Hello, friends. Welcome to Rough Life. What a
weekend. Okay, before we really get started,
I've got my alarm set to go off in just a little
bit so that I'm not late to transport. So if
you hear an alarm going off soon and I keep talking,
transport's probably gonna be late. I never thought
I would say this, but I actually miss the old
house and how our office was in the garage because
it was so quiet. With that being said, at the
new house where we're in now, our office is right
off of the great room, the living room. If you
hear any squealing or talking, Mary Sue is in
that room with Justin and Justin's parents while
they try to help him fix a few things in there.
But so this weekend we needed roughly 80 fosters,
and I am not exaggerating. I know I'm known to
exaggerate, but we needed about 80 fosters this
weekend. We had some animals that needed fosters
that weren't able to attend the adoption event.
We had 15 puppies attending the adoption event
today that we needed backup fosters for in case
they weren't adopted, which eight of them were
adopted, hooray. then we have 35 puppies coming
up on transport leaving today arriving tomorrow
so we needed 35 fosters for that and 24 kitten
fosters. I'm pretty sure in my email I say 20
kittens but we were able to save 24 kittens thanks
to so many people signing up. I'm also super
super excited to share if you have been following
along with the never -ending foster coordinating
story it is finally coming to a very happy end.
Melissa is coming on full time with us. She's
been part time this last month, but she's coming
on full time to be our foster coordinator. I
literally cannot wait. If you're new here, our
last foster coordinator just stopped. just stopped
one day. It was the day of transport in the beginning
of April and she just stopped talking to Dr.
Burton, stopped talking to me, didn't answer
any fosters, just left. We didn't even have enough
fosters for transport and she didn't tell us.
It was the absolute weirdest thing that I have
ever seen because I really liked her before that.
I thought she was great. So We were so confused
and we were so worried about her that Dr. Burton
literally found the girl's mother's phone number
and was going to call her to make sure that the
girl hadn't like died because we couldn't believe
that an actual full grown adult would just ghost
on a job that they had been doing for over a
month. But no, that's that's exactly what she
did. So that left us without a foster coordinator,
a ton of puppies needing to go on transport and
no one to coordinate anything. So like the next
day, Dr. Burton was leaving to get on an airplane
and literally just gave me all the login information
and passwords and said, good luck, make transport
happen because we can't afford to close down
until we get another foster coordinator in here.
And while I admit it has not been pretty at sometimes.
We got her done. We have gotten a foster for
every single animal that has needed to have a
foster since beginning of April. It has been
chaotic and crazy, but it has been so fun getting
to know all of you and send you these sweet,
sweet babies. But I am really happy to be passing
the torch to Melissa, whose life I have already
threatened if she ghosts us too. No, I think
she's gonna be great, and I think she's really
excited about this too, so I'm super happy. As
for me, I am just the transport coordinator,
but I will finally have time to go back to fighting
with my robots. If you are fostering this round,
you already know, but for those of you who are
just tuning in for the stories, which by the
way, I don't know if I've ever even said this,
we get about on average 300 listens every episode
and typically only have about 40 individual fostering
people. So thank you so much to those of you
who listen just to listen. Anyways, things have
been going really well with the robots -ish.
The company has been helping me tweak them here
and there whenever I have time to think about
them and jot something down to them. But today,
out of the clear blue, the robot texted, I think,
every single person that signed up to foster
tomorrow and canceled them. cancelled all of
my fosters, all of the fosters that I have spent
the last literally two weeks confirming, cancelled
them. I have absolutely no idea what happened,
why it happened, what is happening. So I frantically
texted every single person that was signed up
and told them not to listen to anything any robots
say ever. And to please come to intake in the
morning because we do need them. So insane. I
clearly have a lot of work to do because it's
not fun potato breed puppy mistakes anymore.
It's your appointment has been canceled. We no
longer need you. Mistakes now. Like this, this
is serious. Okay. I am running out of time. I
have literally, I told Justin, I was like, I've
got 15 minutes to record a 20 minute podcast.
Let's go. So let's get to the stories. The theme
is Toy Story and shout out to Melissa for doing
the names for me this week. I am loving getting
a break from naming everybody. Although I did
do the eye litter names, so you're welcome. Eye
litter fosters. One of them is named I'm Trash
and I cackle every time I think about it. If
you haven't seen Toy Story, he's like... a fork.
His name's Forky. He's a fork that is literally
made out of garbage and like his only line in
the whole show is, I'm trash. But it's a beautiful
kitten that I gave that name, so she'll be fine.
Okay, Jessie was found in the middle of a lane
on a four lane highway by one of our rescue partners.
She almost didn't even stop because she thought
it was way too small to even be an animal, but
luckily when she drove past it, she saw it was
a puppy and she stopped immediately to get her.
