Hello friends, welcome to Rough Life.
I am recording this week's episode the night before, well actually it's 2am, the morning
of transport.
So I'm actually recording this morning of transport.
So fingers crossed that all of these animals actually show up to transport and have fosters
signed up for them in Virginia so that they get to go.
This week's theme is fonts, f-o-n-t-s, and if you're in the Fosters group you know what
a terrible time I've had lately coming up with themes.
Y'all gave me some great suggestions, this was just one that jumped out to me, and because
I will literally do anything else than transport names when I'm supposed to be doing them,
I spent like 2 hours compiling a list of all of the themes we've ever done.
It came out to like 190 themes total.
A few of those were repeats, but still that is so wild to me.
We could have a transport theme be transport themes, but that would be very confusing so
we're not going to do that.
Okay, story time, Lee Laudi, we're going to pretend that's how you say that, came up
to someone's house because she saw all of the homeowners, other dogs that live out there.
A new dog shows up to this lady's house every year or so and she's got five dogs right now
and just cannot afford to feed anymore.
She's living in a tiny old beauty shop until she moves back into her camper.
So she contacted us and asked if we could come and get it.
This puppy stayed for a day or two with my mom and when my mom vaccinated her, she noticed
the next day that the puppy's eyes were super gunky, which fun fact, if you didn't know,
if you vaccinate a puppy that is harboring disc temper, so they have it in their body
but they're not showing any symptoms of it yet, they haven't broken with it yet, vaccinating
them will actually cause them to break with the virus and they will become symptomatic.
So we immediately thought we had a disc temper puppy and we freaked out.
We kept an eye on it.
We kept an eye on her eyes for a few days and they did not get any better.
So we sent her to the vet for a disc temper test and some medicine in the meantime and
we sent her to be fostered at the jail then too because my mom needed to fumigate her
place and then bring in a new litter that didn't have anywhere to go.
We found out the next day that it was not disc temper, it was just an upper respiratory
infection and she needed some eye ointment and an antibiotic.
And can you just pause for a moment and picture a bunch of hardened criminals holding down
a tiny squirming wild puppy and trying to gently line her eye with ointment.
But they have done a great job taking care of her for us and they keep us up to date
every day on how she's doing and I think we're actually the only people that they're
allowed to call.
So that's why I think it's so excited to call us and report how she is every day but they
are the best and we just love that partnership with them.
Harlow's owners live next to one of our rescue partners Hope.
They went on vacation to celebrate the husband's 49th birthday and he died the next day on
vacation.
The husband.
That's so scary.
So while trying to find some sense of normalcy in her life and trying to reduce her stress
and obligations, she just really needed to re-home the dog.
She said her husband loved this dog so much and she really wanted to try to keep him but
it was just too much on top of taking care of all their other dogs that are much older
and I love, okay I hate when owners have to surrender their dogs but I love when they're
like I have this eight year old dog that's been with me its whole life.
I know it'll be super hard to find a rescue and a new home for it or I have this eight
month old golden doodle that anybody would take.
I'll get rid of that one.
I love that.
I love when people do that.
So she chose to send him to a loving family in Virginia that will take care of him just
like her husband would have wanted.
And I love that.
I love that owner.
Verdanda.
Verdanda is an owner surrender.
The owner post of the dog on Facebook is free to a good home but the owner doesn't like
me.
So when I saw the post I sent it to my rescue partner Hope to work her magic and get us
the dog.
Don't agree to give her the dog and even to hang on to her until transport.
I can't remember why she doesn't like me.
She's my like my second or third cousin or something.
I don't know we're related somehow.
It was something like her mom wanted me to watch her dog for free and I wouldn't do it
or she wanted me to watch the dog and I didn't have any openings and I wouldn't do it something
like that.
I knew she wouldn't give me the dog so I sent in my secret agent.
Wean ding and webdings.
The W litter of two Aussie doodles are owner surrenders.
The owner's aunt is a doodle breeder so the owners thought it would be a great idea to
get their two year old and four year old children each their very own puppy.
And then they very quickly realized that is a terrible idea.
In the owners defense though they really did try to make things work before surrendering
them.
They took a bunch of steps to be able to keep them.
They just never took the time to actually train them.
But they did spend $7,000 to build a fence to keep them outside in an attempt to stop
them from destroying things inside their house and just let them be able to get some energy
out so they weren't so hyper around the little kids.
