Hello friends, welcome to Ruff Life.
I feel like every episode I start off with like, oof, what a week.
But this was actually a really good week.
It took us until the very last minute to find enough fosters, but everyone is getting to
go plus two add-ons.
And things just really seem to be working out this week.
It is technically the night before transport though, so I am really hoping I didn't just
jinx it all by saying that and transport is going to be a disaster, but I'll keep you
posted.
I did not do the names this week, so you cannot come for me if you don't like your fosters
name.
This was all Jenny and Jacqueline, and I'm about 99% sure that they just made up some
of these names and an attempt to embarrass myself by pronouncing them, but jokes on them.
I will only be saying the first name for these animals, not these insane last names that
I have no idea how to pronounce.
The theme is Moss Universe, I guess that's an author.
Apparently, Wolf Trap North has enough time to read up there, which must be nice, while
we're down here covered up in puppies.
Okay, let's jump into the stories.
Wingspan has been in foster care since he was about six weeks old.
Maybe a week or two older than that, I'm not totally sure.
He was part of a litter of six.
Another rescuer asked one of their fosters if they would foster this litter of six.
They agreed.
A few weeks later, the rescuer came and they got the three females from the litter and they
sent them to a northern rescue.
And that was that.
Never came back for the three males, never said another word about them again.
The foster got them all of their vaccines, their monthly prevention, neutered them with
her own money, and has been trying to find other rescues to take them.
Unfortunately, by the time she realized she even needed to be looking for other rescues
and that the girl had just dumped them on her, they were already six months old, which
is considered adults in the rescue world and everybody knows it is significantly harder
to get adult dogs into rescue.
So she has had them since February 2024.
Now, why are we taking one?
Well, last November, maybe October, I don't totally remember.
Someone found the cutest mangy beagle, so can wet walking down the road.
They posted it on Facebook looking for a rescue.
I had absolutely nowhere to put her, no open fosters, no way to bring this contagious dog
home with my eight month old baby.
But people kept tagging me in it because anyone who knows me knows that I love beagles and
I love mange dogs.
A mangy beagle is my kryptonite.
Well I made the comment on the post saying any of my people who were all the ones tagging
me, any of my people that found someone to foster this dog until it could go to Wolf
Trap would get a one time free pull anything you want card.
So you find a foster for the beagle and I'll send whatever half dead, heartworm positive,
vicious, two legged, no eyeballs, dog aggressive, chihuahua.
I was gonna say pit bull but honestly a chihuahua is way scarier than a pit bull.
So immediately after commenting that I deeply regretted it because there was no telling
what in the world I was gonna end up having to take.
Lucky for me, wingspan's foster instantly texted one of our rescue partners and asked
her to ask me if I would take this super sweet heartworm negative already neutered a dog
friendly cat friendly kid friendly all around perfect dog for her.
If she fostered the beagle for me, it was a no brainer total win win for me.
So I agreed and that night my main g beagle who went on to be Trixie on the January 31st
cutesy name transport, she was safe and sound, warm and dry, being treated for mange and
so happy.
Then I found out there were two more brothers of this dog that I was agreeing to take.
Now not once has this foster even hinted around asking me to take the other two and take all
three of them.
She knew from the start that the deal was for one dog and one dog only.
But how can I hear a story like this?
Know that this foster has put so much of her own time and money into these dogs and not
help her.
So wingspan is the only one going today because we don't want to overwhelm and overcrowd the
wolf trap system with three huge adult dogs.
But the foster is bringing all three of them to transport and I'm going to send the two
brothers into our foster care down here until there's room up north for them.
She has certainly paid her dues and saved the life of our sweet baby Trixie who by the
way went on to be a foster fail almost immediately.
So we are very happy to be helping her.
Queen of Shadows is our current best girl.
We call her Maddie down here.
I posted her story on the Fosters page but here's a quick recap.
We got a message on Facebook a few weeks ago from someone who saw this before and after
post that we did on the B2Cast page for newbies and first time listeners.
B2Cast is the boom full second chance animal sanctuary.
It's the local rescue that I'm on the board of that pulls and fosters animals down here
before they go to Virginia.
So this guy saw our post we did of the 2024 animals and all the horrible before pictures
and then the amazing after pictures and the wonderful stories and he said seeing that
post made him realize how much better off the stray dog in his yard would be with us
and like how good her life could be.
So he sends us a message saying there's a dog that lives in the drain pipe in his front
yard.
It's like the dead of winter 10 degrees and lower we're getting massive amounts of snow
for our area.
So we asked him to send us a picture and he sent us the most pitiful naked mangy girl
ever.
