Hello friends, welcome to Rough Life. What a transport day it was. We did yet another
two-band transport. You know those are my favorite, but they are a lot of work and it
was so hot and so humid today. We had 60 critters on board this week, 11 of them being adult
dogs, which makes my heart so happy. We also had a ton of different letters of chihuahuas for some
reason and just as a fun fact, I dated a guy who had a chihuahua and he pronounced it chihuahua.
And ever since then, I cannot write or say the word chihuahua without saying chihuahua in my head
and it makes me laugh every single time. I literally cannot even spell the word chihuahua
when I'm typing it out without saying chihuahua to myself. Anyways, we have a lot more important
stories than that one, so let's get into it. Today's theme was Olympic athletes. This was
suggested to me for last week's theme and I thought that was dumb. So I went with fonts as a theme
because that's not dumb, but I thought it was dumb because we've done an Olympic theme before. So I
was like, we've done it, but that was very naive of me and I'm very aware of that now. I had no idea
how invested we would all be with the Olympics. I was just a dumb 24-year-old little girl who
lived alone and spent her evenings rescuing animals and not watching TV when we had the
last Olympics. So I had no idea how fun it was to watch it and cheer everyone on. I am so proud
to now say I am a full-blown Team USA member and even when I have no idea what sport they are playing,
I am screaming and hollering in my living room cheering them all on. I am fully invested.
Even more so now that I've named 60 animals after the athletes, Daniel Breslin, the human,
will forever hold a special place in my heart after how hard I worked to get Daniel Breslin,
the puppy, a foster for this transport. And I'm super sad that we didn't get to use Leah Krauss
because all of my singles were males and it wouldn't have worked. So now I really want Leah
Krauss the human to win everything for the rest of her life because I'm so sad for her that we
didn't get to use her name for a puppy. Okay, on to the stories. Emily Fox, who was named Daisy May
down here, wandered up as a stray. There's a family here who I literally love more than anything. The
husband was the preacher at my wedding, the wife is one of my good friends, I taught their children
in Sunday school. They are just good eggs. Well, Daisy May wandered up to the husband's parents
home. And they contacted me right away to help. I was telling everyone know that week because we
were just swamped. So no matter what you had, no, I cannot help you. No, like contact me next week.
I cannot do anything for you this week. But when I saw his sweet mama's name pop up on my phone,
I knew whatever it was she had, I was gonna end up taking. Luckily, she did agree to keep her
until transport day, which I didn't even mean to happen. I plan to take her today and send her to
a foster here locally. But I woke up at seven o'clock this morning to a message from Jacqueline
saying she could go today and I immediately texted the family to see if there was even any way that
they could bring her in time for transport. Daisy May acted super scared and shy at transport. And
I could tell it was breaking their heart. They kept saying she's never acted like this in the whole
month that they had her. But it was also her first, we think, ever car ride and transport days are
just so hectic. So I'm really hoping she settles in quickly in Virginia because she came from one of
my favorite families. So she's automatically one of my favorite dogs. Listen, we knew. We knew
when this was going to be human names that I was going to have to say that I was going to butcher
90% of them. So I'm just going to apologize now. Someone even told me how to pronounce this name
and I can't find where she commented on the post. So we're just going to have to use our phonics
skills and try our best. Ilana Mayer. Maybe our rescue partner hopes husband works with the owner.
And after he heard how wonderful Wolf Trap is, he knew that's where he wanted their doodle to go.
They got her when their youngest child was a baby. Why? And since then they've had another baby and
it's the typical we don't have time for her anymore excuse. They've loved her and they've kept her
up to date on all her vaccinations and heartworm prevention and even got her spayed. So at least
they were really responsible dog owners. And they are truly thankful that she is going to go to a
home where they're going to have more time to devote to her than they did. Daniel Breslin,
my favorite, almost got cut from Team USA, the dog, not the human. I don't know why this adorable
baby could not find a foster, but in the literal final hour he got several offers. He showed up to
an elderly lady's house a couple of days before she passed away. Crazy. When the daughter arrived
from out of state to start cleaning out the house she found him. She ended up taking him to a couple
next door and asked them for help and they reached out to us to take him. They actually fostered him
for us until transport and we are really hoping that they will continue fostering for us in the
future. Noah Lyles was found on the side of the road with no houses around but since he looked
relatively healthy he was posted on Facebook looking for the owner. No one claimed him for
several weeks so we know he had to just be another drop off. The sweet lady that found him
offered to foster him until transport day for us. Quincy Wilson was found as a stray in the middle
of a gravel road, almost dead, literally. He was covered in fleas and being eaten alive by ants.
