Hello friends! Welcome to Ruff Life, and welcome
to the last transport of 2025! I will have the
actual data later next month because y 'all know
I love to crunch some numbers, but I did check
just now and we did 25 transports this year,
one of those being a two van double transport.
That may not sound like a lot to you, But that's
over six months worth of Saturdays that the Wolf
Trap South team gave up to do these transports.
Do y 'all even know how much stuff goes on on
Saturdays? It's insane. Every birthday party,
graduation, festival, pool party, baby shower,
everything is on a Saturday. And it's a one in
two chance that it's a day that we have transport
instead of going to whatever it is. But don't
get me wrong. I am not complaining. That makes
me very happy because I am always looking for
an excuse to Amazon deliver my gift and send
my regrets. But still, six months worth of Saturdays
that we don't get to sleep in and that I will
complain about. Anyways, it has been a really,
really great year. I know everyone is like, wow,
I can't believe it's the end of the year already.
But honestly, this year has kind of drugged by
for me. It's been a truly happy year. So many
wonderful things happened and it was just so,
so, so, so much better than 2024. But I don't
know. Time just went by very slowly for me. It's
kind of nice. Let's get into the story. So. one
last time in 2025. The theme is Christmas characters
and these names were actually done by our wonderful
Ariel. I don't know what her job title is with
us but I know that she does a ton of stuff around
the hospital and at puppy therapy so you will
definitely be seeing seeing her around and if
you don't like your foster's name you can blame
her for it and not me this time. but I for one
am so grateful that she did these names for me
because after Thanksgiving dinner hit on Thursday
night I was ready to just go into a food coma
so when she texted me asking if she could do
the names I literally could not text back fast
enough to tell her yes please. It's a fairly
small load this time only 40 critters but that
is every single animal that we have in foster
care down here and every single pup that we have
committed to. So we have zero dogs on our wait
list as of right now. going into 2026. We do
still have several cats and kittens that are
waiting until 2026 to go, but as of right now
they are still with their owners and not in our
foster care. We'll see how long that lasts. I'm
sure tomorrow we'll have animals in our foster
care, but I am very excited right now to be ending
it completely empty. Although historically I
always end up with a long -term foster over the
holidays, so... I'm sure one's a coming. Okay,
elf on the shelf was found on a back road by
herself. She is the biggest dog on the van and
not nearly the cutest. She's just some black
lab mix, but she is so sweet and so chunky. She
was definitely one of my favorites this week.
Whoever gets her is going to fall in love so
quickly. Abominable snowman is from Dr. Jamie.
If you're new or you don't remember, Dr. Jamie
was one of Dr. Burton's students at Mississippi
State when she taught at the vet school many
years ago. They became lifelong best friends
and now Dr. Jamie helps us with low cost vet
care and we help her with animals that get dumped
on her. Abominable snowman or dapper Dan as he
was called down here came into her clinic at
the beginning of October The owner said that
he was approximately five weeks old at the time
He was born to what the owner said was a stray
that he had living in his backyard He said that
the mama dog wouldn't allow him to touch Her
or any of the puppies so he didn't know much
about the puppies other than Apparently she's
had so many litters that he thinks that the daddy
might also be the granddaddy so I take Take that
for what you will that's what he said Anyway,
I guess he has a trailer in his backyard and
there was an old couch in there Somehow the puppy
either climbed or fell or something onto the
couch and one of the couch springs became embedded
in his shoulder like under like in his armpit
kind of. The owner finally cut him free and brought
him to Dr. Jamie. He had no idea how long he
had been like that but Dr. Jamie feels like it
had to have been quite a while because he was
it was literally embedded into his body. He,
Dr. Jamie said, he was laterally recumbent and
couldn't raise his head or walk. I don't know
what that means. I don't even know how to say
it, but it makes me happy that she thinks she
can use words like that with me and that I would
know what she's saying. She also said that she
has never seen a dog survive tetanus before so
this was the first for her and this puppy is
truly a miracle dog. So we are very thankful
that she trusts us to take him and she knows
that we're going to find him the absolute best
home. Kate McAllister. So two dogs were found
at a county school. and another rescue was notified
because it was in their area. When they got there
they only found one dog and it was not this one.
