Hello friends, welcome to Ruff Life. Well, it is the night before transport and I am crossing
all of my fingers and all of my toes that we really have this transport tomorrow. Apparently,
y'all are supposed to have a wild amount of snow during intake and the Wolf Drap team is worried
that they will get snowed in at the hospital with these 53 animals and apparently that doesn't sound
like a fun weekend activity for them. Weird. I don't know but I am going to go ahead and get
everything ready in hopes that things go as planned because not only is this a two-van transport
and that will be a ridiculous amount of animals for us to have to get resituated down here if they
have to stay but it is also going to be 10 degrees next week. 10. Just about every animal on this
transport is safe in an indoor foster home down here but if I've said it once, I've said it a
billion times, my fosters are on a constant rotation. When they drop their fosters off at
transport, they are also picking up their new fosters. It is rare that we have a full 24 hours
go by before we are reloading so it's not necessarily these 53 animals I'm worried about.
It's all the other animals that are scheduled for the 31st transport that are supposed to be going
into my foster homes after these 53 animals leave. If these don't leave, the January 31st
animals are stuck where they are and they are all currently outside or at a kill shelter with no
heat so we're a little stressed. I don't think any of us down here are going to sleep tonight
because we are so worried about whether or not transport is going to get canceled in the morning
but anyways I'm going to stop thinking about that before I work myself into a full body hives breakout.
Well I am jumping back on here to say that that transport did in fact get canceled and to say we
were devastated is quite an understatement. It is now one week later and once again the night before
transport and we have barely survived the week. We actually had to pay to board some animals because
it was literally that or they freeze to death outside. It has been in the single digits down here
and these little bitty puppies just cannot handle that or find adequate enough shelter on their own.
They're babies but I am so proud to say after a small hissy fit that my team rallied, pulled
themselves together, taking on way more than they should have had to and we have kept every single
animal in our care alive, safe, warm and healthy all week. I think in total across all of the animals
we've committed to we had 103 animals spread between 14 fosters and that's including two vets
where some were boarded. So safe to say we have been longing for tomorrow since last Saturday morning
but let's get back to their stories. I am super excited about this episode. If you listened
to last transport episode I ended the podcast by asking everyone to rate, review, subscribe,
all the things in hopes of one day getting sponsors and monetizing the podcast enough that I can
quit my job which I love saying because everyone knows how obsessed I am with my job but I do.
I want to quit. I hate that my salary comes out of WolfDrap money. I hate that they have to pay me
so that I'm able to do this. I want to make enough money from the podcast so that I can quit my job
and do it for free so that all the money for my salary goes for the animals instead and what do
you know we have our first ever sponsor. I am pumped. I posted on the Fosters page earlier this
week that I had decided to do hot teas for the theme since January is hot tea month. Who knew?
When I updated the post saying this, Deanna, one of our longtime members, had the brilliant idea to
share it with her friend Rachel who is the owner of the Elden Street Tea Shop and we are going to
do some cross promotions. Love it Deanna. Luckily Rachel loved the idea too. She helped come up with
all the names because ya girl has never had a tea in her life. I had absolutely no idea how many
different kinds of teas there were. I could easily do three transports worth of names with all these
teas. So all of the names on this transport are of teas that Rachel sells at her Elden Street Tea
Shop. We are so excited to be partnering with them. They will be donating a portion of every tea
purchase that is associated with the name of a Wolf Trap animal. And I would love to absolutely
blow Rachel away at the amount of money she is going to have to donate to Wolf Trap because of how
many teas she sells in the next few weeks. Now I am not quitting my job just yet but what a fabulous
start. One episode later and we already have a sponsor. Jasmine Green Tea was found under a
truck in the driveway of someone who lives a few houses down from the dog house. If you are a new
listener or if you just forgot the dog house is my old home. When I got married and moved to Alabama
I kept my house as the Wolf Trap South Headquarters since it is where we do all the transports and
where we were already using three rooms, half the garage, the backyard, and two sheds to store supplies.