Ants. The finders rushed him to the vet and got him loaded up on lots of medicine and high calorie
food and he is doing so much better. Thomas Haleman. Haleman was an owner surrender. One of the
owner's friends reached out to us saying their friend had a 12 week old golden doodle and they
didn't want him anymore and they were about to take him to the pound. She knew the pound was full
and she was worried that they would just dump him somewhere so she asked if she agreed to keep
him until transport would we go ahead and make sure he got on and would get a good home which we
were more than happy to do. I will never own a doodle but oh my goodness are they cute puppies.
I just wanted to love all over that squishy boy at transport.
Victor Montavolo. I have so much appreciation for the announcers now. Now that I'm having to say
all these things and I literally went through and picked the least complicated names to have to say.
Victor. We got a call from someone who had been made aware of a homeless man who was dragging
this teeny tiny puppy all over town and tying him up outside in this heat and leaving him for
hours and sometimes whole days at a time. So some underground networking happened and the puppy
disappeared in the middle of the night when he was tied up all alone at a gas station and the
gas station owners were asking animal control to come pick it up. His paw pads were burned and
bleeding from the hot pavement that he was standing on all the time and he was eaten alive with fleas
and intestinal parasites. He slept for two days straight once he was settled in and safe indoors
and in the air conditioning in a foster home and I know this might be a controversial story.
I understand. I fully support homeless people keeping animals with them. I think it is almost
always a win-win for the homeless animal and the person to have a companion. There is even a
homeless man in a nearby town who has a dog and he takes fantastic care of it. The shelter provides
him food for the dog. Another rescue provides like flea and tick care for the dog and we spayed her
and boarded her for him during the terrible ice storm that we had earlier this year because the
human shelter wouldn't let him bring his dog there. I am not out to take away people's dogs,
period. But if you leave your bleeding puppy unattended without shelter for full days at a
time and over 100 degree heat, maybe you don't need a puppy. Alisha Stansel and Flava Flav who is not
an athlete but I got so many requests to include Flava Flav as a name on here. They are otherwise
known as the naked male and the semi-naked female down here to us. They were posted on Facebook by
one of our rescue partners back in June. The owners moved off and left three dogs in their
trailer park backyard. The neighbors were calling and complaining and one of the neighbors decided
if they weren't gone in four days he was going to haul them off. I'm not sure what that means.
So my friend was posting their story and the pictures of them at two in the morning
and I just happened to be awake with this dumb baby when I saw her post. This was also that same
week that I was saying no to everyone and everything but in a moment of sleep deprivation
weakness I texted her and said I would take all three the next day. So she went out there around
lunchtime to get them and the neighbors said that the third dog had disappeared several days ago and
it still hasn't been seen to this day. So she loaded up the male and the female. The male was
absolutely bald and sunburned from having minimal shade and was super skinny. The female was in a
little bit better shape. Her mange wasn't too severe but the chain around her neck was so loose.
She literally could have just walked away but she stayed there all those weeks waiting for her
owners to come back and get her. I didn't get to spend too much time with these two because the
type of mange that they had was contagious to humans in the beginning. It is not now so if you
are fostering them do not freak out. They have not been contagious for over three weeks. You're in
the clear but I did not want to take the chance of getting it and passing it to Mary Sue but we've
had them over for over a month now and they have been the perfect dogs. They are so sweet to each
other. They haven't gotten in any trouble whatsoever and once they figured out the doggy door at the
doghouse and they realized that they could go inside to air conditioning and dog beds they
didn't leave the house for hours. It was so sweet. I really love them. Hadley. Hadley I'm not even
going to try to say your last name. Hadley and Hampton Morris are the parents of the tea litter
of 10 Chihuahua German shepherd mixes from the things you'll find in Lowe's transport. I talked
a little bit about the parents in that episode but I'll do a recap for anyone that missed it.
That was the litter we're calling the Ewoks because that's exactly what they look like
especially their daddy Hampton and fun fact for you OGs if you remember our transport coordinator
Sarah Barker Hampton is her nephew and he is playing in the Olympics. That is super cool.
Okay but for the dog Hampton they are owner-surrenders the mama the daddy
and the second mama were all strays that wandered up to someone's house during that
ice storm. Remember the terrible horrible no good very bad snow and ice storm that we had earlier
this year. They wandered up during that the Ewok daddy got both mamas pregnant. One of the mamas
looked just like the daddy so those puppies were purebred Ewoks. That mama died though.
