Hey friends, welcome to rough life. Oh boy, it
has been a very rough life for the past 48 hours.
We had the cutest litter of puppies coming from
the Alabama shelter that we're partnered with.
And I asked for a video on Friday or no Thursday,
I asked for a video on Thursday. Just to show
the fosters like what the environment is like
that they're coming from So when they send me
the video on Thursday I saw that one of the puppies
the runt was in a crate away from all the litter
mates all by himself So I asked why he was over
there and she said the litter mates were picking
on him. So she separated him Well, that was really
sad to me So since I didn't have any current
fosters and it was just two days before transport,
I was like, you know what? I'm just going to
run out there. I'm going to get him. He's like
so scared over there in that cage by himself.
At least he'll be here. It's quieter. It's calmer.
It'll be fine. So as soon as I got him home,
I'm not even kidding. Like two seconds after
I got him out of the car, I was already on the
phone with Dr. Burton saying something right.
is literally shaking like a leaf. It was almost
like constant mini seizures and he couldn't walk.
So it was very obvious that we were not going
to send him on transport. Period. Done. He's
not going. But the rest of the litter looked
great. So we were really on the fence about what
to do for them. Nothing that this puppy was doing
looked like distemper, but sending a litter of
puppies on transport that could have maybe possibly
been exposed to distemper would literally be
catastrophic. We had a distemper litter about
four years ago, I think it was, and not only
are we all still dealing with the PTSD from watching
those animals go through that, but it it almost
bankrupted us like we almost had to close down
the rescue so distemper is not something that
we play around with ever it is very serious and
we are we are traumatized over it so this didn't
look like distemper though and so we just decided
we're gonna watch him overnight we're just gonna
decide friday morning so yesterday, the day before
transport, I woke up and he was exactly the same,
just literally vibrating all over the crate uncontrollably.
Since the rest of the litter was still at the
shelter and in the shelter's defense, they have
about 200 other animals that they're trying to
keep an eye on and take care of. we decided it
was just best for everybody if we go ahead and
get the puppies yesterday, send them to Mama
Beggy's house, and we could just keep a closer
eye on them there. If they so much as sniffled,
we were going to pull the whole litter from transport.
Before they even left the shelter, I prayed that
God would give us a sign so blatantly obvious
that we could not ignore it. about what we needed
to do. Do we potentially expose 39 other puppies
to this horrific disease on the transport van,
or do we devastate eight super excited families
for no reason if these puppies are totally fine?
Well, I didn't know what I was waiting for, but
I knew it as soon as I saw it. On a whim, I had
the shelter Parvo test this litter just to be
sure that they wouldn't be contaminating Mama
Becky's house. And sure enough, she texts me
back and she said five out of the seven puppies
tested positive for Parvo and had no symptoms.
Like we were shocked that they had Parvo. So
this eliminated absolutely any chance of them
leaving on transport anytime soon, like done,
decision made. So we just called the whole thing
off. But then we thought about it a little bit
longer. There are chances of surviving for sure
parvo and possibly maybe distemper are already
incredibly low. You add in the stress of being
in the shelter environment with 200 other dogs
that people are trying to take care of and that
percentage goes in the negative. we were already
committed to these puppies and we felt like we
really needed to hold up our end of the bargain
to them. So I had them load them back up and
Mama Becky prepped her foster area for quarantine
and she had all seven puppies in her care about
an hour and a half later. So I kept my shaky
baby who we've named Wiggles because he wiggles
all about and Mary Sue is currently obsessed
with the show. But because Wiggles was currently
parvo negative and possibly maybe distemper positive,
he stayed here with me just so that he didn't
catch anything they had and they don't catch
anything that he had because he has been separated
from them for the last few days. So he stayed
with me. The plan was to take him Monday morning
for a distemper test. But that has unfortunately
been put on hold because this afternoon, as I
was leaving for transport, Wiggs tested positive
for Parvo. So we obviously do not want to add
a three hour round trip car ride on top of everything
else he's battling right now. So we're just going
to wait a few more days until he's out of the
woods for Parvo, at least, and have him tested
for distemper. The other puppies are all doing
Decent. So we got it very early and only five
have broken so far and only two of those five
seem symptomatic and they seem... They seem very
symptomatic today. The other five are still buck
wild, totally great. They're doing fantastic.