So now we use it to foster dogs too and anyways people in the area know that that's where we do
rescue work so it's not at all uncommon for people to dump dogs on my road and just hope that they
make their way to me somehow. This neighbor that called us about Jasmine has called us many times
before about dogs that were probably meant for me that wandered down to her house. Valentino
showed up at one of our rescue partners fosters homes. She posted looking for an owner but finally
realized that someone dropped him at her house just like what I was saying about the dog house.
When people know you're in the rescue world dogs magically appear in your neighborhood,
on your road, in your driveway, everywhere. Tippi T is from a foster for our rescue partner Hope.
She went to a house that had some dogs chained up in the yard two weeks ago when we had a really
big snow. She was going house to house and offering straw to people who had outside dogs and then she
saw this pitiful little puppy tied up in the yard in the freezing mud. She couldn't stand it so she
went to the door and asked the lady if she could have him just to get him out of the cold and
surprisingly the lady agreed and let her have him. Unicorn tea was found in someone's yard one morning.
They're not sure if she was dumped at their house or if she just wandered around until she found a
car port to take shelter in but they posted her on Facebook looking for an owner and when no one
came forward they asked us if we could take her. The E letter of two were dumped. This is the
transport of dumped dogs I guess. The lady that found them in the road in front of her house kept
them for a few weeks trying to find a rescue or a shelter that would take them but everyone in her
area was full. She eventually reached out to our rescue partner Hope and asked her if she could
help get them in with us. The H letter of two were you guessed it dumped. Hope said quote I saw a post
on Facebook of these two adorable puppies being given away for free. I commented my normal spiel
that I could get them into rescue where they would be vetted and spayed a neutered etc and thankfully
the lady messaged me and said I could come pick them up so after last transport I went by and picked
them up on my way home. They live at the entrance of a state park and sadly she said they often get
animals dropped off there but she was very thankful that these two will have a great life.
The W letter of two were found curled up together in a ditch. One of our fosters saw them and brought
them home. Within 48 hours she could tell they were very sick. She took them to the vet and they
tested positive for parvo. She couldn't bear the thought of them possibly and probably dying so she
paid hundreds of dollars for them to be treated and thankfully they made a full recovery. They
kicked parvo's butt and they are ready to find their forever homes. The P letter of two we think
are probably siblings they look just alike. The mail showed up at a house in town. The homeowner
messaged every rescue she knew to keep from sending him to the shelter or kill shelter.
Jessica was going to get him the day after our last transport when we had a foster open up
but the homeowner texted us during last transport to say a sister had shown up. So we got them
settled at the dog house the day after transport and they have had a ball the last two weeks.
They are only three months old but they have mastered that doggy door in no time and they have
run literal miles going in and out of the laundry room to the fenced in backyard.
They also loved being able to go in the house and warm up but then go right back out and rough
house in the snow a few weeks ago they have been so cute. The F letter of two our owner
surrenders from a dog that was dumped. I guess that's the real theme of this transport. If you
remember my story last transport about the L litter golden retrievers and how I said
that people who took care of them were from Illinois because everyone who moves here from up
north is immediately shocked and appalled at how little people down here care for their animals.
Well example number two this guy also moved here from Illinois coincidentally from a town
one town over from where I grew up. His dad lives next to the school where I went to kindergarten.
