Welcome to Rough Life. Lordy, lordy, what a transport
this was. If you are new here, hi, welcome. I'm
Katie Keaton. My actual job is the transport
coordinator. I find all of the animals and then
send them all to you in Virginia. I have been
filling in this week as foster coordinator because
our interim foster coordinator is leaving us.
Tatiana has also been coaching the men's rowing
team, which is like above the collegiate level.
It's huge. And because she is so fantastic at
that and her team is doing such a great job,
I think they're going to nationals or something.
She unfortunately isn't going to be able to work
for us anymore, which is Super, super exciting
for her, but a super bummer for us. But anyways,
if it seems like things were super chaotic and
like the person you were talking to had no idea
what was going on, that's very accurate. Most
of the team, the Wolf Trap team was out all day
on Friday. So Dr. Burton texted me the login
user names and passwords at like 7 a .m. and
then said, I'll check in when I can tonight around
9pm. Good luck. So it was a lot of fun though.
I had a lot of fun getting to talk with so many
of you. It was great chatting with you. Also,
who in the world plans an intake for Easter Sunday
morning? What was Dr. Burton thinking? I don't
know. But something is going on. I'm getting,
I'm actually getting really upset. So, so many
of you are new fosters. You might not have joined
our fosters. private page on Facebook. If you
haven't, make sure you do that. That's where
I post all the time. I post all the time in there.
I'm always talking to our wonderful fosters in
there. But something's going on with the Facebook
algorithm. I've been noticing it for several
weeks and Dr. Burton just started noticing it
last week too with her posts. it's almost like
we're being shadow banned. It's so bizarre. So
because we're admins in this private fosters
page group we can see how many people see each
post. My post typically got between like 1 ,502
,000 views every single time. Every post I made.
Like, like a bad post was 1 ,500 views. But now
If I make a post, they get less than 100 views.
Less than a hundred people see my post. We have
like over 3 ,000 people in this group. Less than
a hundred of them see my post. Even that one
time when I did the at everyone, which I hate
doing. I hate the at everyone. I hate when I
get at everyone. And so I hate doing it to people
too. I've only done it one time. It was terrible.
But even when I did it, only a hundred and twenty
three people saw that post. That's insane. And
it's literally just mine and Dr. Burton's post
because someone else in the group made a post,
no pictures, no words, nothing. They just said
a few words in their post and 1 ,100 people saw
that post. It is so weird and it's so annoying
because I know that we have fosters out there
that can help and are wanting to help but they're
not seeing my posts and they don't know that
we need them. Also, just my transport. post with
like just the pictures where I post like here's
everybody coming up today not even asking for
fosters just showing who's coming my last one
got 66 views so if anyone anywhere has any ideas
on how to fix this please tell me I haven't had
any of my content deleted or banned by Facebook
so like my account shouldn't be in trouble or
anything it's just like They don't put it on
anyone's timelines anymore. I don't know. But
I know someone out there listening to this works
for meta. So please help me. But okay, so this
podcast really is not just for me to rant. It's
actually for me to tell you the background stories
for all of the animals that I have pulled. So
the theme for this transport, because we have
so many new people here, I'm gonna do the quick
spiel real quick. The theme for the transport
is a very broad theme and then every animal on
the van is named under that theme. So the theme
right now is love on the spectrum. All of the
animals on this van will have names from love
on the spectrum. This way we can say hey one
of the animals was really sick on the love on
the spectrum van. Anyone who has an animal with
a name from love on the spectrum like you need
to watch your animal make sure they don't come
down with anything, but each litter is named
with the same letter. So like the M litter of
five, they are all from the same litter, they
all have the same story. We do this so that we
can say like, hey everyone on the Love on the
Spectrum band was exposed to it, but the M puppies
are like the ones breaking with it, so you all
need to come into the hospital and get treated
immediately. So. That said, I don't say everyone's
names. If you have a single puppy that doesn't
have any litter mates, I do say that name, but
for everyone that is part of a litter, I will
not say every individual name. So like, C litter
of nine, not saying your puppy's names, you just
gotta listen for the C litter of nine. Okay,
anyways. The theme is love on the spectrum. If
you have not watched that show, do yourself a
favor and find the time to watch it. It is...