We had not one corner of a closet that we could stick her in at the time but we rushed
out there with next guard which if you didn't know is the only thing that you need to treat
or prevent mange and a ton of food and then we promised to come back as soon as the next
transport left.
Well transport leaves a few days later and Jessica literally sprints out there to get
her and she's nowhere to be found.
The man hadn't seen her since the day before he had no idea where she was and it wasn't
until like four or five more days that she just showed back up and luckily he held on
to her that time and Jessica raced out there to get her.
She took her home she got her all set up in her dog pen outside with this super cozy blanket
and this real big nice dog house and Maddie was in heaven for two days.
It lasted two whole days and then she realized when Jess leaves every time she goes into
a nice big house with other dogs and cats and Maddie was not about to be left out.
So she dug and clawed her way out of that kennel completely bloodying her fragile little
face and ran out to Jessica's front door like okay let me in too.
But Jess has a Chihuahua from hell who who who may or may not be the reason I say Chihuahuas
are scarier than pipples.
Sorry sugar.
She usually keeps all of her fosters outside so that sugar doesn't eat them but Maddie
was just too sweet and too pitiful to put back outside so she brought her in and Maddie
instantly became a couch potato full on lap dog assumes anytime you sit or lie down that
you're inviting her to come cuddle with you and I know you're thinking like what you couldn't
take the mange beagle because she was contagious and you were worried about your baby but Jess
is cuddling this mange dog on her couch.
Well that's because there's actually two types of mange.
The first type of mange is of the devil it is horribly itchy insanely contagious and
caused by tiny mites that burrow into your skin and crawl around.
It's also called scabies like for people it is horrible and Demodex mange is itchy but
not nearly as bad not at all contagious between other dogs or animals or people and it only
affects dogs with poor immune systems so a mite that lives in the hair follicles of
dogs will overpopulate and the dogs immune system isn't able to get it under control.
So they're treated and prevented with the same thing a single neck scarred pill so it usually
doesn't matter which one it is we don't bother taking them to the vet for a skin scrape to
tell us which one because we just give them a neck scar regardless.
But because Maddie was so desperate to get inside Jessica's body she went ahead and just
took her to the vet to find out if she was contagious or not so they scrape off the skin
and the hair follicles in a few spots and look at it under a microscope to see which
might it is and lucky for Jessica it was Demodex.
We really had no problem fostering Maddie longer until she grew back more hair and would
be more adaptable but sugar might have killed her in her sleep if she stayed until the next
transport so for her safety it was best that she left plus we knew she would be so much
happier in Virginia anyways.
Elaine was a stray she wandered up to someone's house several weeks ago they are from up north
so they immediately assumed that she was someone's pet and she was just lost so they took her
in they fed her they kept her safe while they looked for this distraught and loving owner
of course there was no one looking for her so they had her for several weeks and then
they told someone that they were going to take her to the shelter in their town so that they
could find her a home and the people said they're not going to find her a home they're
going to euthanize her in a matter of days so the owners were horrified I I actually don't
know that they ever even did anything to find a rescue to take her they never posted her
on Facebook but someone else in a different town with a different dog who they do not
know in any way shape or form posted about a dog they were looking to find a rescue for
and when we commented on that post offering to take that dog that was a doodle by by the
way this lady pounced on us begging that we take this puppy for her to which we didn't
really want I mean she's cute she's fine I'm happy to take her but she was an hour away
from us and we didn't have a foster for her but like how bad how bad would that have made
us look if we were like yes we will take this doodle that everybody and their mothers would
also take but this cute little lap puppy that's 60 miles from here no thank you so of course
we agreed to take her and we went out and vaccinated her a few days later and again
the lady was like are you sure she's not just going to get euthanized but we told her all
about wolf trap and she felt so much better and she agreed to keep her for us until transport
so she's supposed to bring her tomorrow and I'm kind of wondering if she's even going
to show up tomorrow or if she's just going to say she loves her too much and she has
to keep her we shall see nesta okay okay so you know how I tell you all the time how we
have group names or like wolf trap south names for animals so that we down here know and
remember who we're talking about so like Kirk mama came from dr. Kirk's office and the
washer machine litter came from the house with 100 washer machines in their front yard
feral carol was the puppy that was feral that we got from carol okay you get it well poor
little nesta she might have the worst name ever we call her butt dog but but yes anytime
we are talking about her down here we lovingly refer to her as butt dog and that is because
we got a call about her several weeks ago and they said that something might be wrong
with her rear area and then they sent us a picture of her and she had a full on prolapsed
rectum hanging out of her it was gnarly like hanging out a good inch and a half so we told
her take the puppy to the vet when they open first thing the next morning and we'll pay
for everything and then we'll just pick her up from there when it's all done so the vet