Such a small world. Anyways he messaged us and said he had come across 11 newborn puppies and
their mom back in October. The mom had puppies in the woods behind his house. She apparently has
died since then they haven't seen her in several weeks. He found homes for nine of them which we
hate but he didn't know about us then but because he can't have dogs in his house and because it's
starting to get very very cold outside he was really worried about what to do for these two
remaining puppies and he asked us if we could take them. We went and got them the next day and
this may step on some toes a little bit but what else is new with this podcast. I looked this guy
up on Facebook when I realized how close we used to live to each other and after combing through
his page I saw that he had been in prison, was out on house arrest, then paroled and now I guess
is free I assume and I find it so insane that a criminal a full-blown felon is taking in stray dogs
raising them finding homes for them worrying about them and their safety while we have literal mayors
and doctors and super important upstanding wealthy people driving past those very same animals in
need on the side of the road and not doing so much as swerving out of the way for them. This guy took
the time to research rescues and shelters in an area he's unfamiliar with just to ensure that these
two puppies would be taken care of. It is ridiculous to me how little people down here care about
animals. They can't even be bothered to ask their secretaries to pick up the phone and call us about
the animals they saw in need let alone stop and pick them up themselves and keep them safe until
we can get them. I'm getting heated I better stop. Oh that makes me so mad. The M mama and her five
impups were owner-surrenders. The mama, matcha, wandered up to someone's house when she was pregnant.
They were gonna keep her but decided last minute that they wanted us to take her so she could have
a better life. As much as I hate to say it we are a little picky when it comes to adult people so
we really want to make sure we test them and that we are sending good dogs. So when Jessica asked if
this one could go I told her we really needed to thoroughly test her and make sure she's a good good
girl. Jessica was going to see them the next day to see if the mama was even friendly enough to go
to a foster home down here for a trial run. She said she met her at the jeep wagging her tail and
jumped in her lap before she could even get her door all the way open. So while Jess was there
vaccinating everyone she thought one of the puppies was actually dead. It was crouched in the corner
of the yard it wasn't really moving and as she got closer to it she realized it was gnawing on a raccoon
head. The mama and the other puppies had been following Jess while she was walking over there
to check on this puppy so then they all wanted to turn chewing on the raccoon head. Then the mama
took the head and ran off into the woods and all the puppies were running as fast as they could
after hers. For a good portion of Jess's visit to this house she was standing alone in the yard
waiting for any of the dogs to come back. Luckily the mama is so insanely friendly that when Jess
started calling and clapping her hands she came running back and fortunately she still had the
head with her so everybody followed her too. Jess went back a day or two later to pick them all up
and take them to their foster homes and when she pulled up some of the puppies were playing tug-of-war
with the raccoon skin. Oh and when we got them settled at Mama Becky's to foster them one of
them threw up a whole mole like swallowed a mole hole and it just came right back up not a mark on
it so just something to think about before you let them lick you in the mouth.
The sea litter of a ugh I hate this story. So a lady messaged us one night about four adult dogs
which then turned into nine puppies. Turns out she was talking about two different houses we think
she was so crazy it was so hard to follow anything she was saying. The puppies belonged to her brother
and he was going to jail in a few weeks but apparently the puppies had to be gone that night
despite being there their whole eight weeks of life. We told her there was nothing we could do
that night but we would be working on a plan for them and we would get them in a day or two when
a foster home opened up. They live in the county so the city shelter which is a kill shelter wasn't
an option and no other rescues had any openings for them. Then the very next morning we get a text
from Animal Control with these exact puppies pictured at the shelter minus one puppy the
cutest one of course. He said some lady it was a different lady than the lady we had been talking to
brought them in and claimed she found them running around downtown. So I messaged the first lady back
and she said the puppies had quote been rescued but didn't even know for sure who had picked the
puppies up or where she took them. She did say that she gave away the cute one to someone else
and when we asked her what was going on with the adults and where they were she said her
brother had decided to sell them to make a little money before he left for a prison.
According to them they were purebred blue pitbulls I don't know if I believe that
but if it is true those dogs will be used to fight in a heartbeat and that makes me sick.