the funniest, most heartwarming feel -good show
there is right now. I don't want to give any
spoilers to anyone who hasn't watched it yet
and is thinking about doing it. But for those
of you who have, this most recent season when
one of the girls writes a song for the guy, you
know, you know the part that I'm talking about,
it's going viral right now. So even if you don't
watch the show, I'm sure that you've heard the
Boyfriend Forever song on social media. Anyways,
Justin, my husband. Justin and I are watching
it the other night. We've been fans of the show
since day one. We're watching it. And Justin
goes, aw, both those moms are crying. He looks
over at me and I am a puddle. Literally choking
back sobs. My t -shirt is wet with tears. I mean,
just boo hoo, ugly crying like it was my daughter
singing the song. Ugh. It is such a good show.
It's such a good song. I wish it was a hundred
seasons long. I follow all of them on TikTok.
I just, I love them all. Okay, Georgie Harris,
she is from our Alabama shelter friends. She
was found as a stray wandering the streets alone
when she was just barely six weeks old. The shelter
manager took her home and her six -year -old
daughter fell madly in love with her. She begged
and begged to keep this puppy, but her mom knows,
especially as shelter manager, that there's going
to be a ton of more animals that need to come
in and out of their home and that they can't
keep them all. So her daughter said that as long
as she went to Wolf Trap and not a different
rescue that she would let go and let. let us
take her. But I am actually super excited about
who is taking Georgie. If you listened to my
episode last week I talked about Mr. Jack who
fought so hard to get to foster young love. And
by fought so hard I mean he had to fill out a
few forms which all but killed him to do. He
could not handle how many forms Wolf Trap makes
you fill out. Anyways, he actually officially
adopted young love last week. on his birthday.
Is that not meant to be or what? They are a match
made in heaven and I am so happy for all of them.
But Mr. Jack also conned his daughter into fostering
with us too. She signed up as a bespoke for this
sweet little puppy and I am so pumped to have
more of Mr. Jack's family fostering with us.
Stay tuned for next transport when I try to convince
Mr. Jack's wife to foster too. Nikki Smith, Finnegan,
and the R puppy are all from Dr. Jamie. Dr. Jamie
was one of Dr. Burton's veterinary students when
she was teaching here at Mississippi State several
years ago. I say several years ago, but I mean,
it was probably like 15 years. It's been a long
time. They ended up becoming best friends and
are still really good friends to this day. Dr.
Jamie helps us out so much and in return, we
take all the animals that get dumped on her at
her clinic. Speaking of Dr. Jamie, I'm going
to tell y 'all a little embarrassing, not suitable
for work story that happened to me last weekend.
So if you have any little ears listening to this,
you may want to fast forward just a minute or
two. I can't believe I'm about to tell you all
this. We had a dog that had just been neutered.
He's not on this transport and I'm not gonna
tell you guys who he is because I don't want
that to deter anyone from fostering him in the
future. But he had just been neutered a few days
prior and Jessica, who is my slave slash volunteer
employee, she had just gotten to the doghouse
to feed and water him that morning and his pecker
was... Huge. I mean, I have never seen a pecker
this swollen in my entire life I just knew something
horrible had happened to him while he was there
by himself So because dr. Burton was away at
a wedding. I didn't want to bother her with it
So I sent a video of it to dr. Jamie and I'm
like oh my gosh look at this terrible thing that
has happened do you think it can wait until our
vet's open on monday morning or like should we
get him to the emergency vet right now like this
is this a for real emergency and sweet precious
wonderful innocent dr jamey wrote me back and
said The only swollen part that she saw was his
gland. It has like a really long scientific medical
name that she sent me, but I'm not going to embarrass
myself further by trying to pronounce it. She
said, um, that's the gland that gets swollen
when they are, um, stimulated. So I texted my
vet to see if we needed to rush a dog to an emergency
room on a Saturday morning. because he had a
boner. So that was fun. That was a fun time.
I told her that I would tell Jessica to dress
less prerocatively the next time she came over.
Who knew that that could actually happen to dogs
though? Not me. But anyways, so back to her pups.