got her all put together and stitched back up and we were a little worried because we
had a prolapsed rectum dog a few years ago who we were all just madly in love with but
every time they would take her stitch out her rectum would just immediately fall right
back out so after months of trying and trying so many different things we had to put her
to sleep and it gutted us so we were all holding our breasts when butt dog got her stitch out
of course she would not have gotten the name butt dog if she wouldn't have made a 100%
recovery and been totally fine we would have named her like beautiful baby butt dog or
something if she had to be euthanized it would have been a lot sweeter but she's been with
us for over a month just to be sure it wasn't going to fall out again she is doing so great
the vet said that she had an extremely heavy worm load which caused her to have massive
diarrhea and that's what caused the prolapse rectum that's what causes most prolapse rectums
to the intense diarrhea she spent the majority of her time in Jessica's foster shed but last
week she was finally healthy enough and vaccinated enough to go to doggy daycare and she has
had a ball playing with everybody I bet she is going to sleep the entire first half of
the foster period when she gets up there Bryce or Millie as her owners called her she is
an owner surrender they adored her but unfortunately when their landlord found out that they had
her he told them that he was raising their rent $100 a month if they didn't get rid
of her and the owners are very young and definitely couldn't afford that especially after just
buying a silver lab puppy so they asked their best friend who is one of our new rescue partners
if she would take her and find a rescue she posted her on Facebook and we nabbed her up
okay the d letter of two if you are looking at the two of them right now I know you think
that I have lost my mind calling them a litter of two they are in no way related but they
are from the same home with the same story so it is just easier for everyone if they
have the same name that starts with the same letter one is a Yorkie one is the Boston Terrier
oh and they are from the same rescue partner as Bryce but not from the same house at all
okay I'll be honest I don't even totally understand the story I'm about to tell you but I'm going
to start at the beginning and tell you what I know and how it all played out so this is
a new rescue and they posted some pictures of dogs in terrible living conditions one
of the dogs at the home was dead in the photo it was dead it had clearly been dead for quite
some time it got shared all over Facebook people were all up in arms about finding out who
did this and demanding justice and who was going to help these babies and and then the
posts were all deleted and it was like it was just all done I was very busy that day
that it happened so like I didn't read the comments or find out like what was going on
it also I didn't pay much attention to why it was deleted about a week later this rescue
posted the Yorkie on Facebook looking for a rescue I told her we'd be happy to take
her and then she asked me if we take the Boston to again it's like so many baits and switches
in the rescue world but like we're not cherry pickers so we're gonna take the Yorkie and
you know take the Boston to we're not just gonna leave one so I said we'll take them
both we're not gonna leave anybody behind and when I asked what their story was and
where they were from she said they had an elderly owner who passed away and left all
their dogs behind and then I started thinking so I said are they from the same home as the
dead dog that you posted about she said yes but like that was she just said yes like she
was like yes let me tell you the story so when my mom met her mom because that's what
we do in the rescue world we make our mothers do all of our running around my mom met her
mom to pick up the dogs and take them into our foster care so she found out more of the
stories so come to find out the owner had multiple dogs outside and I think four dogs
inside total I don't know I'll come back to that put a pin in that so she died her son
lives in California and he didn't want to deal with rehoming all the dogs so he rented
out the mom's house to somebody and told them part of their rent was taking care of all
of these dogs I have a lot of thoughts about that but I'll keep it to myself I don't know
how long the tenant lived there I don't know if the son slash landlord knew that he left
or if he just stopped paying rent and walked out I don't know but somehow the dog in the
kennel went without food and water for so long that it passed away the dogs in the yard were
able to forge for food and water and survive but they were super skinny and very malnourished
and the dogs in the house were able to survive I guess on just whatever food was left behind
for them or just people food apparently the tenant is in jail right now currently maybe
for this animal cruelty charge I don't know or maybe he went to jail and that's why the
dog died I don't know I don't know a lot of this but when the post went around people
looked up who owned the home and started blasting the homeowner the landlord in the comments
calling him this animal killer and this terrible person and I guess when they found out it wasn't
technically his fault they just deleted the post according to the rescue the outside dogs
are feral I don't know if that's like legit feral and they just need to be trapped new
to released or if they're just scared until you catch them and then they're the sweetest
dogs you've ever met but regardless I told her since we were taking the two super cute
super adoptable small dogs that we would pay to have two of the outside dogs spayed or
neutered when they're caught and if they're not feral well of course take them to and
I didn't understand if she meant there were two more little dogs inside or if there were
two little dogs inside and they're the two that we took I'm pretty sure that they were