The man said something got her when the puppies were almost three weeks old thus the second mama
hadly. When she saw that the real mama was gone and that these puppies were so pitiful looking
all around for her and just wanting somebody to snow go with she stepped up and she took that whole
litter in too. Both litters were born two days apart so they were very close in age after Jess
went and got them all because the man was keeping them all in his laundry room. Hadley kept going
in the laundry room and would just lay in there and cry and cry because she missed her baby so
bad and that is so pitiful to me. The man was hoping to surrender the mama and daddy that day too
but we had no fosters north or south that could take them so we left him spay and neuter cards for
them and we told him that we'd come back for them as soon as we could. Well then everyone went wild
over these puppies in Virginia and they were all showing off Hampton's picture when people would
ask what they were mixed with so we knew eventually that they would get to go to Virginia so we decided
to just go get them before something got them like the first mama and Jess kept them in her backyard
for like a month. It was it was a long time. The man had already used his spay voucher on the mama
but he was so happy when we came back to get them. I am really really hoping that whoever has the tea
puppies gets them together with their mama Hadley so she can see that they all ended up in happy
homes because it makes me so sad thinking about how sad she was. Okay the p-letter of two our owner
surrenders. The owner contacted one of our fosters and said she heard that we help find good homes
for puppies. Her doodle mama had an accidental litter with a great pieronees and she had two
puppies left that she needed to find good homes for. They have kept them in their outdoor pen
where the mama lives 24 seven with minimal shelter but they are very thankful that we got good
homes for the puppies and they are even going to get the mama spade so there are no more accidental
litters and we left them a spay voucher. The R2 were a guilt trip. I actually texted my vet on
a sunday evening asking him a quick question about a dog I was pulling whether it looks like a chemical
burn to him or like a fire burn. We talked for a few minutes and then he said oh by the way I need
to help placing a mama dog in her two puppies. It was originally three puppies but one was run over.
They were abandoned at a house on our road. My vet lives on the same road as the dog house that I
used to live in. The family was renting out the house but the landlord decided to sell the home
so they were evicted. They took a few of their dogs with them but when the new owners moved in
they realized that the mom and the three puppies were still living there. They go to church with the
vet which coincidentally is also on the same road that we all live on and since it was on the same
road as our house is we were all just thrown into the mix. Anyways I told him I wouldn't be in town
for a few days but to just give them Jess's phone number and that she would message them about setting
up you know time to come and get them and get them into a foster home he said I don't like to give
out people's numbers. You never know what wackos might text you on a Sunday night and I told him
well if it makes you feel any better I am thoroughly regretting texting him. He was joking but I was
not. We ended up getting in touch with the new homeowners and Jess went by to just drop off
food and get some pictures so we could be working on a plan. When she got there the homeowners told
her that they had just found the mama dog dead. There was a pool of blood in the driveway and
they followed the blood trail around to the back of the house where they saw her lying. The puppies
were nowhere to be found. A few days later they called us and they said the puppies were back
and Jess went over there and they were so feral she couldn't even get close to them so she went home
empty-handed and we were just about to call the whole thing off when the homeowners called back
and said they caught the two puppies and asked if we would come get them right away so even though
I so badly did not want to agree to pull a mama and three puppies I so badly wish we did not end
up with just two puppies. The third puppy was likely hit by a car and killed but the mama
looked like she had been attacked by something. Maybe she was protecting her puppies maybe they
ran off to hide and that's why no one could find them the first time Jess went out there.
Who knows but these puppies have seen some things and I am so glad that they're gonna have a better
life now than they could have ever imagined. The S letter of four have a terrible story.
Their owner messaged Jessica to see if we would take her seven adult dogs for her. Jessica told
her very kindly no way. This was also said week of saying no to everyone about everything.
