Welcome to Ruff Life. Thankfully, not as rough
of a life as it was last episode. If you missed
that episode, make sure you go back and listen
to it to understand the full scope of how stressful
things have been down here. When we left off
last week, it was quite the cliffhanger. My driver's
son was on the way to pick up his dad and bring
him home after he wrecked the transport van.
and they were in such a huge time crunch because
the winter storm was going to hit within minutes
after they were supposed to make it back home.
Thankfully they made it back with like literally
45 minutes to spare three hours after they got
back. Everything was completely iced over and
no one could leave their homes. So my van was
stuck at a body shop in Georgia. But first thing
Monday morning, the shop owner called me, told
me everything that was wrong with the van and
promised me that he would have it back up and
running by Thursday afternoon so that we could
do transport as planned. And boy, did he deliver
and boy, did it cost us. But I don't even care
at this point because I'm just so thankful to
have it back, to have it back in time and to
have it drivable again. If you remember from
last episode, I cut pretty much three -fourths
of the animals that were supposed to be on that
van so that I could swap them out and send all
of my fosters that were in outdoor foster homes
so that they wouldn't be here when the storm
hit. The animals that got bumped to this week's
transport were all at the Alabama shelter that
we're partnered with, so they were sheltered
and safe and totally fine. That meant that everyone
that was left in my foster care down here was
in an indoor foster home and presumably going
to be unaffected by the storm. And that was very,
very wrong for me to presume. They predicted
this storm was going to be devastating and it
was honestly worse than what they even thought
it would be. It totally, completely missed Alabama.
So I'm completely fine, which is a bummer because
I was the best prepared for it and we didn't
get anything. Jessica has no damage to her home
or her property. So we're very thankful for that.
At least she hasn't mentioned anything and she's
whined a lot this week. So I'm sure it would
have come up. However, she is still without power
and she has no water either. So this is day six
without power and i think it's day five it may
even be day six too without water for her so
she's not having a real fun time The dog house
has no damage to the house itself. Remember,
this is my home that I used to live in before
I got married and moved to Alabama. Now we just
use it as the Wolf Trap South headquarters and
we foster animals out of it and do all of our
transports there. So very thankful that there's
no damage to the house. However... My six foot
fence is like pretty much demolished. There are
so many trees down. It's insane. It's going to
be such a job getting it cleaned up and getting
the fence repaired. I don't even know if it can
be repaired. They may just replace it. And of
course, everyone else is in the exact same boat.
So waiting lists to get anything done are just
so extreme right now. However, none of that compares
to poor Mama Becky. Her town has had what they're
calling a catastrophic event and their power
company's substation somehow. lost connection.
I don't know. Something happened. A catastrophic
event happened at the power company's substation,
not the place in town, something like that. So
the entire town is completely without power.
Not a single home building, hospital, anything
had power until I think yesterday or maybe the
day before they got power to the hospital and
Walmart. I think. Anyways, they're estimating
that it's going to be mid to end February before
they have power again. Schools are already cancelled
until February 8th at the minimum. driving through
on my way to transport today was honestly like
driving through a war zone. Literally millions,
like actually millions of trees are down everywhere.
You have to drive in ditches in some spots because
there's so many trees and limbs on the road.
There's power lines down everywhere and you just
drive over them and hope for the best. They have
most of the live wires labeled with tape like
a caution live wire tape or something like that.
They're hanging so low over the road in some
spots though that only cars and small SUVs can
drive under them. So like I made it in my car
and my SUV but the van couldn't so the van had
to go a different way. It's just it's so so shocking
to go from my home where everything is fine and
normal to what feels like just right down the
road where all of my people are and everything
is destroyed. Barns are leveled, homes are split
in half by trees, cars are crushed, roads are
impassable. It's just unbelievable. I think we're
up to 19 storm related deaths already. One was
like a six day old baby and they're expecting
even more deaths over the weekend. because it's
supposed to be so, so cold. It's just it's so
awful. It's so, so awful. Oh, and my driver and
I were talking about just how crazy all of this
is right now. And where he lives, there's no
cell service. There's a lot of areas like that
down here where you're just so far out in the
middle of nowhere that the cell phone towers
don't reach. But it's not a big deal because
everyone that lives out that way will have Wi
-Fi. So as soon as you get home, your phone syncs
to your Wi -Fi and then everything works just
like normal. Well, my poor driver is currently
without power, without water, and because his
Wi -Fi is out because of no power, he has no
cell reception either. Literally no power, no
water, no phone. Talk about living off the grid.
They do have a small portable generator though
that they're using for heat, but like I feel
like that's almost worse. what would you do if
your house caught on fire? You can't even call
anyone and you don't have any water to put it
out yourself. It's just so, so scary. And now
I understand even more why he was in such a hurry
to get back home to his wife last week. Like,
100 % I would not want to be iced in without
my husband home alone with not even a cell phone
that works. Like, ugh. But okay, so wait. Back
to my main point though. All of my indoor fosters
lost power as well, so not only did they have
to shelter in place in the cold and the dark,
but they had to do it with loud obnoxious puppies.