But then the dogs started tearing things up on the house like the window screens and the
door frames because they were just left outside all alone 24-7.
She feels really bad about surrendering them but honestly it is the best thing she could
have done for these dogs.
They will have so much attention and love in Virginia and air conditioning.
The R litter of four was actually a litter of six.
They were found wandering on a dirt road in the pitch black one night.
The two littlest ones died from malnutrition and anemia and coxidia and who knows what
other parasites.
The other four were treated for everything under the sun and they are doing great now.
The J litter of four.
I had them down as beagle mixes but then we got pictures of the mom who looks like a golden
retriever-dashhound mix and then we got pictures of the mom's mom so the grandma of these puppies
and she's a pure red Yorkie.
So someone please do a DNA test on these beagle Yorkie-dashhound golden retriever mixes and
let me know what they really are.
They were owner surrenders and the owners are ecstatic about getting their little mama
finally spayed.
They also still have two of her older puppies from a previous litter two that they were never able to find homes for.
The P litter of four was dumped at a local boat ramp when a cop picked them up and took
them to the city pound while animal control was on vacation so there was no one there
to take care of them.
Three died from hookworms and heat exhaustion.
The last four were all together in a four by eight poop filled kennel with no water whatsoever.
One of our rescue partners that works closely with that pound loaded them all up and took
them to our favorite local vet Dr. Jamie to find out why the others had died and then
get these four treated and into foster care.
The G litter of six were owner surrenders like everyone.
A lady thought she could make some good money by breeding her poodle in her lab.
She quickly found out that people just don't pay big bucks for doodles anymore and thankfully
contacted us before just giving them all away.
And in the middle of all this she also lost her job and was very thankful that we were
able to provide food for the mom and the puppies.
It seems like she has learned her lesson from this mistake because she has already made
the appointment to get the mama spayed with the spay voucher.
A lady heard a lady and her son actually heard the sea litter up 10 crying one night after
a terrible thunderstorm.
They were in a flooded ditch and were about to drown.
She brought them home and fostered them for a few weeks.
She subsequently found out from a neighbor that the mama dog was dropped off at that
neighbor's house, had the puppies, and then they shot the mom because she was chasing
their chickens and they just left the puppies to fend for themselves.
Okay, as for the kittens, Times New Roman was found by Animal Control as a newborn and
taken to a local pound.
Our bottle feeder foster took it and was going to send it back to the pound once it started
eating if we weren't able to take it because she technically didn't get permission to pull
it before she just went and got it and none of us, including her, even thought that she
would actually end up taking it back to the shelter.
It was actually raised with another single kitten that was going to go on transport today
too.
We think they're just a few days apart in age, but this other kitten isn't even a full
pound yet.
So since they're not even technically littermates and since Times New Roman, TNR, was beating
the little bitty kitten one up, we decided to just go ahead and send him and hold the
little one back for a few more weeks.
Ariel was found as a stray at three and a half weeks.
He was walking in the street in a nearby town and someone working in a medical clinic heard
him meowing and she parked and decided to just explore and see if she could find him
and it's a really good thing she did because he was just a few feet away from a major intersection
and would have definitely been run over.
The F litter of two were in the Walmart parking lot with a great big sign that said free kittens.
Our rescue partner stopped and was in the process of asking how many they had left and
then reminded herself that it didn't matter.
They were all going to go home with her, whether it was two or 20, but she was really
grateful when she found out it was just two.
It is really rare to have a bonded pair adopted out together, but these brothers and sisters
really do act like they are bonded pair and they are super tight.
I'm sure they would be fine once they were separated, but they are really sweet to watch.
The K litter of five were found in a hole in a local gas station.
They were posted online asking for someone to go get them and were originally six, but
after they were posted online, someone picked up one of the kittens and left all the others
behind.
They were four weeks old at the time and super weak and mountain nourished.
They were also feral when our rescue partner got them, but she has worked with them for
almost a month getting them sweet and friendly again.
Okay, we asked litter of four are owner surrenders from Jesse's aunt.
I don't know how active Jesse is up there.
I think he's more of the behind the scenes guy, but Jesse is our co-founder slash accountant
slash crate cleaner slash foster bag put her together.
Jesse does it all.
Jesse's aunt lives down here in Alabama several hours away from me.
And a few years ago, his aunt had a feral cat come up to her house and have kittens.
The kittens were equally as feral, but over time she was able to get them to wander and
enter her house and then corral them into one of her bathrooms.