They went back a couple of times looking for
Kate, this one. One of the teachers had taken
Kate home so that she wouldn't get hit by a car
And apparently everybody at the school knew that
this rescue was looking for her. So we're not
sure why nobody ever said, hey, Mr. So -and -so
took her home. But anyways, a day or two later,
Kate showed up at a store down the road from
some fosters and down the road from where the
school was. And our foster ran over there and
got her so that she wouldn't get hit by a car.
They got in touch with a teacher that had the
dog the day before, originally thinking that
he was the owner. but he said he just took her
home trying to keep her safe and that she got
loose from his house and ran off during the night
so our foster told him about us and that we would
find it a great home and the guy was like yeah
just keep it i don't even want her back so The
other dog that the rescue took the first day
is waiting on transport to go to another northern
rescue, but they were like, yeah, if you have
a rescue that'll take this one, we do not want
another one. So I told them if that rescue falls
through, like I called dibs, we'll be sure she
comes up on the first transport of 2026. But
we are very happy that we got Kate and we got
her out of here before she got hit by a car.
Ralphie was picked up by animal control as a
stray in town and taken to the kill shelter.
But then they called us and we went and got him.
The B litter of four is one of our funnier background
stories. This is an oops litter from our town
vet. We love him. We love him so much. We love
his family so much. They are truly some of the
best people. but we have had a lot of fun with
him over the fact that he had an oops litter.
So the mama is his personal champion hunting
dog and he breeds her on occasion to sell puppies
for other hunters. We have to just look over
this flaw in his personality though but to his
credit he typically is very responsible about
it and he makes sure that he doesn't breed her
too closely together and that The puppies won't
be bred when they're sold, so he is usually responsible.
Anyways, he knew that she was going into heat.
He knew when it was and he didn't want her to
have puppies back to back years, so he put her
in their kennel slash garage for what he thought
was her entire heat cycle. He doesn't know if
somebody got her at the front end or the back
end, but next thing they know, his wife goes
out to the barn a few months later and there's
puppies crying. They could not believe it. He
gave one of them away, another personality flaw
that we will talk to him about. But Jessica ended
up with a feral cat that needed to be neutered
while she had her hands on him. And so she texted
him to see if they could get him in. And he was
like, yeah, no problem. Bring him in today. We'll
get him in right away. Oh, by the way, could
you take some puppies? Jessica said, do we need
to give you the spiel on how this happens? And
his wife was like, we are as bad as the people
we talk about. I cannot believe that this happened.
I told him that we offer spay vouchers for families
who can't afford to have their dogs spayed. And
he is the veterinarian who takes those vouchers
and spays those dogs. So my joke was extra funny.
But when he was leaving after dropping them off
at transport, he was like, thank you guys so
much. I know that they're in great hands. Call
me if you need anything. And I said, yeah, call
us in six months when you have another litter.