the only two inside they're the only two in the pictures that were posted but I told her
after everything is all said done and everybody's caught send me a headcount let me know who's
vicious and who's friendly and we'll see what else we can help with but in the meantime
we also gave her a ton of supplies that meds and we committed to seven animals total in
her in her rescue so she is very grateful for us right now they're still trying to catch
the outside dogs I guess the owner is kind of being a jerk now which is why I'm not so
like oh I understand why you're renting out your mother's home and asking the tenants to
take care of the dogs I think I think he's kind of a jerk he told them that all of the
dogs had to be gone by end of the day today Friday but one he's in California what is
he gonna do about how how are you enforcing this they have to be gone or what you're gonna
fly out here no you're not and two if these actual legit rescuers who know how to trap
dogs can't trap or catch them how is this a random guy from California gonna just stroll
up catch them and haul them off somewhere what you're not even like where are you gonna
take them I don't know I don't know a lot of things about these two and their story
but at least we've got them now and they're safe and I'll keep everyone posted on the
other dogs I am I am certain that we will end up taking more from this situation the
S litter of two are our last minute add-ons Jacqueline didn't think that we were gonna
have enough fosters for everyone on my list this week but we did by the skin of our teeth
and so to celebrate I asked her if I could add two more these two were picked up by animal
control earlier this week a guy called the animal control officer on Friday asking him
to come get them and animal control tried to put it off because that's just what he
does but then the man called back on Monday and said that the puppies were pooping in
his yard and he wanted them gone by the end of the day how dare these puppies poop in
his yard so animal control had to go get them and then Jessica went and got them the next
day because we don't like to leave puppies at the shelter one because it is a kill shelter
but two they are at risk of getting or spreading parvo so we like to get them out as soon as
possible every time the M litter of two are from one of our longtime fosters she got a
text from one of the assisted living homes where she works saying that there were three
puppies huddled against the side of the building on one of those like mornings when it was
in the teens outside so she went to get them and she could only find two no one ever saw
the third one again so I don't know if they miscounted originally or if one of those old
ladies there has a puppy that she snuck in her room our foster has had them for several
weeks now she had them during the week that we had sub zero when chills and of course
they were inside with her but her chihuahua who is not a demon chihuahua is actually a
sweet chihuahua her chihuahua was super old and was dying so she rotated that whole week
sleeping on the couch with the puppies and then back in bed with the dying chihuahua
to try and keep everybody happy and quiet and calm during the night sadly her chihuahua
did end up passing away but it was like literally like 20 years old it was insanely old um it
passed away a few days later but the puppies really helped take her mind off of everything
and she was really glad to have them during that time the tea litter of three are owner
surrenders a man was giving them away in the walmart parking lot and a lady just took them
all so that they wouldn't fall into the wrong hands and then she went inside and chewed
out the manager for allowing this in the parking lot because it is technically illegal if you
see someone trying to sell or give away animals in the walmart parking lot it's illegal I
don't think they do that I don't think anybody listening lives in a place where they do that
but it is illegal just FYI she moved down here from up north so again is horrified by
the southerners treatment of animals she has a really bad back and she walks with a brace
but she still kept these puppies inside in a room away from all of her other animals
and she has taken fantastic care of them she is very thankful that we are taking them and
we are very thankful that she saved their lives the r litter of three are from our bottle
feeder foster their mom was hit by a car and killed and the owner posted them on facebook
needing someone to take the newborn babies there were eight when our foster went and
got them but by the time that they were able to get them the lady had been at work the
five of the puppies had gone so long without milk that they ended up passing away within
the next few hours these three have done great though the a litter of eight are also from
our bottle feeder foster but they did not bottle feed these actually they still have
the mama of this litter and we're hoping to center in the next few transports our foster
unfortunately fosters for other rescues as well which we hate for a lot of reasons but
the least selfish one is because we can't keep good track of like what diseases or viruses
or sicknesses the other fosters have that they may spread to ours or vice versa thankfully
she mainly does newborn babies who don't have anything to spread so we've been really lucky
so far anyways another rescue posted this mama who was just absolutely skin and bones
and nine super skinny and pitiful puppies our foster of course opened her home immediately
to them one of the puppies was doing so bad that they thought it was dead when they got it so they
brought it inside bottle feeding it worked on it day and night trying to get it back to health it
ended up somewhat recovering but it still seemed pretty off and they actually have a really good
friend who specializes in special needs dogs and so she adopted that one so there were eight puppies
left the rescue that they were fostering for was hoping to send all of these puppies and the mom