She then wrote back and said could you at least take a litter of puppies that one of them had
instead. Jessica told her it would be a few days but you know we would try to figure something out
and then when she was circling back with her later that week she couldn't get the lady to answer
and she was getting super annoyed because like if that lady didn't need us to take them anymore
we had lots of other litters that we needed to help instead. Finally Jessica was getting ready to
just tell her off and move on but she decided to text one of their mutual friends to see if she
knew how to get in touch with the owner another way. Their friend wrote back and said oh you didn't
hear she died earlier this week they found her in her home we don't know what we're gonna do with
all these dogs. So Jessica went over there and we were planning to take the mom the puppies and
maybe another adult or two but when Jessica got there several of the adults were full on attacking
her. There were all teeny tiny small breeds so it's not like her life was in danger like she'd
like for you to think but still way too aggressive for us to pull. Luckily the family member that
was meeting Jessica there said he was wanting to keep four of the adults the literally vicious
mama included in the four so we told him if he would keep the mean adults we would spay and
neuter them for him and then another rescue partner of ours who mainly does tiny breed
adults took the others and got them into her rescue but the house that they were living in
was horrendous. I don't know how long they were there after the owner died and before anyone
came to check on them maybe it wasn't like this before the owner passed away or maybe she was
just too sick to take care of them but the puppies were in a human baby pack in place so like cloth
fabric that was soaking wet with urine and poop they were standing ankle deep in poop and completely
covered in it so awful. Oh but I will end it on a funny note you know we do litter names so we can
keep track of like who we're talking about down here like the Ewok family for example well these
were called the itty bitty weenies. The K litter of six were posted on facebook as free to a good
home I was tagged in it by one of our rescue partners who was out of room herself they lived
just down the road from my mom's house so I knew sooner or later they were going to end up our
problem the owners were super helpful and they agreed to hang on to them until transport for us
and I did something I never ever do I let them keep a puppy. I literally cannot think of another
time I've done this I'm sure I have probably but I I literally cannot think of any other time
but they are good owners they keep them in the house and it was a special story. They had a dog
for 15 years that they loved so much and he passed away just from old age right after he passed away
this mom dog showed up at their house and refused to leave. They were about to take her to be spayed
when they realized she was pregnant she ended up giving birth on what would have been their dog's
16th birthday so I gave them a spay voucher for the mom and they're gonna have the puppy neutered
themselves since they were going to pay to spay the mom originally. I don't like it but I think it
is really sweet that their puppy is going to have the same birthday as their first dog so I'll allow
it. Okay if you are fostering any of the sea litter chihuahuas I am calling them the Chihuahua
chaos crew. It is five adults and seven puppies and we're about 99% sure the mama is the only mama
of these seven puppies even though there is another female who very clearly has had puppies
recently. We think one of the black and white males is the daddy we have no idea which one
the white male could also be one of the daddies we have no idea and we're pretty sure that they
were all dumped from a breeder because they were all found together. I would love it so so much if
everyone that has one of these chihuahuas got an embark DNA test done on them so we could see how
they're all related. It's possible that one of these females is the mom of everybody. It's also
possible that none of them are related at all except the puppies. We have no idea. They have such a
crazy story. I was not part of it at all. I was just cheering along the sidelines and by cheering I
mean I kept saying stop finding more every time they said that they trapped another adult. Anyways
I asked the rescuer who found them to write up their story so this is what she said. After the
July 20th transport Saturday afternoon I started getting messages and tags about 13 chihuahuas
dumped four miles from my house. Lots of people were commenting and wanting to help so I let it
play out that night thinking someone would step up. Side note we always think someone will step up.
No one ever steps up. I don't know why we think that. She said she kept waking up thinking about
them and Sunday morning at nine o'clock she just couldn't stand it anymore. She looked at her husband
and she said I've got to go. I've got to get them and he said I'm with you boo let's go. So they missed
church because they were out catching the mama all seven babies and then the other female and then
the male but there were still two left. They couldn't catch them because they were super fast little
runners. Someone had even driven by before she got there and taken one of the puppies and left
all the rest of them. She begged her to surrender the puppy to her after finding out who she was
but she was just adamant that she wanted to keep him. The finder did actually take the puppy to the
vet Dr. Jamie who is Dr. Burton's best friend and she promised that she would do right by the puppy.
So back to the last two that she couldn't catch. She borrowed a trap from the city pound and after
three days she figured out that they were just too tiny to trip off the lever in the trap. So she
went to the store and she bought a smaller one. She went to set it and within three hours she had
one of them trapped sitting in the trap in the pouring rain. Keep in mind it rained every day
this whole week that she was trying to catch them. So the last and final male she hadn't seen for
three days and she was thinking the worst. Then she got a message from someone on Facebook that
they had him on their back porch another four miles away soaking wet covered in fleas and begging
for help at their back door. So she sent a friend to get him on her lunch break and after a long
week of running he was reunited with the whole family and no one got left behind. We figured it
was likely a breeder that just got overwhelmed and dumped them all but they will never have to worry
about being dumped ever again. The B litter of five were owner surrenders. They were posted on
Facebook and in a breath of fresh air the owner specified that she only wanted them to go to a
rescue not random individuals and that she had already made appointments to get the parents fixed.
So we were more than happy to help her. At first we were told there were only four but then after
the owner realized how amazing Wolf Trap is a fifth puppy magically appeared. I don't know if
someone backed out or if they plan to keep him themselves. All that matters is they are all
getting out of Mississippi. The G litter of four were owner surrenders. One of our fosters was
contacted by a pitiful man who could barely take care of himself but he had a mama dog who had
four puppies and he wanted to make sure that they went to good homes. The foster went over there and
took him lots of food for the mama dog and for the puppies and she knew she couldn't leave those
puppies there much longer because they were in such a horrible conditions. So as soon as her
fosters left on the last transport she drove straight over there and picked them up. The owner
is so grateful that his mama who he adores and really does take decent care of will be spayed
and won't have to go through this anymore. The A litter of eight were dumped on the side of the
road in a storage bin in the pouring rain. They were in the city limits and so many people called
and reported it but it was a Friday night and the shelters closed over the weekend? Of course.