Nikki Smith was found by the mail lady on their
route. She called the office and asked if she
could bring it in and they told her they don't
have any room for it because they're a veterinary
office not a shelter, and so they gave her the
number of a rescuer in their town and then that
rescuer immediately texted me to see if I would
take her. And apparently she was found wandering
in the road where there aren't a lot of homes
nearby so the mail carrier just picked her up
and she rode along with her in the mail truck
for the rest of the day. Finnegan was brought
in with another grown dog when they were wandering
along the highway. The other dog had her nails
painted pink, so they knew she belonged to someone,
and eventually they did find that owner, but
the owner was like, I have no idea who this puppy
is. So Dr. Jamie had posted them on Facebook
looking for their owners, and she wrote, does
anyone know who these dogs belong to? I commented
and I said, oh yeah, that puppy belongs to me.
You can just hold them until April 19th. Thanks.
And we all laughed. But then when no owner came
forward, Dr. Jamie texted me and was like, so
he really does belong to you now and I will keep
him until transport if you'll still get him on,
which of course we were happy to do. He's so
cute. So for the R puppy, it's actually unclear
if this one is male or female. Dr. Jamie told
me both and then she sent me his medical records
where like you can circle male or female. The
office staff circled both and then just put a
big question mark. So if you have Ronan, it means
it was a boy. And if you have Rachel, It means
it was a girl, but it is just one puppy and it
was an owner surrender. It was brought into one
of Dr. Jamie's low cost vaccine clinics by one
of her clients. And the owner said that he couldn't
keep it and wasn't able to find a rescue to take
it either. He had found it and in a ditch on
the side of the road. So Dr. Jamie told him that
she would get him in with us. he brought him
to transport today or her he he brought the dog
to transport today and he was the sweetest old
man ever he was like i just can't thank y 'all
enough for this i'm so glad that you're gonna
find her the best home so i'm really glad that
we were able to help him parry kim is an owner
surrender an older lady had two old dogs and
one of them died so she wanted to get a friend
for the one that she had left So she got it a
puppy and shockingly the half blind old yappy
dog was not happy about its new very energetic
little friend and the landlady, no the lady's
landlord was also not happy about this puppy
because she thinks it's a pit mix. I do not think
it has an ounce of pit in it but she thought
it was a bit mix. I think it's actually a boxer.
She said that she had been attacked by a pit
bull and she doesn't allow any on her properties
now. We told her that that little yabby dog was
way more likely to bite somebody than this sweet
little puppy, but whatever. The owner is very
thankful that we took her puppy and the landlady
is even happier. Maddie, now Kalen Parlow. This
girl's story got me and I don't get got. a lot
these days, but man, she is an owner surrender.
She's a two year old dog and they have had her
since she was four weeks old. She belonged to
a 72 year old woman who was evicted from her
home. Apparently they had been asked to leave
for quite a while and they didn't. So the landlord
showed up one day with the police and had them
thrown out and then changed the lock behind them.
So the other family members that lived with the
owner they left and they went to another family
member's house where they were all going to be
staying until they got a new home, but that family
member rented her home also and her landlord
didn't allow dogs. So the 72 year old woman didn't
have anywhere to take Maddie. She sat on the
porch of her evicted house with Maddie and cried.
for two hours while her teenage grandson, who
also lived with her, was frantically messaging
every shelter and rescue in the area to take
the dog. No one was open, no one even offered
to put the dog on a waiting list, nothing. I
just happened to be in town when I saw this message
and I told him that if he would bring her to
the dog house that I would take her home with
me that afternoon. So they loaded her up. I don't
even know what town they were in. I don't even
know if they were in Boomful. But they brought
her to the dog house and Jessica met them there.
She said the old lady was sobbing so hard she
couldn't even speak. I picked Maddie up that
night and I brought her back to Alabama with
me and I could just tell this dog was so well
loved and so well taken care of. Y 'all know
that I do not like southern owners. I think everyone
down here, literally everyone should have their
dog taken away and sent up north because no one
loves them like y 'all do. We have people all
the time talking about my dog is my whole world.
and they leave it tied up to a tree day in and
day out you don't have a dog you have a lawn
ornament what are you talking about so i have
very little sympathy for owners down here but
man i don't know if it's because i had a baby
recently or what but i've gotten so soft lately
I ended up reaching out to the owner that night
mainly just to send her pictures and let her
know that Maddie was with me in my home, settled
in and totally fine, but I was also trying to
get a gauge on like what her plan was for the
future, which is really hard to do. Like it's
hard to be like, how long do you plan to be homeless?
