry transport and 98 00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:59,760 Kansas City and her kitten from the January 12th city's transport. The mom was a stray 99 00:09:59,760 --> 00:10:04,640 cat that wandered up and ended up being pregnant but the owner fell in love with the mama and 100 00:10:04,640 --> 00:10:09,920 wanted to keep her but she knew that the kittens would be better off with our rescue so she 101 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:16,840 will be spayed in a few weeks. The S mama of the litter of five showed up on someone's 102 00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:21,580 doorstep in a nearby town. They were hoping if they ignored her that she would just wander 103 00:10:21,580 --> 00:10:26,680 off but the next morning she had kittens. They contacted our rescue partners and asked 104 00:10:26,680 --> 00:10:34,600 if they would be able to help. Okay that's all for the first van. On the second van we 105 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:40,720 have all of the animals coming from our Alabama shelter friends. Unfortunately like usual we 106 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:47,040 don't have a lot of information on these animals but I will tell you what I know. Logan Barry 107 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:51,440 was found running in the park playing with a bunch of kids which I think is the cutest 108 00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:56,280 thing. He was microchipped already but it wasn't registered so they had no way of contacting 109 00:10:56,280 --> 00:11:00,720 any owners. They've held on to him since February waiting for someone to come forward 110 00:11:00,720 --> 00:11:08,480 but no one did. The C litter of seven were posted on Facebook as free to a good home. 111 00:11:08,480 --> 00:11:12,840 I'm not sure if they didn't get a lot of interest or if it was just too much of a hassle for 112 00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:18,640 them but the very next day the owners dumped them in a cemetery where they knew that the 113 00:11:18,640 --> 00:11:24,520 shelter would have to take them all in. There is currently talk of adding a litter of three 114 00:11:24,520 --> 00:11:29,040 to this transport as well just in case we end up doing that. I'll tell you their story 115 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:34,720 real quick. I don't know what their litter letter... that's hard to say. I don't know 116 00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:42,800 what their litter letter will be but if you have a litter of three little black pups this 117 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:50,640 is their story. They were found dumped in a field in a hard top pet taxi crate. We had 118 00:11:50,640 --> 00:11:55,480 a horrible storm that night and the crate filled with freezing water. Several of them 119 00:11:55,480 --> 00:12:00,680 drowned or maybe just froze to death. The crate was really low in the field and it 120 00:12:00,680 --> 00:12:04,720 was hard to see it from the road so it's honestly a miracle that anyone even noticed 121 00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:10,280 them. Two of the three that were still alive were just barely hanging on. Their temperatures 122 00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:14,640 were so low it wasn't even registering on the thermometers and the vet couldn't even 123 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:21,720 get a drop of blood out of them to run any tests. It is truly a miracle that they survived. 124 00:12:21,720 --> 00:12:29,560 Okay now for all the kittens. Lots and lots of kittens. The team mama was brought in 125 00:12:29,560 --> 00:12:34,280 still pregnant. The owner said she was a stray but they also said something along the lines 126 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:39,880 of we just don't want to deal with her kittens so I don't know if she was really a stray 127 00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:45,880 or their personal cat that got pregnant and then they just decided to surrender her. The 128 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:52,320 pee mama was a neighborhood stray that everyone just kind of took care of but when they realized 129 00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:56,880 that she was pregnant they knew she needed better care and a safer place to stay so they 130 00:12:56,880 --> 00:13:03,040 brought her to the shelter. The pee mama and her six kittens were owner surrenders. The 131 00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:10,040 owner listed the reason as I don't want the cat or her kittens. The C mama was a stray 132 00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:14,920 that wandered up to someone's yard and had kittens under his shed. He kept them for 133 00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:20,000 a few weeks just so the mom could really settle in and take care of her babies but once they 134 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:26,600 all started roaming around he gathered them all up and brought them to the shelter. So 135 00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:34,280 there will also be several adult single cats on this transport. Hopefully unfortunately 136 00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:38,560 the shelter has so many. I don't know which ones will for sure get to go. It all depends 137 00:13:38,560 --> 00:13:43,840 on who gets foster signed up for them but I will be sure to list any information that 138 00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:50,520 I have on them in the Facebook post after the transport leaves. This is sure to be a 139 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:57,040 wild and crazy transport day. Not only is it the first transport after a very long break, 140 00:13:57,040 --> 00:14:02,360 it's a double transport so twice the animals, twice the vans, twice the drivers, twice the 141 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:09,880 confusion and to top it all off it is the first transport I will not be at. It is currently 142 00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:16,880 3.30 in the morning on Tuesday and I'm supposed to leave in just a few hours to go to the 143 00:14:16,880 --> 00:14:23,680 hospital to hopefully have this baby girl because I will still be in the hospital