So animal control refused to go and get them because animals don't need to be rescued on the
weekend. Instead he called Jessica and told Jessica to go get them and she told him we
don't have anywhere to put them and that it would be a day or two before we could even take them
and he said just go get them whenever you have room. Just leave them on the side of the road for
the weekend it's fine. While we were discussing it trying to figure out what we could do if there
was even anything we could do if we even should do anything or make animal control do something we
were weighing all of our options we got another call that a police officer picked them up still
in the storage bin and dropped them off at the shelter and left them. That sounds like the police
officer did a really good thing but the problem with that is where they were was a very busy area
where they were more likely to get help from people passing by and seeing them. Not that we
wanted people to pick them up but still better than being on the side of the road in the pouring
rain and the animal shelter is on a dead end gravel road that no one ever goes down and there's no
shelter at the shelter like no roof covering or trees that they could have been left under.
So they were just sitting in a gravel parking lot in the middle of a thunderstorm in the pouring rain
in a bin. So Jessica raced over to the shelter to get them we still didn't have a plan at this
point because we had nowhere to put them but when she got there the lady that's over the
kitten cottage at the shelter had just gotten there too to take care of the kittens and she
was getting them set up inside the office of the shelter so Jessica helped her get them out of the
rain and fed and watered and she told them that she would get all of her animals moved around
in the morning and come back and get these after she cleaned out the kennel. We really weren't expecting
to even get these to go this weekend but you dad gum wonderful people stepped up so now Jess is going
to get another litter of eight that's now a litter of seven before they become even less.
We have been having a lot of trouble you would say with the city here and this was just one more straw
on the camel's back. We're supposed to get some answers at the next city council meeting. I'm
going to bite my tongue until then and be a good girl but if we don't get some answers to some very
serious questions y'all are going to get an episode with a whole bunch of tea on some shady quote
unquote official business that's been going on around here so sit tight for that. Okay as for
the kittens West Kitts I mean is that not the most perfect name for a kitten? West Kitts was the
only kitten that was supposed to get to go. I had to beg and plead for Jacqueline to take her because
Wolfdrape has taken so many kittens in the last few weeks they're just out of kitten fosters.
This kitten was found dumped at another town's pound. This is actually the same pound where
that puppy drowned in the kennel when they were hosing all the poop and pee out of the kennel.
This kitten was laying on the cement behind the building when she was just barely two weeks old.
Our bottle feeder kept her until she was eating on her own and then Jess took her and another bottle
baby from that foster times new Roman from the font transport. He was just a little bit bigger
than her and he was playing too rough with her so we sent him last week and held her back just to
get her a little bit bigger before sending her. And I guess things were just going too smoothly
for me on this double van transport day and Jacqueline wanted to throw me for a loop.
Halfway through transport after telling me no kittens for weeks on end Jacqueline called me
and told me she needed a litter of kittens on this transport. We have plenty of kittens in our
foster care down here. That's not the problem. The problem was getting them to transport in time
so that we weren't late meeting the Virginia drivers. We ended up finding someone that was
able to go to another fosters house while she was at work and pick up her kittens and bring them
in time. These kittens which I have not even named yet so if you have three kittens this is your
litter. These kittens are from the new fie home yet another litter. The mom who she also wants to
send but she'll just have to hang back until we get an adult foster for her. She wandered up as a
stray and had kittens at her house. We've got the mama safe in a foster home down here until we can
get a foster in Virginia for her and currently every animal at the new fie house is spayed and
neutered so I guess we're just waiting for the next pregnant one to get dumped at her house.
Well that is all the stories for this week's crew. This is a very long episode. I'm very sorry about
that. I love a two-band transport. They are so much work and so many moving pieces to organize
but I really wish we could do them every week. Not even because we get to send more animals
which is great but just the flexibility of being able to move animals to a bigger crate so they
have lots more room. There's just no stress about whether or not everyone's gonna fit because we
got two minutes to fill. The next transport won't be quite as exciting and the episode surely won't
be quite as long because it's only supposed to be a mini but you know I will do my best to get
that as full as possible so make sure you sign up. There's only a handful of transports left this
year which is a very terrifying thought for me. It's a rough life but someone's got to do it.