The L letter of four so a rescue friend asked if we could take six puppies because she had no room
she had seen them in the Walmart parking lot with a free puppy sign. She told the lady that if she
could take them back home she would find a rescue for them and by the time she got back in touch
with her that night she had given two away. The owner promised not to give away any others and
thankfully she really didn't. The mama will be getting spayed in two weeks so there will be no
more free puppies for them to give away at Walmart. The B letter of six came from a family in a nearby
town. A mutual friend of Hope's asked her if she could get them into a rescue. She agreed and said
as long as they surrender the whole litter the rescue will pay to have the mama spayed.
Next thing we know the lady has given away the white one with blue eyes to a very young girl.
Hope told her that if she didn't get the puppy back that we weren't taking any of them
and sure enough the owner went and got it back that very same day. She held on to all of them
until transport. All six babies are Virginia bound and mama is getting spayed. The G letter of eight
are actually a litter of six and a litter of two and I think I refer to them as bottle babies
but I got my orphans mixed up. These were not bottle fed. At the end of November Hope got a text
from a friend asking if she knew anyone who could bottle feed two puppies. Her mom had passed away
and while she was at her mom's house cleaning out the house she found two puppies under the house
and later that day found the mama dog dead in the road after it had been hit by a car.
So Hope made a Facebook post asking if anyone had a nursing mama dog and someone reached out to her
saying that she had a mama and six puppies that were two weeks old which was approximately the same age
as these two orphans. She said that this mama had already nursed four extra puppies a few days ago
from another mama that had been killed but when they heard about yet another mama dog who was
distraught because all of her puppies had died they sent those four extra puppies over to be with
her. Y'all it is not even puppy season yet and we have so many nursing mama dogs. Anyway we sent
the two orphans to be with the new mama and she accepted them immediately never looked back took
them right in as her own. The owner of that mama asked if Wolf Trap would take her biological six
puppies when we took the orphans too and if you know me at all you know there are very few things
I love more than a mama dog taking in orphaned puppies so I was more than happy to help out this
sweet girl. Within the last few weeks Wolf Trap paid to have the mama spade she's gone to her forever
home and she is now the resident couch potato and very glad to be away from all them babies.
As for the cats it is slim pickings this time of year but we've got a few. Orange Spice was a
stray in town that somebody contacted our local cat lady about. She was just going to neuter him
and turn him loose but she said he was so sweet and friendly she hated to do that and asked if we
would find him a home instead. And can I just say there is not a more perfectly named animal in the
history of Wolf Trap transports than this one. He is an orange tabby named Orange Spice I mean
come on I know historically my names are atrocious but I have my days give me some credit with this
one. Pregnant cat Sencha pregnant cat Rose Hips the D litter of two and the A litter of two are
all coming from the same home the new fee house. There are not enough hours in the day to look
up all the animals we have taken from this home. I don't think any of them especially these kittens
that are on today's transport are related to any other litters. This lady lives on a dead end road
lay out in the county and takes in every single animal she sees. We take just about everything
from her and we spay and neuter what we don't the ones that she wants to keep but she is always
getting something new and it is almost always pregnant. That is all for today again all these
names on this transport are from the Elden Street tea shop. Her shop is in the Lake Anne Plaza in
Reston. They're closed Mondays and Tuesdays but they're open Wednesday through Sunday.
They also have a website where you can order teas to be shipped to you. They also do tea parties
and private events which are you kidding me a real life tea party is a dream. I wish we had a
place like this down here but we're too country to have nice things like that but make sure you
follow them on Instagram and Facebook at Elden Street Tea Shop to see all the cute pics that
they're going to post of our critters and so you can get updates on upcoming events that they have.
Snap a picture of your foster and their namesake tea if you go or if you order teas to your house
and make sure you post it either on the foster's page or just send it to me because I have to see
that. That is all for this week we have another transport scheduled for January 31st as well so
if you missed out on any of these cuties make sure you sign up for that one. We've got some
little bitties and some super cute healers on that one. Thank you all for your ratings your
reviews and subscribing to the podcast. Y'all will never know how much you mean to me. It's a ruff
life but someone's got to do it.