So I don't know if you guys could just hear that, but my neighbors dogs were going crazy
outside and I was afraid they were going to wake up my sleeping baby.
So I went to see what they were barking at.
There's a possum in my backyard.
So ignore all the barking.
Everything's fine.
Okay, back to the story.
Um, okay, so she would corral them to her bathroom.
She told Jesse about it and Jesse had me go out there, trap them in her bathroom and then
send them on transport.
They were like nugget, noodle, nugget and something else.
One of them is still so feral.
Jesse was never able to adopt it out and it just hides in the corners of his house.
Anyway, same aunt calls and says it's happened again.
So Jesse calls me and asks if I'll go get them again.
And I was like, no, that's a four hour road trip one way.
Like I have a three month old baby now.
I cannot make her sit for eight hours in her car seat, but I'm also exclusively breastfeeding.
I can't be away from her for that long.
I mean, I could, but I don't want to.
Unless there's no telling how long it would take for me to like trap them again.
This could be a 12 hour day by the time you factor in stopping for food and gas and catching
them.
So he's like, oh, right, right.
Okay.
All right, I'll order some crates and have them delivered to her so she can try and trap
them before you get there.
Look, like that fixes all the problems.
So I call Dr. Burn and I'm like, it's happening again.
Jesse's trying to make me drive eight hours to get feral kittens from his aunt and bees
like, nope, absolutely not.
Do not go.
I don't want them.
I'll handle this.
So a couple minutes later, she sends me her screenshot with Jesse and she's like, this
is too much to ask of Katie.
She's got a newborn baby.
I don't even want these kittens.
We're already bringing up 60 plus kittens that week.
No way.
And Jesse literally responds with, okay, I'll see if my aunt can meet Katie halfway.
So he sends me that screenshot and goes, I don't know.
I tried.
So then Jesse texts me and he's like, can you meet my aunt halfway instead?
And I was like, I don't know.
That's still a really long day for me.
I can't take Mary Sue by myself, so I'll have to find someone to keep her at home for me
or come on the ride with me.
I don't know.
How about I just reach out to some rescues in the area instead and see if we can like
strike up a deal with them and maybe they'll go get the kittens for us and we'll take
something in return for them.
Jesse writes back, okay, my aunt will meet you on Wednesday.
And I know I'm making it out to sound like Jesse is a total jerk, but he's seriously
one of the nicest people you will ever meet in your whole life.
I don't know if there is anyone in the whole world that has beef with Jesse.
Like he is the best.
And if this was pre-baby, I would have had no problem joming back in the car for an
eight hour road trip to get him some feral kittens.
It was just so funny that me and Dr. Burton were both like, no, I'm not going.
She doesn't want them.
No way.
And then Jesse somehow makes it happen anyways.
But all of that complaining aside, I didn't even go.
My mom was going to ride with me out there so that one of us could sit in the back with
Mary Sue and then my mom was like, that's really dumb.
She doesn't need to be in the car for that long for no reason.
Like it's not like we're going on vacation or something, you know, in the end, it would
just be sitting in the car.
And she's like, I'll just go by myself and meet her.
Oh, and my mom has stage four cancer, remember?
So she's on like a bunch of chemo's and medications and all that.
So some days she just feels really rotten.
So I go, okay, well, let's plan on you going.
And then if you wake up the day of and you're just super tired or just not feeling good
and have a bad headache, Mary Sue and I will ride with you and make it worse.
She was like, yeah, I'm not going to tell you if I'm not feeling well on Wednesday.
I'd rather have a quiet drive by myself and just pull over to rest if I need to.
Quietly by myself.
But she ended up feeling fine.
The trip was quick and easy for her.
Jesse's aunt was super, super thankful.
The kittens are cute, feral, but cute and everyone lives happily ever after.
Oh, I am just now realizing this was actually a really pointless story to tell you guys
because Jesse's fostering all of them himself and keeping them at the Wolf Trap Hospital.
So none of you guys that are listening are even going to have an S flitter kitten.
Oh, well, enjoy the story.
That is all of the stories this week.
There are 46 total critters on the van.
We have another transport in two weeks and there are already some super cuties lined
up for it.
So if you are not fostering this week, make sure you sign up for the next foster period
and get your puppy snuggles in before the summer comes to an end.
It's a rough life, but someone's got to do it.
And I got to go get this possum out of my yard.