But we certainly have an uphill battle. They
likely have Giardia from being at the shelter
because everything at that shelter has Giardia.
And we know for sure that they have coccidia,
hookworms, and parvo, and now possibly distemper.
So that's a lot. That's a lot for these teeny
tiny babies. we would obviously appreciate all
of your prayers and good vibes we are we're really
worried about these guys especially my little
my little wiggle my little runt he is so pitiful
but onto other news for all of you first time
fosters hi welcome i am katie keaton i'm the
transport coordinator i live here in alabama
and i send all the animals from alabama and mississippi
on transport to virginia however Because our
foster coordinator is on a month -long vacation,
I have been filling in for her and am also the
foster coordinator. So I think I talked to all
of you, minus maybe a couple of you kitten fosters,
just to help you get signed up and prepare you
for your foster period and everything. So if
at any point you thought to yourself, wow, this
girl is all over the place and she has no idea
what she's doing, you were exactly right. I am
just flying by the seat of my pants, making things
up as I go, taking care of parvo puppies, checking
in with fosters up there, but it's all working
out so far. Everything's going decent. My goal
is to at least be more competent than Alex, our
AI chat bot, who I'm sure most of you struggled
to communicate with, but... I will be the one
reaching out to you and staying in touch with
you during your three week foster period. So
if you have any questions or concerns, do not
hesitate to text me. I am available literally
pretty much 24 seven by text, but don't call
me. Don't ever call me because because I never
answer my phone. I have a one year old baby and
she's feral most of the time. So you do not want
to be on the phone hearing what's going on in
the background. Anyways, onto today's stories.
The theme is ocean life, ocean animals. Eel was
picked up by a FedEx driver who found him on
the side of the road. She delivers packages to
our foster's home and knows that she is always
fostering animals. This is actually the second
puppy that she has picked up and shown up with
at their house. Talk about FedEx messing up your
deliveries. Tiger shark was found in the middle
of a two -lane highway by someone riding four
-wheelers She thought she was a kitten because
she was so small and she also had a brother that
was found with her But one of the other riders
kept him Then jellyfish may or may not be the
sister to tiger shark I would love a DNA test
done on these two to see if they're related Jellyfish
was posted a day later on Facebook by a different
lady from the same area as Where the other two
puppies were found right? I mean right there
and she looks exactly like the one that the vet
tech adopted So I am very curious Great white
shark was pulled out of a culvert we We really
weren't going to pull him into our rescue but
our rescue partner Tasha went to the ladies house
to pick up the O family that I'll tell you about
in a minute and she saw him and asked me if I
would take him too and she sent me a picture
of him and I took one look at those ears and
I was like uh yeah that's adorable we will take
that. The a litter of two were owner surrenders
kind of Someone's neighbor has a slew of dogs
that terrorizes the neighborhood killing their
chickens tearing up their garbage all the things
Another rescue was supposed to take a litter
of puppies from this woman last year and when
they showed up to get them She just refused to
let them have any of them. So now those puppies
are having puppies These two puppies just happened
to wander to the neighbor's house and the owner
agreed to let the neighbor keep these puppies.
And then she obviously contacted us right away
to see if we would take the puppies. There are
two more puppies in that litter, but the actual
owner won't surrender them. The K litter of two
started out as a litter of seven. but and they
were left behind um when a homeowner was sent
to jail and by the time one of our fosters got
out there to get them there were only two left
because people were just coming and picking them
up left and right and taking them home and both
of these puppies were completely eaten alive
in ant bites the litter of four are kind of litter
mates to the oh litter from the heavy metal transport
last week We're not actually sure who's related
to who and to what degree because they're from
three different moms that are probably all sisters
themselves. So just for a quick recap, they were
born at a absolutely filthy home. This is our
junker town group. And the lady across the street
ended up taking care of them more than the actual
owner due to said owner's unfortunate incarceration,
which is how we know when the puppies were born.