Like how do you ask that? So... She had fully
surrendered Maddie to us, so she was mine to
send to Virginia, but it was killing me. If she
thought that it was just going to be a few weeks
or a couple months, I was absolutely going to
hold her and foster care down here and give her
back to them once they got back up on their feet.
But after talking to the owner, she said she
doesn't have a car or a job or a house, and she
has no prospects of getting any of those things.
I cannot even imagine how. terrifying that is
how heartbreaking it is and to be I mean not
that that's old but to be that old you know and
homeless oh my goodness so awful so she said
she loved Maddie so much but she knew she wasn't
able to care for her like like Maddie needed
and I told her listen Maddie's my girl now. Okay,
no matter what I'm gonna make sure that she has
the best life and the best home and that we will
both Get updates on her for the rest of her life
so that we'll both know how loved she is She
cried I cried. It was awful But she is so thankful
and so appreciative for everything that we did
for her and Maddie. And then I gave her the contact
info for several places in the town that she's
moved to that will be able to help her hopefully
get back up on her feet. And Maddie, Maddie was
the best dog. We loved having her for two weeks.
Honestly, I think she loved my baby more than
me, but she was so sweet and so snuggly. Whoever
adopts her will have hit the jackpot. The L letter
of three were found as strays. A friend of Jessica's
and her elderly mother were driving down a deserted
county road and they saw these three puppies
lying on a couch on the side of the road. That's
something you don't see every day. Her mother
told her that she had too many dogs already and
she did not need any more. So she took her mom
home. and then she couldn't stop thinking about
the puppies so she drove back and they were still
out there sitting on the couch. So she loaded
them up and she took them to her mother's house
and put them in her mother's backyard. About
a week later though one of them started acting
a little sluggish and not eating so she took
it to the vet. and it was parvo another one got
sick a couple days later and then the third got
sluggish but not completely sick because she
had already started treating it by then she gave
them all fluids she did all the medication she
took such excellent care of them all the while
thanking us for all of our help even though we
had not done a single thing for her she even
paid for the entire vet bill i don't know why
she was thanking us but they have been doing
great these last few weeks just waiting for a
spot to open up on transport and Doing all the
things that three big puppies do in a backyard
while unattended The elderly mother is very ready
for them to go But the daughter is so thankful
that we are taking them and making sure that
they'll get loving homes She almost got a little
choked up today. I was like girl. You cannot
keep these puppies She's like, I know I'm just
so glad that they lived. I'm like I am too The
T letter of four is kind of a funny story, but
mostly sad. My mom was at her doctor's appointment
an hour away from home and she was telling them
that she found out that she had ascites. So my
mom has stage four cancer. If you're a new listener,
my mom has stage four terminal breast cancer.
And she found out because she thought she had
worms. She thought she had worms from puppies,
which of course she didn't. It's never worms.
None of you are in danger of getting worms. I
don't know why my mother thought that she had
worms. It ended up being stage four cancer, but
so she said, I thought that my ascites fluid
was worms because I foster puppies. And the doctor
was like, oh, you foster puppies. One of my employees
has a litter of really pretty puppies that she
needs a home for, so don't leave yet. So he leaves,
and when he comes back, he's like, oh, she knows
who you are. She'll just talk to you at church.
My mom was like, who? I don't even know who this
is. Two or three weeks went by. She never heard
anything. And by the time she texted my mom,
they were already eight weeks old. And she said
that they were itching really, really badly.
They had disappeared for a while. We still don't
know where they went or what happened to them.