Our bottle feeder foster who we love so dearly
was not at all prepared for this storm. She's
from up north and I don't, I don't think she
realized how impactful winter weather is down
here because like we just don't have the infrastructure
like you do up north. Anyways, she was without
power and water and was afraid that her puppies
would actually literally freeze to death. Luckily
someone close to her had a spare generator she
could use to heat up one room, so she just moved
everybody into that one room and they hunkered
down. But anyways, believe it or not, things
are actually better this week than they were
last week. I was able to fit all of the Alabama
shelter animals on this van so no one had to
get held back again. And I was able to get all
of my fosters who don't have powers animals on
there too. So we're in good shape right now.
It's been a very wild two weeks though, that's
for sure. Let's get to the stories for this week
though. The theme was snowplow names, A, because
like what better time than to use these names
than right now, and B, who even thought to name
snowplows? That's so funny to me. So if you're
like Jessica and you had no idea that this was
even a thing, Yes, cities up north name their
snow plows these super creative and hysterical
names, and they even hold competitions for the
best name every year. I could not stop giggling
when I was compiling the list for this transport.
Some of them are just so, so clever. I'm like,
who even thought of this? Thaw enforcement was
posted on Facebook for free. One of our fosters
reached out and asked if she could go get it
and foster it if we would take it. Leslie Snope
was found on a back road posted for free on Facebook.
Our rescue partner Tasha sent her daughter to
go get her and I actually heard through the grapevine
that Tasha had to pry her out of her daughter's
arms this morning because she was not ready for
her to leave yet. Yura Blizzard Harry is from
our Alabama shelter friends. He was brought to
the shelter as a stray. Kaplow is from our Alabama
shelter friends. He was picked up on the side
of the road. The O litter is from the Alabama
shelter. Their mom was a stray who wandered up
to someone's home and gave birth. The homeowner
is keeping the mom. She rehomed two of the puppies
and she surrendered these four puppies to the
shelter. The P litter of six are from our Alabama
shelter friends. They were seen being dumped
on the side of a road and the person who saw
it picked them up and took them to the shelter.
Cleopatra and her six puppies. This is actually
a mom and five puppies and her niece. There were
two moms who were dumped at a super remote area
of a state park right by my house. They were
both pregnant and then they both gave birth at
a campground months later. The shelter picked
them all up and the other mom and a few of her
puppies were taken by another rescue. This is
in no way, this is not a dig on the Alabama shelter
at all. They are absolutely desperate to move
any and anything, any and everything that they
can so that no one has to die, literally. But
it is so ridiculous to me how many quote unquote
rescues will only pull some of a litter. At least
this one took the mom, too, because nine out
of ten times. Actually, I would even say ten
out of ten times they don't take the mom. but
this mom was super stinking cute. Cleopatra is
cute, but her sister was even cuter. But why
leave one puppy behind? if i can't take a whole
litter i don't take any of the litter and i know
sometimes the shelter doesn't like that because
they'd rather save one than save zero and i get
it but i just cannot look at a whole kennel of
puppies and say okay give me this half i'll make
sure they have the best lives ever and are more
loved than they ever thought possible but the
other half has to stay it's fine with me if you
put them to sleep or if you adopt them out to
live on a chain for the rest of their lives i
don't care like it's so terrible. And the rescues
that do this will pull the cutest ones and leave
the not as cute plain Jane ones behind, which
hurts their chances even more of being adopted
or another rescue pulling them because there's
no quote unquote cute ones in the litter. But
again, it doesn't make sense this time because
all of these puppies were adorable and the one
puppy that they left behind itself is super cute.
So I don't know. I mean, I'm glad that they didn't
take the knees or any of these, but I just don't
get it, but I'm glad I got them. The A litter
of six were dumped in a laundry basket in a man's
yard who lives way way way out in the boonies.
They were only about two to three weeks old and
so our bottle feeder foster took them. They have
survived the ice storm of 2026 with no power
or water and had a very miserable week in our
bottle feeder fosters home so they will very
much enjoy your warm calm. homes. The Beelitter
of Six are police chief's wife called animal
control about some puppies that were in a friend's
yard. We have a very strenuous relationship with
the city and I wanted to tell them no out of
spite when they asked for help, but in an effort
to not burn bridges and because Jessica is a
better person than I am, we usually always say
yes when we can help. And it was just the day
before the ice storm was about to hit, so freezing
puppies trumps. politics so Jessica agreed to
take them with no plan whatsoever but fortunately
got two of our fosters to agree to help which
was good because these puppies were way bigger
than the picture that they originally sent us
so that brings up the question how long had they
been there and why are people so stupid to wait
until the last possible minute to ask for help
but anyways they were sent out in pairs to our
fosters two were with Jess with no power or water
Two were with a foster with no power but she
did have water and then two were with another
foster in another town who had power the whole
time and had no idea that anything was even going
on with their poor litter mates. So I'm sure
they have lots of stories to share on this long
road trip tonight being reunited. The F litter
of five someone tagged our rescue partner Tasha
on a Facebook post when she got to the location
and realized it was the same spot where all in
the family was sent on the January 3rd transport,
she is fairly confident that these are litter
mates to that puppy. Sabrina Carpenter, get it?