to a northern rescue in the beginning of january when they were all still nursing but it's been
almost three months now and the rescue cannot find anyone to take them all of their northern
partners are shut down right now they they actually told my foster that they would pay to have them
all spayed and neutered if the foster would just keep them all keep eight puppies and a mom like
keep them forever that is so mind-blowing to me that anyone would ever suggest that to anyone there
there is no one that needs eight puppies from one litter and a mom forever so
when our foster dropped off the pee litter mama and her puppies last transport that they were
fostering for us she mentioned how amazed she was by how many moms and puppies that we were able
to send on transport that day because she saw the other mom was loaded on the van already
that's when she said she's been fostering a mom and puppies for another rescue for 10 weeks
and she might just have to keep them forever so when i told her to ask the rescue if she would
if the rescue would be okay if wolf trap took them she said she wants me to keep them forever
she asked me so if i'm the owner now i'm saying i'm sending them to you so we're still tbd on the mom
i hope that we'll get to send her in the next few weeks but they are going to decide if they do want
to keep her forever or not and if the rescue is okay with us taking her i think they paid to have
her spayed already so they might just want her because they invested money in her i'm not sure
we're hoping to get her though um but that's two fosters now that are going to be so insanely happy
tomorrow because we are taking their long term fosters that they were potentially going to
be stuck with forever but because of wolf trap not only are the dogs going to be happy and find
forever homes but these people are going to be so so happy and they're going to have room to
foster even more now and that is just reason number 59 million why wolf trap fosters and
adopters are the best ever the c letter of eight are owner surrenders a family moved and left behind
their pregnant dog after the puppies were born the mom and the puppies made their way over to a
neighbor's house she reached out to us saying she didn't have enough money to care for nine puppies
now that they were eating dog food and she needed us to take the puppies she asked us if we would
take the mom too and said that it just broke her heart to get rid of her but she can't afford to
spay her and she can't afford to take care of the puppies that she will keep having so when we told
her that we would pay to spay the mom for her since she was surrendering the whole litter she
almost cried unfortunately the afternoon that we went to get them the owner sent us a text saying
that one of the puppies had been attacked by something a few days prior and when she took
it to the vet that morning the vet had to euthanize it because it was so sick and so infected and
suffering so badly that he didn't think there was any chance of it surviving he said he didn't know
what attacked it he didn't think that it was a litter mate because it was a lot of damage
and he didn't think that it was the mom because the other puppies would have had some sort of
damage too probably so we're wondering if it was like a coyote i don't know maybe it was a raccoon
i don't know something big got a hold of it though there are no kittens this week because there are
no kittens anywhere in the south right now i i object with all of our partners no one has
kittens i'm not even kidding we have one mama with newborn kittens at the alabama shelter but
they all are super sick with an upper respiratory infection and i was afraid that transport would
just be too much stress on them and would make them sicker and then everyone else is an adult and
nobody this round wanted to foster any adult cats but hang tight my kitten cravers we will be
slammed with kittens in about three weeks and i will be begging every one of you to foster one
or ten so so please please don't leave us i will have as many kittens as you want in a few weeks
that is all the stories for this week but i did want to do a little update on a previous story
i know you guys love when i tell you super sad stories going on down here that have nothing to
do with wolf trap when i was telling you the d letter of four story on the cutesy name transport
so that was like dear darling doll face dream maybe it was dream i don't know um they were on the
january 31st transport i mentioned that we had helped this owner previously and i fostered his
dog for him while he was in prison this is also the home where Homer for the holidays came from
well Jessica went to pick up the d letter mama and take her to her spay appointment
and the owner told her that that little dog that i fostered for him was murdered
literally murdered in cold blood oh my gosh he said he had a squabble
he said he had a squabble with his neighbors a few weeks ago and he beat one of them up
and they retaliated by killing his dog they stabbed the dog to death i am so horrified and
i am so sad like he was feral and he bit me and i was not i was not at all happy about keeping him
but we ended up being best friends by the time he left and i loved him and the owner who is very
clearly a very hot mess he did take such good care of his dogs especially that little guy and i know
how much he loved that dog he was like a little corgi mix i am so upset just gonna tell me about
it earlier today and i've not stopped thinking about it since i'm sad for the owner i'm devastated
for the dog i'm horrified that there's people like this in our sweet little town this whole thing is
so awful so on that note thanks for listening sorry we're ending it on such a bummer um we do
have another transport coming just seven days from now it is next saturday so let me know if you
need help signing up for that because we have got some insanely cute puppies coming on that transport
and you are not going to want to miss out on them it's a Ruff life but someone's got to do it