She actually wasn't scheduled to be on transport,
but we had enough fosters that we were able to
pull her early So shout out to all of you guys
Mrs. Potato Head and her brother were seen being
thrown out of a car while they drove down the
road It was actually my mom's friend who saw
that and we've pulled animals from her before
so she stopped grabbed them up and called my
mom to see if we could help but before my mom
could even answer her, she wrote back and said
that her mom had fallen in love with the male
puppy, the brother, and wanted to keep it, but
she still needed us to take the little girl,
which we happily did. Gabby Gabby was posted
by one of my friends as free to a good home on
Facebook, so you know I snatched her up. All
she told me was she found her She was found on
the side of the road near her brother's house
her brother saw her took her home and then realized
he was not equipped to take care of a puppy and
Brought her to my friend's house and left her
Forky was found on a back road alone in the pouring
rain He had super bad mange when we when we first
got him and he was almost bald, but he's looking
a lot better now The D litter of three are from
Jessica's cousin. He called her after the last
transport about a couple of dogs in the woods
behind his apartment and one of them was constantly
crying. So I had Jessica type up what she wanted
me to say and this is what she said. She said,
I had just finally sat down and was about as
tired as I've ever been in my life. You can leave
that part out but it might be needed for the
people who are gonna wonder why I left a dog
crying in the woods. So I told him I couldn't
do anything immediately and I got there a couple
days later after he brought the supposed injured
dog inside. Turns out there was actually three
dogs and all of them were puppies and all of
them just whine and bark a lot. Although we did
take one of them, the quote unquote injured one,
to the vet and he basically just said growing
pains because it's such a big puppy. They are
big and boisterous and really looking forward
to life outside Jessica's kennel. And she said
they do stop barking and whining when they get
a little bit of attention. So hopefully they
will be great with you guys. The P letter of
five are from one of our fosters. She has a neighbor
that does not take care of his animals at all.
And when she asked him if she could try to get
these puppies into the rescue, he said, no, he's
just going to give them all away. Well, then
he couldn't give them all away. He was only able
to give two away. And she finally talked him
into just letting us have them. She thinks that
she's also convinced him to let us spay the mama
dog, which I don't you guys know. I don't usually
agree to spay your mama dog if you give away
some of the puppies because a that defeats the
purpose and b I need to threaten you a little
bit to give me all of the puppies but he had
already given them away and this guy does not
take care of his dog and he's been super against
getting her spayed so if he will agree to it
I told her I'm more than happy to get her spayed.
The bee family, oh my goodness, they are so sweet.
So we took a litter of puppies from this lady
about six months ago. It's the house that we
refer to as the tetanus house because you'll
feel like you need to get a tetanus shot by the
time you leave there. It is so rundown and junky.
Literally, Jessica didn't even think she was
at the right place because there was no way anybody
could live here. Anyways, we took the puppies
and we got the mom scheduled for an appointment
to get spayed. three different times. The first
time the owner overslept and then apologized
and was like, I'm so sorry, can we get another
appointment? The second time she just went AWOL
and we didn't hear from her for a whole week.
Turned out she was in jail. I don't remember
what happened. And then the third time she just
stopped communicating with us and we had to pay
a $50 fee because our vet was sick of us calling
every morning of her appointment and saying,
uh, they're not coming. which we don't blame
the vet at all for that. We absolutely should
have been charged a $50 holding fee, but we're
still annoyed with the girl that we had to pay
that because of her. So then a couple of weeks
ago, she messaged us saying that she was getting
kicked out of her house and she needed us to
take the mom and her newest litter of puppies.
But she was only going to give us six out of
the eight because she was going to keep two of
them, which you can imagine how well that went
over with me. And now we have all eight puppies
and the mom, because that's insane. That's literally
insane. The T letter of 6 are from our wonderful
Dr. Jamie. She was Dr. Burton's student when
she taught at Mississippi State who turned out
to be her lifelong best friend. Now we help Dr.
Jamie out whenever she gets animals and she helps
us with low -cost surgeries. She said one of
her clients brought these puppies in a couple
weeks ago and said that their neighbor stole
the mama dog and she knows this because they're
on drugs super bad. and are always trying to
steal things to sell for drug money. So they
ended up just keeping the mama despite never
taking care of her and the neighbor is constantly
just putting food and water out for the mom.