But he said he's going to go ahead and spay the
mom now because he clearly isn't as proactive
as he thought. All that being said, though, these
puppies were an accident, but they have been
so loved and so well taken care of their entire
lives. We have so many litters that have never
even been touched by a human before we get them
or even worse abused by a human before we get
them. But these puppies have been toted around
by the vet's kids and given the absolute best
start in life. Yeah, their mom's a champion like
that's pretty cool The G litter of four were
owner surrenders The owner's dog got pregnant
and then went missing when they were three weeks
old. She was never found We think she was killed
our rescue partner Tasha Sent them to a bottle
feeder until they were weaned and then she took
them back when they were older That didn't last
long though because shortly after getting the
back she ended up with a stray dog that she was
also fostering. Just a day or two after getting
her, she broke with parvo. adult parvo which
if you don't know adult parvo is the worst possible
thing it is so much worse than puppy parvo so
we were all terrified that the babies would be
exposed to parvo if they stayed with her so mama
becky took them in after the last transport and
she has loved having four itty bitty babies to
play with these last two weeks especially because
right before these four she had 18 puppies that
she was fostering it was two litters from the
same house So she had 18 puppies that she was
taking care of. So four is a breeze compared
to that. And Tasha's adult foster with Parvo
lived. Tasha got her through it. And then Tasha
foster failed, which, if you know me, I do not
allow foster failing down here. But adult Parvo
is so awful. I was like, I don't blame you. If
you can get that dog through adult Parvo, you
are. you are in love and there is no giving that
dog up. The J -liter of four were picked up as
strays by animal control in another town. Animal
control reached out to a rescue in that area,
one of our rescue partners, and told them if
they didn't come and get them, they, animal control,
was going to shoot them. They were barely even
five weeks old at the time. Unbelievable. The
S litter of six are actually two litters from
the same home They have the same daddy though
and so we just lumped them all into one litter
They were owner surrendered to the Alabama shelter
our Alabama shelter friends that we love so much
The shelter told me that the owner this is what
they said the owner has two dang many not altered
dogs So their animal control officer is trying
to get rid of them and kind of thin them out
But she still has 10 small dogs at the house
I'm hoping that they will give us one or two
of these mamas because they're super cute The
C letter of 8 where owner surrenders the mom
came up as a stray. They're keeping mom We will
spay her for them As for the cats, I hate that
we didn't get to send all of the cats on our
waitlist down here, but oh my gosh, I am so glad
to be sending these 10. If you listened to last
week's episode, I told you that they were not
going to let me send any cats this week unless
some got adopted out, so I was begging and pleading
and crying for you guys to help us get some cats
adopted. Y 'all got so many adopted from me.
I actually don't know how many because I wasn't
keeping track. But just looking at the adoption
spreadsheet just from today's adoption event.
It was at least 23 cats adopted in a two -week
span which is the only reason I got to send 10
cats today the only reason that we have no animals
in any of our foster homes right now for the
first time in For sure this year for sure this
whole year, maybe even the last two years Because
if we didn't get to send these ten, we were all
going home with at least one cat or kitten. Okay,
onto the cat stories. Oogie Boogie was picked
up by our rescue partner, Tasha. His eyes were
all gooped shut and he had a rough looking booty.
The vet that they took him to thought he was
two weeks old, but we actually think he was closer
to four weeks. They also thought that he was
a bobcat mix, which is not a thing. Bobcats do
not. meet with actual cats. So I don't put a
lot of stock into what they have to say, but
Jessica offered to take him since booties are
her thing. They're her specialty. And Tasha has
saved Jessica on more than one foster lately.
I was actually looking at my spreadsheet earlier
today. You should take a drink for however many
times I have said spreadsheet on this episode.
But on it I have the rescue that the animal is
coming from and then the foster or the group
name that we have for them. There were so many
on this spreadsheet and the last few transport
spreadsheets that said from Jess with Tasha,
from Tasha with Jess. Like they have just been
wheeling and dealing their animals so that everyone
has a lighter and easier to manage load lately.
Anyways. Back to this kitten. This kitten was
very whiny and needy for the first few days until
Jessica declared him healthy enough to interact
with the other two kittens that she had. Those
were the F kittens. They were twice as big as
him and she wasn't sure how that they would play
together, but they took him right in and have
been so sweet. He follows them around everywhere
and can hold his own with them surprisingly.
Toy soldier is our mama with no babies We were
asked to take two kittens back in early September
when they were super young But we had a waiting
list of about 50 older kittens at that point.