Last week's puppies came from the lady across
the street who had taken them inside and had
been taking care of them for several weeks. This
week's puppies, these Elle puppies, are from
the actual owner's property and they have had
very little social interaction. The puppies were
very skittish when Jessica went to get them and
they ran and hid under all of the junk in the
yard. So finally the lady said, just let me get
the tractor I'll move that old couch and then
we can move all those boards and then we can
get the puppies out from underneath that door
literally in her yard so that's exactly what
they did so they got these four puppies and these
have been fostered with mama becky until mama
becky got our parvo distemper doodles and then
they were kicked out and sent to jessica's but
they're doing much much much better unfortunately
and this is devastating and we have had a hard
time dealing with this there were four other
puppies there that day that were under the house
and no possible way that anybody could catch
them so the plan was the owner said that she
would catch them all when they came out after
everybody left so we were just gonna come right
back and get them as soon as she caught them
well The next day, she messaged us to tell us
that the neighbors saw on their security camera
that night where a coyote had attacked and killed
all four puppies overnight. Actually, he said
it was a panther, but we're guessing coyote from
how she described it. She told me that somebody
had been killing the neighbor's chickens and
the neighbor had accused. two of the three mama
dogs of doing it. And supposedly he shot both
of those dogs this past week. I don't know. But
now everybody is pretty sure that it was actually
this coyote killing the chickens and not the
mama dogs. And there's still one mama dog left,
but they are refusing to surrender it now. So
we're just going to have her spayed in the next
couple of weeks if she doesn't get run over or
eaten by a coyote before then. The O family who
I I thought that they were Weimaraner mixes,
but now I'm thinking that the mom is a silver
lab because That's what she's looking more like.
She's another one that I would love to have a
DNA test done on They were dumped in a neighborhood
and were being fed by the mail lady when she
would come through every day because they were
just skin and bones Then they were eventually
taken to a kill shelter where our rescue partner
Tasha went and pulled them so they wouldn't be
euthanized The S family were picked up by animal
control when the puppies were about a week old
it is such a crazy story and It it actually might
go down as one of my favorite stories Which is
so terrible because it's not a good story and
actually this might not be totally appropriate
for little ears that might be listening so If
you're listening to this with your kids You may
want to listen to this part first and then decide
if you want them to listen although it's got
a great message I'll tell you I'll tell you the
message at the end but the owner of the mama
and the puppies went to the city park to buy
D R U G S with all of the puppies in his backpack.
So he gets the drugs and he does them and overdoses
right there in the park. And like this is this
is like Mayberry town. Like this is so bizarre
to me that A people are buying drugs B that they're
buying them at our city park which is like so
many kids and families all the time and C that
he's doing the drugs at the city park and overdosing
so he overdoses at the park someone sees him
unconscious and they call the police they take
him to the hospital and I don't know if they
like looked in his backpack just for fun like
for evidence or you know like to to see if he
had any other contraband in his backpack or if
they heard the puppies and then they looked but
either way they eventually opened the backpack
and find all the puppies at the bottom of the
backpack and when they realized how young they
were they went to his house i guess from his
idea in his wallet and they got the mama dog
and they took the whole family to the shelter
But the craziest part was that the shelter had
to hold on to them for a full week, the seven
day straight hold, to be sure that the guy didn't
want them back when he got out of the hospital
after his drug overdose. Because apparently,
giving 10 pipples back to a drug addict is what
we do in this town. But luckily, he never even
came back for them. He never even asked about
them, so. He clearly does not care about them.