The mom actually came up to her house, the neighbor's
house, to give birth to the puppies because there
was literally no place for her to do it at her
actual home. And then she just never went back
home. The neighbors haven't called to ask about
her or the puppies once and she loves her so
much so she is so happy to get to keep her but
obviously couldn't keep the six puppies. So she's
very happy that Wolfdrap will take the puppies
and get them the best homes and that we will
spay the mom for her. The S litter of eight were
found living in a washed out hole. If you haven't
seen the pictures of where they were found make
sure you reach out to me so that I can make sure
that you see them. It is so pitiful. Our rescue
partner Tasha got the call from someone riding
a four -wheeler on a gravel road that saw them
at the bottom of the ditch. The nearest house
was over five miles away. They dropped a pin
to the location and then rode away and just left
them there. Tasha actually got lost for about
half an hour trying to find them before she saw
their little heads peeking up. Okay, that is
all the puppies onto the kittens. Andy Davis
was found in someone's yard in town. They are
quote -unquote not animal people, so they put
it in a crate under a tree and had a friend post
it on Facebook for them. Unfortunately these
are actually really good friends of mine, all
of these people, so that's a bummer for me that
I don't have many animal people friends. The
E letter of three are owner surrenders from Jessica's
daughter -in -law's brother. She was visiting
with her son and her daughter -in -law at their
house yesterday, the day before transport, and
the brother was hanging out there too. And he
said he's got to go because he's got to get up
early in the morning because he had to take his
kittens to first Monday to try to give them away.
First Monday, if you didn't know, is an outdoor
flea market that happens once a month down here
that we are, not just we, Literally, the state
of Mississippi and all animal rights activists
are actively trying to shut down because it is
99 % stolen animals and puppy mill puppies. Literally,
animals will die in their crates at this event
because of how malnourished and not taken care
of they are. Like they are on death's door. So
this is where he was going to take his cats to
give them a life. And Jessica said, am I invisible?
So she asked if he would give them to her instead
and he said, yeah, I guess they'd be better off
with you. The sea litter of three are from a
friend of Jessica's that ends up with cats at
her house all the time. We have taken some kittens
from her before and we're really trying to help
her get everybody spayed there so she doesn't
have so many kittens. When this mama showed up,
she thought she was too old to have kittens.
and so she didn't bother getting her spayed and
jokes on her because she had three kittens and
we already have the mom scheduled for a spay.
The W litter of three are from Jessica's daughter
-in -law, kind of. She works at a coffee shop.
in a nearby town and when she first started there
she said there was a mama cat and a litter of
kittens. People would go through the drive -through
and just pick up a kitten and take it home along
with their cappuccino. It was in another county
and we were swamped so it just kind of fell through
the cracks and we were hoping that the animal
control in that town would deal with it. Well
then a couple months ago she said that the mom
was pregnant again and she still had two teenage
kittens from her last litter that no one had
picked up. So we trapped the two teenagers and
had them spayed and neutered and sent back because
they were very unhappy as indoor cats. I mean
like you had to like... look over your shoulder
and make sure they weren't about to kill you
if you walked into the room that they were in.
So they are... back as feral cats at this coffee
shop. The mama ended up taking her babies under
an apartment building next door and we couldn't
get them until she started bringing them back
out about a week ago. There were four kittens
but we only have three. Mama was just taken in
yesterday actually to get spayed and she will
go back to being a coffee house cat with her
teenage kiddos in a few days. The L letter of
four were found in somebody's yard out in the
county. They had a stray dog that had shown up
a day or two before and killed one of the kittens.
I don't know where they came from originally
or what they've been through, but they are some
of the sweetest, most cuddly kittens ever. The
H litter of four are owner surrenders. Not much
exciting to their story, but I know that the
lady has horrible allergies and she can handle
one or two cats in the house, but these four
kittens have been giving her fits and she is
very thankful that we're going to find them good
homes for her. The R litter of five are from
a house that someone who helps us with our cat
programs is doing a TNR at. Well, I say she helps
us, but really we pay. for her to buy. Oh no!
Okay, well I'm so close to being done. I'm just
gonna, I'm just gonna go for it and I'll just
drive real fast. Um, we pay for the spays and
the neuters of the TNR cats that she does, but
she will go and actually trap them and take them
to their appointments, so we help each other.
Um, she is doing a TNR at this house. TNR is
trap neuter release for anyone who didn't know
that. Neither she nor the owners knew that there
were even kittens there until she was setting
up a trap for who ended up being the mama of
these kittens. So we're very excited to get these
sweet kitties. The I letter of four, I'm very
proud of these names. They are actually from
another rescue up there in Virginia. They emailed
us to see if we could take them and we actually
had so many kitten fosters right now that we
were like, yeah, go for it. So if you are picking
up a kitten on Monday, these are your kitties.
They were born to a feral mama and they're gonna
TNR the mom. Okay. I did it. That is all the
stories for this week. Thank you so much for
listening. Thank you for fostering. Thank you
for all of your support. We couldn't do any of
this without y 'all. Please like, follow, subscribe,
rate, whatever, whatever the things are that
you're supposed to do to help this podcast grow
so that I can one day make enough money from
it that I can quit my job and do it for free.
It's a rough life, but someone's gotta do it.