But then they just ended up wandering back. The
mom of the puppies had wandered up as a pregnant
stray and she gave birth in their old barn but
then they went out there one morning when the
puppies were about four weeks old and the mom
was laying out there dead with all the puppies
curled up around her. We think she had been hit
by a car and then just made it back to her puppies
and just laid down. But once she sent us pictures
of the puppies we could tell that they had mange
and they were really itchy. So we gave her an
X card to give all of the puppies and then my
mom cleaned her pen after having the eight ringworm
White Pyrenees puppies from last transport and
she went to pick up these for the lady said that
they had been in her barn So we pictured like
a really nice horse barn But they were actually
under an old barn that had fallen in and we've
been having terrible storms So I know they've
had a miserable last few weeks. They're gonna
be so happy to get to your beautiful Virginia
homes. The C litter of eight are actually a litter
of nine now. They are owner surrenders. These
owners usually sell the puppies but when they
came out mostly black we knew that they would
have trouble finding homes for them. They were
selling them on Facebook for $25 so we asked
if we could take the puppies and spay their mom
instead. They said that we could have eight of
them. Now Y 'all know my spiel by now. If you
don't surrender your whole litter, I will not
spay your mama. Except when I make exceptions,
which is becoming too common. But this is not
the first litter that we've taken for this family.
I don't even think it's the second or the third
we've taken. And I know we all have feelings
about taking puppies from breeders and I am absolutely
the first person to tell you how terrible backyard
breeders are and why you should never ever support
them. but I will also tell you how important
it is to not burn the bridge with these people.
We have taken so many puppies from them that
weren't purebred so they couldn't sell them or
like one time the mom wouldn't feed them so we
took them and we bottle fed them and then she
just let them let us have them anyways My point
is they could absolutely get rid of all these
puppies in a heartbeat. They could take them
to Walmart and give them away for free. They
could put them on Facebook and sell them for
a couple bucks. They will never be stuck with
these puppies because they are so cute and they
are so fluffy. But because we keep a good relationship
with them, they let us have the ones that they
do and we can make sure that those at least go
to good homes where they're spayed and neutered
and not reproducing all over the place. So now...
She's not letting us spay the mom of this litter,
which is ridiculous, but she did ask if instead
we would spay the original mom of all the puppies.
So this is this mom's mom. This is the grandma
of these puppies. We have pulled puppies from
him from her before, so I am ecstatic that they
are letting us spay her now. We're actually setting
up the whole thing and taking her ourselves just
to make sure. it really gets done and they don't
change their minds or forget. So yes, it sucks
that they're breeding. It sucks that they don't
let us spay the parents every time. But because
we didn't burn the bridge with them after the
first litter, we've been able to take at least
two dozen puppies from them. And now they're
letting us spay the original mom. So I'm very
happy. But oh, so it was originally a litter
of well, OK, so it's originally a litter of 11.
They were going to let us have because they were
giving three away to their friends. Well, we
texted them this morning because we wanted to
make sure that everyone really did come and pick
up their puppy and they texted back and said
one person didn't. You can come get it on your
way to transport if you want. So we got nine.
Super excited. Super excited for that last little
one. The S letter of 11 are owner surrenders
the owner posted on Facebook that he had 12 puppies
to give away I messaged him and told him all
about wolf trap and asked him if he wanted me
to take them and spay the mom for him He told
me how to think about it for a few days So I
reached back out later and he told me he was
really surprised that he couldn't get rid of
them all so he said I Guess you can have them
He seemed very sketched out about the entire
concept of animal rescue so I'm hoping that maybe
we educated him a little bit and he feels a little
bit better but I know when I send him pictures
of everybody settled into their foster homes
he'll be really happy. The mom of these puppies
was hit by a car a few weeks ago and she was
killed so I offered to neuter the male, the father,
and he said He has a great bloodline, so I don't
want to neuter him. And these are hunting dogs,
so I thought maybe this was some championship
purebred. And he told me, and this is a direct
quote, I'm going to read you his text. Granddad
was Tring Walker that bred with German Shepherd,
which then came his dad. He bred a beagle red
bone mix, which then came the dad that bred the
female to these puppies. So mutts you you have
mutts This is not a bloodline you have mutts,
but at least he spelled bread correctly and not
like BREAD like bread that you eat which was
impressive. I gotta say This mama dog had 14
puppies and they gave away two before posting
the rest on Facebook when I saw it And they are
planning to keep the runt so fingers crossed
that I can convince him later to let me have
that one, too He said that they thought about
keeping all 12 of them at one point, but he was
afraid that food would cost too much. 12 puppies.