So let that be a lesson for any children who
are listening. Don't do drugs because we will
take your animals away from you. The M family.
Oh, this is our beagle girl with the cherry eye.
Her owner died and she was left behind while
she was very, very pregnant. So she ended up.
at one of our foster's homes and she had three
puppies two days later. This is actually our
bottle feeder foster. So a few days after the
foster family took in this mom and her puppies,
they ended up with... there had been another
litter of newborn puppies that were about the
same age whose mama had died and then all of
these puppies died except for one puppy. So they
brought that puppy to our bottle feeder foster
and after bottle feeding it for a few days and
just monitoring it to make sure it wasn't gonna
die too from whatever the litter mates might
have had, they decided to put it in with the
mama and she immediately started nursing it and
they have been the sweetest family ever since.
So there actually weren't going to be a whole
lot of cats on this van I'd been prepping Jessica
for like the last week that I was like you need
to have low expectations we're looking at probably
like five or six cats and kittens this round,
but Then my distemper parvo doodles Got cut and
they were gonna take up quite a bit of room.
So that opened the door for a lot of kittens
Flounder is actually the litter mate and last
remaining kitten from the C family from last
transport. They couldn't catch this last kitten
so they were just going to work on it over the
next two weeks and try to trap him before this
transport. Well, not even 36 hours after the
van left they called us while and said that while
they were at the local coffee shop they were
talking to a friend in the parking lot who said,
what's that on your tire? They turn around and
they saw the kitten sitting right there on top
of the tire So they managed to coax it into a
box and then drove it straight to my mom's house
who worked for a few days With it to get it friendly
and then it went to Jessica's for the rest of
the time Zebra shark showed up in one of our
friends yards on transport day two weeks ago
He looked pitiful and he reeked of diarrhea.
So obviously I was like Jessica. We have to take
him Okay, but you take him home He spent his
first few days with Jess literally just laying
in his diarrhea because he was so lethargic and
he couldn't control it at all. So we shot him
up with all the meds and he finally started getting
better. He is the happiest, snuggliest kitten
and always makes it to the litter box now. Narwal
was seen at a park in the county several days
later. It was still there, so we were finally
able to get it to a foster home then. Puffer
fish was found in a car after being towed to
a body shop the owner of the car said that she
didn't want it, but We are actually pretty sure
that this is the owner's kitten that she has
been trying to give away And I think she just
thought that this would be like the perfect way
to get rid of this kitten which I mean Good for
her. I'm glad that she did it this way instead
of something morbid and terrible The D letter
of two are from our lovely Dr. Jamie. She was
Dr. Burton's student at Mississippi State Veterinary
School many moons ago when Dr. Burton used to
teach there. Then they turned into lifelong best
friends. She works down here as a veterinarian
and we help her out with critters that get brought
into her clinic like these two. These two were
found in a box at a Dollar General right beside
her clinic. The sea litter of seven are not actually
litter mates. Two stray mamas had two separate
litters, but they were all raised together by
both moms, so it was ten kittens in total and
two moms. Three of the kittens and one of the
mamas disappeared before we could even get them
to a foster home. The other mama has been spayed
and she is staying at our foster barn as a barn
cat because she isn't very friendly. The bee
litter of eight were born to a stray mom that
showed up at somebody's house. Not a very exciting
story, but they are super friendly, super sweet,
and super unique looking. They look like they're
just black kittens, but then their backs are
all great. They actually look like silverback
gorillas is really what they look like. The W
litter of three were found as strays. A mom and
two kittens were left behind when the kittens
were only about three weeks old. They were brought
to one of our rescue partners. Then the next
day someone found a little orphan kitten around
the same age but not anywhere near where these
others were found, so almost certainly not related.
However, this mama took it right in and took
the best care of it. The finders took the mom
back and we're gonna have her spayed for them
because they want to keep her. The R letter of
three are from our rescue partner. Her daughter
was dropping a friend off at their house when
they were pulling out of the driveway. She saw
a calico kitten sitting there. So she grabs the
kitten, she runs up to the door and she's like,
hey, I think your kitten got out of your house.