Instead of carpenter, Carpenter. And her litter
of eight puppies is actually a litter of seven
puppies. So if you're the foster, don't freak
out when you count them and there's only seven
and think that you forgot one at the hospital.
This family is from the hoarding situation that
I mentioned in last week's episode. At the beginning
of the year someone filed a complaint with animal
control in a nearby town and claimed that there
are always random stray dogs in their yard and
they want something done about it. There's also
a rumor going around that she called them because
these dogs killed her dog, but that hasn't been
verified so I don't know if that's true and after
meeting these girls I just cannot believe that
It would be true. But anyways, Animal Control
followed up on the complaint and he went to the
neighbor's house where so they lived further
down way off the road. So they're neighbors,
but they don't live close to each other. When
Animal Control got there, he realized there were
way more dogs than ever imagined and that the
living conditions were so deplorable. He didn't
even feel comfortable with dogs living there,
let alone people. Come to find out, it is a husband
and wife. or possibly a brother and a sister,
no one knows for sure, who live on this property.
The woman lives in a shed and the man lives inside
on the bottom floor of the house. There have
been almost 300 dogs removed from the property.
300, 300. More than 100 of them were living inside
the home. The homeowners told police that they
had not even been to the upstairs of their home
in more than three years, so they had no idea
what or who was up there. There were several
dozen rats that the people would feed like pets.
Hear me when I say this. They were not pet rats.
I am all for... people having pet rats. I think
a pet rat is adorable. A random rat multiplied
by dozens? Not adorable. There was also a horse.
I don't know anything about the horse. I just
know a horse was removed. I don't think the horse
was in good condition though. Anyways, they were
all just living in absolute squalor. None of
these dogs were stolen though or like kept confined
or abused in any way. The owners told police
that a few dogs just wandered up a few years
ago and had puppies and they couldn't find anyone
to take the puppies and they couldn't afford
to fix the dogs. So every six months every female
would have a litter of puppies and it just snowballed
out of control. I mean like the story of the
South. But that also means that there's a pretty
good possibility that these animals are inbred,
which if we could test for it, I think the vast
majority of strays in Mississippi are inbred.
Hello, 1 % shall. But because there's like no
malice in this case and none of the dogs were
even starved or anything like that. No charges
were pressed on the owners. They actually think
that the owners might be a little inbred themselves.
I think that's where the whole are they husband
and wife or are they brother sister thinking
from? Unfortunately because they were probably
inbred and because some were feral and some were
super old and honestly probably just because
there were so so so many all at once, a lot of
them have been euthanized already. I don't know
the exact number and I doubt they'll ever tell
us the exact number for sure but we do know for
a fact that it is more than 60 because they reached
out to Tasha to see if the funeral home that
her husband owns would donate the cremation services
for them and Tasha said that they would do 60
dogs for them for free. I would bet it's a hundred
or less though. I don't think it's more. I don't
think it's any more than a hundred. They for
sure took 179 dogs from the property and put
them at a warehouse in the nearby town. This
was like right before the storm hit just until
they can find rescues to take them. Anyways,
we pulled this mom who was pregnant and another
mom who was pregnant as well as a young adult
dog and a senior. The foster who is fostering
the senior dog for me down here though wants
to keep her and honestly, she's so old This is
one instance where I really don't care if someone
in the south wants to foster fail. I will allow
it this time But when this mama and her puppies
got to transport today, we noticed that the runt
puppy was significantly smaller and weaker than
the rest of the puppies, which really wouldn't
be that concerning if they weren't about to load
up and go for a 14 -hour car ride where no one
will be able to... you know, make sure the runt
is latching enough and staying warm and not getting
smushed. So since Tasha is currently fostering
the sister mama and her newborn puppies that
are just a day younger than this litter, she
went ahead and took the runt back home with her
to put in with her mama just to keep an eye on
it a little bit longer and let it get a little
bit stronger before the next transport and maybe
even bottle feed it if it comes down to it. But
fading puppy syndrome is a big concern right
now and I am really really really really hoping
that it's gonna pull through. That's actually
all the stories for this week. There are no cats
on this van because I needed all the space possible
to get my puppies out of their dark and cold
foster homes. And right now all of our cats that
we've been asked to pull are at the Alabama shelter
and they're safe and sound. Hopefully next episode
will be a lot lighter and brighter and if you're
lucky maybe even shorter. Thank you for listening
and thank you so so so so much to everyone who
sent us food. Our stash had gotten scary low
and we are apparently in some sort of like mini
puppy season boom. So we feel much better knowing
that we have plenty of food to give out to anyone
who needs it right now. Y 'all are amazing. We
could not do any of this without you. It's a
ruff life, but someone's gotta do it.