People are so dumb. The M litter of five are
from our Alabama shelter friends. They were originally
a litter of seven and were brought in as strays
in January when they were just teeny teeny tiny
five week olds. Another rescue committed to them
and was supposed to pull them several times but
never did and then eventually just ghosted the
shelter and never said anything. Then another
rescue came and they took one puppy. One puppy
out of a litter of seven. I cannot even imagine
doing that to the other puppies. Anyways, we
were going to pull the remaining six in March,
but right before transport they got super super
sick with coccidia. One of the puppies died,
but now that everyone is healthy and doing great
we are so excited to finally bust them out of
the shelter. Okay, as for the cats, listen, I
have been telling you crazy cat people for weeks,
just give me time and I will have a million.
Well, it is happening. It's happening right now.
We literally have 35 and six week old kittens
right now. I'm going to need so many kitten fosters
for the May 4th transport, so I hope y 'all are
ready. The bee litter of two, I'm gonna be real
with you. I'm not a cat person. I don't really
like cats. I'm super allergic to cats. I almost
brought that little white kitten home with me
today. I'm obsessed with him. He is so cute.
The bee litter of two are from our Alabama shelter
friends who we love. They were brought in without
a mama when they were just newborns and they
had to bottle feed them. The D family are from
the shelter too. The mama was brought in with
two male cats. She was pregnant and the person
bringing them in said that they were all strays
and he said someone on his road was killing cats
and had already killed two of the stray cats
that he was taking care of at his house and he
didn't want to see these get hurt too. And then
there's like everybody else which Like right
now in real time as I'm recording this I'm still
trying to figure out how I'm gonna separate this
litter and I actually don't think I am. I think
I'm gonna make them just a mom and 11 kittens
because they're all from the same place. So I
need to see if I have enough names for that because
I don't know if I have 12 J names. But I think
that's what we're gonna go with. I think I've
decided just now. So we'll see but they all have
the same story. So some of our fosters who have
absolutely no self -control Got a call about
a family needing help with cats and kittens All
of the animals were dropping like flies at their
house and they were trying to keep these from
getting killed So our fosters took two mamas
11 kittens and one male cat they weren't sure
which Kittens belong to which mama so they put
them all in a room together and just thought
you know like maybe they divide themselves But
then they realized one mama was kind of taking
care of all of the kittens and the other mama
wanted nothing to do with anyone So they ended
up splitting the litter in half and the kittens
that were eating well on their own came downstairs
with them with with the fosters and The mama
that was actually taking care of the kittens
then only had to take care of the five little
ones But then the next morning so that only left
the the mom who didn't want anything to do doesn't
want anything to do with anybody and the male
the next morning they found two newborn kittens
in the room with the adults so it turns out the
adult male was actually a pregnant female and
she refused to nurse the kittens or have absolutely
anything to do with them whatsoever so after
giving them some time the foster just ended up
starting to bottle feed them so 11 kittens and
one friendly mom are on transport today The other
mama and the tomboy turned pregnant female are
mean as a snake and they cannot touch them So
they will be spayed and then they'll be sent
to one of our barn homes where they'll just be
barn cats and Then we'll get the other two bottle
babies up on transport when they're older There
are also a litter of three kittens that I think
I will name names we are adding them last minute
and they do not have a tag on their crate I don't
actually even think I told dr. Burton about them
yet but it's fine they're super cute um they
are my stepfathers grandsons girlfriends cats
kittens try to say that five times fast they're
my stepfathers grandsons girlfriends kittens
they were a litter of four but she came home
from school one day and her dog had killed one
of them in her home so she is very happy to be
getting them out of there so that her dog will
stop trying to attack them and she's super excited
that we will spay the mama for free for her okay
that that is all the stories for this week i
think you guys all got an email saying that we
saved like 32 or 34 puppies because of you that's
not true because so many of you signed up and
humored me and my facebook please and my sobbing
we were able to save 38 dogs slash puppies and
22 cats slash kittens for a transport that almost
got cancelled because we didn't have enough foster
signed up Yesterday. Yesterday. That's incredible.
Y 'all are incredible. This was incredible. I
love you all. I'm so thankful for each and every
one of you for signing up and opening your homes
to my sweet precious babies. It's a rough life,
but someone's got to do it.