or 144 00:14:23,680 --> 00:14:32,720 just coming home that day. It is apparently too much trouble to ask the team to do the 145 00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:37,040 transport in the hospital parking lot and just wheel me out in a wheelchair so I can 146 00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:44,200 help them. So my team down here is just going to have to carry the torch without me. Let's 147 00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:52,320 hope they don't get me fired. But that concludes the animal part of the podcast so if that 148 00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:58,240 is all you came for you are free to go. But for those of you wondering what's been going 149 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:05,800 on down here, buckle up. A few months ago Jessica started getting really sick. There 150 00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:12,160 were more nights than not when she would have to use her chihuahuas dog steps to physically 151 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:19,680 crawl into bed because it was too painful to climb into bed like a normal person. She 152 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:26,500 ended up finding out just a few weeks ago that she has rheumatoid arthritis and unfortunately 153 00:15:26,500 --> 00:15:32,880 for me that means that she really needs to cut back on how much hard labor she's doing 154 00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:39,000 and focus on healing and getting her pain under control. I of course am nine months 155 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:44,200 pregnant with a high risk pregnancy and just about every pregnancy ailment and condition 156 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:51,520 you can have. But right at the start of my eight month of pregnancy my mom went to the 157 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:59,120 doctor for what we thought was worms, seriously like dog worms. She had them run a fecal and 158 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:06,680 everything. She was so convinced but of course it was not worms, it's never worms. They thought 159 00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:10,400 at first it might be a blockage so they gave her some medicine for that and told her to 160 00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:15,120 come back in a few weeks if it wasn't better. She ended up going back to the doctor the 161 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:21,920 Monday before the last transport and he immediately sent her off for a CT scan. We ended up getting 162 00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:29,320 the results the day after transport. It looked like ovarian cancer so we jumped on it and 163 00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:34,400 we got her in at MD Anderson in Texas the very next week. They couldn't tell for sure 164 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:40,800 by the CT scan but they felt confident that it was either stage 4 ovarian cancer or stage 165 00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:48,880 4 pancreatic cancer. Obviously those are two of the worst cancers you can get and we were 166 00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:54,680 crushed. They sent her home about 10 days later after doing a whole bunch of tests with a 167 00:16:54,680 --> 00:17:01,560 prescription to start ovarian cancer chemo later that week on Friday and they called 168 00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:07,800 her Thursday night, the night before to tell her not to start the chemo after all and that 169 00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:15,240 the biopsy results came back and shocked everyone. It ended up being her breast cancer. We thought 170 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:20,640 it had returned but after some sort of cell mapping or whatever crazy science they're 171 00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:26,120 able to do they realized that when she had her double mastectomy in 2002 for her breast 172 00:17:26,120 --> 00:17:33,400 cancer back then one cell got away during the surgery and it has been growing and spreading 173 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:43,680 undetected for 22 years. It is in her lymph nodes, her liver, pancreas, both ovaries, 174 00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:51,760 gastric wall, bowel, peritoneal, two vertebrae in her back, both hips, and one of her femurs. 175 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:59,560 It is everywhere. Despite all of that we are so thankful for the answered prayer of it 176 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:07,240 being breast cancer. It's stage 4 breast cancer unfortunately but still so so much better 177 00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:15,760 than what it almost was. So instead of the standard infusion chemo that is so awful and 178 00:18:15,760 --> 00:18:21,920 so miserable she is doing oral chemo which still has many side effects that are no fun 179 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:30,040 at all but it is not nearly as toxic as regular chemo and we are just so thankful. So while 180 00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:35,560 she's definitely taking a step back from all of her fostering and all of the running 181 00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:40,440 around that she does for us we are just so glad that she's still going to be around for 182 00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:50,360 quite a while to help out with all these critters and a baby now apparently. Alright that is 183 00:18:50,360 --> 00:18:54,920 all the catching up I've got for you. I don't know what I'm more nervous about birthing 184 00:18:54,920 --> 00:19:01,840 this baby in a few hours or a double transport without me being there. I guess by the time 185 00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:07,280 you're hearing this we'll know how everything went. Hopefully everything went very smoothly 186 00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:14,200 for both of them. Thank you for listening. I have missed y'all. It's a rough life but 187 00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:32,120 someone's got to do it.