So when Jessica finally circled back One of the
kittens was gone, but Jessica was gonna make
plans to take the one that was left So the guy
she had been talking to got her in touch with
the lady that had These kittens and she said
any chance you can take the mom to and Jessica
was like, yeah, absolutely She said she was just
a stray that showed up and have kittens. We gave
a few of them away Then we were left with two.
There's just the mom and one remaining kitten
right now They're outside but she was taking
pretty good care of them and our options for
fostering adult cats is very limited and not
great um they're just at the doghouse by themselves
they just get checked on once a day so the lady
said she would continue taking care of them until
we were able to foster both of them so we just
decided to leave them there until a little bit
closer to transport we had them all set to take
and put at the doghouse this week and on wednesday
the kitten disappeared and hasn't been seen since.
So I'm still holding out hope that it will show
back up, but it's not likely. The pea larvae
too. Okay, so a lady asked for help with some
adult cats this summer when we were just barely
keeping our head above water with cats. She takes
in a lot of strays, but she's in a wheelchair
so she really can't take care of them. We've
done some spay and neuter for her in the past.
Anyways, a mama got pregnant and these are her
two kittens. And then this is what Jessica said.
Jessica said, this is a funny part that you can
add if you're struggling for stuff to talk about.
We're like 18 minutes in. When do I ever, when
do I ever struggle for stuff to talk about? But
she, Jessica said, I was making a work phone
call one day and I dialed the wrong number. I
realized it and I thought I hung up before it
even rang. I had no idea that the wrong number
I dialed was this lady, the owner of these cats.
But apparently she had my number saved. So I
hang up on the wrong number. It immediately calls
me back and she goes, Jessica, I'm sorry I missed
you, but I'm so glad you called. I've got two
new kittens. So Jessica was like all right well
I guess you're getting bumped to the top of the
list since you think I called you to tell you
I could take your kittens. She does want to keep
this mama cat though so we will be spaying her
for her. The F litter of two. One of our fosters
found them in the parking lot about eight weeks
ago. We're just now getting around to taking
them because we have had so many kittens this
year. It's been insane. The Emma family, so this
is the mom and three kittens. They came from
the same house that the half -dead parvo white
shepherd puppy came from earlier this year. I
loved him so much. We have been helping them
with cat spay and neuters lately. A volunteer
went one day to set a trap for a feral cat, but
found this mom and kittens, all of them literally
barely alive. They were all eaten up with parasites
and coccidia and definitely did not have long
left to live. So she loaded them all up, took
them home. We got them started on meds. They
have all made a full recovery and are doing great.
But the mom almost didn't make it on transport
today. Jessica went to load them up at the foster's
house who lives just across the street from where
we do transports at my old house. She's my old
neighbor. Anyways, they were in an enclosed dog
pen. So like chain link fence on all four sides
and across the top so that they can't just climb
out. So Jessica went to get the mom. or she went
to get the kittens, but when she went to get
the mom, the mom ran to the top of the cat tower
in the kennel and wouldn't come down. If Jessica
tried to get her from the right side, she'd just
scooch over to the left. If she went left, the
cat went right. So we finished loading transport.
I drive down the hill to help Jessica corral
her. She's super, super sweet. I think whoever
gets her is just going to love having her. But,
you know, when someone busts in your home and
steals your children, your first thought is.
Probably not to go easily with the intruder,
so I don't blame her, but I'm very happy that
we got her. That is all for this week. That's
all for this year, actually. Well, maybe. I'm
hoping, maybe, I'm hoping that I can get my life
together enough to do a recap episode later next
month. So I'll crunch some numbers, talk about
our favorites from that year. Maybe, but. Just
in case I don't, I hope all of you know how much
you mean to all of us down here. Whether this
is your first time fostering or your hundredth
or you just tune in to hear the stories you don't
even foster. We appreciate everyone's support
and we truly, truly could not do any of this
without you. Thank you for being the majority
of the reason why 2025 was such a great year
for us. You guys are amazing and we love you.
It's a Ruff life, but someone's gotta do it.