And her friend looks at the kitten and is like.
I've never seen that kitten in my life. So the
girl just took it home with her because her mom
runs an animal rescue. And then two days later,
the friend called saying two more kittens had
shown up in her yard. And she was wondering if
the friend's mom, our rescue partner, would take
them to. OK, and I don't even want to tell you
this next part. I am like so sick to my stomach
over this. This is like one of the worst things
that's ever happened. Okay, so We're just full
transparency here on this podcast The parvo distemper
doodles are from our Alabama shelter friends.
They brought them all to us on Friday So because
they did that because they drove like almost
three hours round trip I didn't want them to
have to make a second trip on Saturday today
day of transport Especially because our van goes
right past the shelter Anyways, so the plan was
to just leave a few minutes early and have our
driver stop at the shelter, pick up Urchin, the
male Siamese cat who was just an owner surrender,
and then the H mom and her seven kittens. And
apparently, while they were loading up the mom
of the kittens, one of the huge German shepherds
that is in one of the outdoor kennels Got loose.
I don't know if he jumped over. I don't know
if he busted through I don't know if he dug under
he got out of the kennel and Ran up to them which
of course terrified this mama cat who bolted
out of their arms and then was chased by this
dog so they caught the dog and They looked for
over an hour and had no idea where she went so
then we were faced with the literal worst decision
to make ever. Do we take the seven kittens who
are eating on their own, they're about four,
almost five weeks old, but really they should
still be with their mom for at least another
week just to learn, you know, like cat behavior.
Or... Do we leave them at the shelter with no
mom in an overcrowded shelter where they're going
to be alone all weekend because all of the workers
were going home and no one would be there to
check on them to make sure they are actually
eating and they are gaining weight like they
need to be and that they're doing okay. So after
calling Dr. Burton the shelter director the shelter
manager Jenny our adoption coordinator who moonlights
as the best bottle feeder foster in the state
and my drivers We all decided that sending the
kittens on transport without the mom would be
best because they could be monitored by my drivers
until they get to at least the halfway point.
And then it's only six hours until they get to
Virginia, where then Jenny will take over immediately
monitoring them and making sure that they're
getting the best care. And the shelter put out
a trap for the mom. I have no idea who's going
to be monitoring the trap and that's. cannot
help that and we're just gonna let them do whatever
they feel like is best because that's not my
job and I don't have authority to tell them how
they need to handle this and I'm working on that
with myself but they set a trap they're gonna
try to catch the mom and then if they catch her
we are sending her to Virginia the next transport
as soon as we can we are getting her out of there
immediately but this has been this has been a
very rough 48 hours. It's been a lot. It's been
rough. But that's all the stories for this week.
I have to go because my husband just texted me.
He's trying to put our feral one -year -old.
to bed and she won't go to bed for him so I need
to put her to bed and then I need to take care
of my parvo distemper puppy and then I need to
make sure everything is all set for intake for
for all the foster to come pick everybody up
and then I've got to get ready and go to church
in the morning and make sure everyone picks up
their puppies and their kittens and we don't
have any no shows because last transport we had
five no call no shows Oh my gosh, that is the
worst. Like, if you can't come, I don't care.
Text me, be like, hey, I can't come. I don't
care. I can handle that. But when you don't show
up and then we're like, well, should we wait?
Should we, you know, do they have car troubles?
Are they coming? Are they not? And then we have
to scramble to find somebody to take the animals.
Ugh, so stressful. So, um. This whole episode
was basically just why does Mississippi and Alabama
need your prayers right now. But we're gonna
make it and we're gonna get these puppies through
it and we're gonna find this mama cat and everything's
gonna be great and next episode is gonna be way
more upbeat. It is a rough life but someone's
gotta do it.