Welcome to Ruff Life. We have had yet another
crazy week down here. So many puppies that were
scheduled to be on this transport got horribly
sick. We had one litter being distemper tested
because they were so sick. Thankfully it's negative
and thankfully they are doing better now. um
but they got cut from transport and then we had
another litter that broke with parvo and all
but one died less than 24 hours after testing
positive and that one is still just barely hanging
on so that's been awful and then my single my
foster my little teacup yorkie came down with
kennel cough from her week at the shelter so
she has been so sick and so pitiful it has just
been a Very stressful, very expensive week. But
all of those cancellations or sicknesses made
room for the C litter of six and the K litter
of three, so if you're fostering either of those
litters, thank you for your flexibility changing
fosters or for signing up on such short notice
when we made a plea for more people because we
were about to have to cut puppies. Y 'all are
incredible always. In ice storm news, all of
our people have power back. Very, very thankful
for that. The doghouse yard has been cleaned
up from all the fallen trees, but the fence is
still damaged so no big dogs can be fostered
there right now, only animals that just stay
inside the house. No internet yet at anyone's
houses, so I'm hoping we get that back soon because
I like to watch the nanny cameras at the doghouse.
We passed about 30 to 40 linemen just on our
way into Mississippi today who are all working
on getting power back in other areas. I cannot
even imagine being without power that long. They're
going on like 15 or more days for some people.
And then those poor linemen who are working literally
24 -7 non -stop. Winters down here are so rough.
Anyways, let's get into the story. There were
51 animals on board today, 13 adults between
the dogs and the cats. So, you know, I love that.
The theme is Mardi Gras and our lovely Ariel
did all the names for me this week. Love her
so much. Every time I talk to her, she teaches
me a new cool hip slang phrase to say. And so
for a while, my word was queen because she taught
me that. um but a few weeks ago she taught me
slayed she said i slayed the the names for the
snowplow transport so as ariel would say she
slayed these names but it's so funny though because
my phone used to autocorrect spade to slayed
every time so I would be texting someone and
I'd be like oh yeah we slayed that dog for them
and then I'd have to be like oh no no no no no
not slayed we spayed we spayed the dog for them
but now that I have typed spayed no less than
one million times and never once typed slayed
on purpose um when I when I typed out slayed
just now I changed it to spade so my phone put
she spade these names when I was typing it out.
But anyways, Gumbo is our last dog from the hoarding
situation that we were helping with. We pulled
four adult dogs total. One was 100 years old
and her foster down here just fell in love with
her, wanted to keep her, so we made an exception
to the no local adoptions rule that I have and
we let her keep that one. Two were pregnant and
they had 16 puppies between their two litters.
They are all already in Virginia. And now our
sweet precious gumbo who we called Sydney down
here is finally getting her freedom ride. If
you want the more in -depth version of the hoarding
case and the home that she came from, check out
the January 30th snowplow episode because I go
really detailed on that. But for her specifically,
she was part of a group of 20 dogs that were
taken from that home and placed in a holding
area at a nearby closed down dog pound. So all
of the outdoor kennels were still up at this
animal shelter that has closed down and so they
offered it to be used as kind of like a triage
area. It's actually the pound that our rescue
partner Tasha used to voluntarily and voluntarily
run, but after she stepped down they just closed
it up completely. but when they were bringing
all these dogs there she went by to help out
and get them all situated and I told her you
know like use your judgment we'll commit to pulling
a couple of these dogs if you just feel like
there's some that are tugging on your heartstrings
and she said when she was unloading them as soon
as she saw this one she knew she had to pull
her because she was so tiny and shaking in the
corner of her cage looking so scared so she went
home with Tasha that night. Orpheus, we got a
call about a dog whose owner had died. The neighbors
had been feeding him. His name was Jesse. He's
a big guy. They also had a stray that had shown
up earlier in the week and he was bullying him
and not letting him eat. Jessica went out there
to see him, guessing that the stray would be
just a big old mean pit bull mix that she would
have to run off. Instead, it was a little 20
-pound guy playing with Jesse. So, apparently
the little guy was just really hungry when he
showed up and Was not letting Jesse eat and he
was eating all of his food, but they were getting
along fine and We ended up sending we took them
both obviously We sent the little one to the
doghouse and then we sent Orpheus to doggie daycare
a few days later after getting neutered and he
did great there They all said he is a great dog
and he's very easy to deal with Zulu, a man that
owns a car dealership right off the highway,
the four lane highway in a town next to ours,
ends up feeding a lot of the strays and this
puppy wandered up right before our huge ice storm
hit. This guy was like, don't worry, like I'll
keep him inside in my office bathroom during
the cold days and I'll leave enough food, you
know, so like if I'm iced in, he'll be OK. But
we were like, no, no, no, we'll get him into
one of our foster homes. So we sent him with
one of our fosters the day before the ice storm
hit. Well, the joke was on us because that family,
the foster family lost power and water for a
week and the car lot where he would have been
was totally fine. So he had a really rough week,
but he made it. The L litter of two showed up
as strays right before the ice storm. We were
making plans to take them and we asked if they
could bring them the Friday before the ice storm
started. So the ice storm start... Started on
Saturday. She said she didn't want to get out
on Friday because it was supposed to snow tomorrow
So she said instead she would wait and bring
them the following Monday When we knew we were
all gonna be iced in and no one was gonna be
able to travel on the road So we were like whatever
just bring them whenever you want. So a week
later she texts that she can finally get out
of her driveway and she can bring them now, but
by then all of our foster's had filled up. Fortunately
she agreed to hang on to them until just this
past week when the last transport left and we
were able to free up some space. The K letter
of three, we got an email with nothing in the
body of the email. The subject line was just
one long run -on sentence that says, I have three
puppies I have to get rid of today. They will
end up dead if I don't find somewhere for them
to go today. So Jessica emails her back. I wasn't
even going to email her back, but Jessica's a
better person than me. Jessica emails her back
and is like, OK, well, we can't do anything immediately,
but like send us pictures, tell us a little bit
about them. We'll get them on our waiting list.
We'll get to them as soon as we can. So then
all of a sudden, this lady has plenty of time.
She just wants to know how long it'll be. No
rush. So Jessica took her food and a dog pen
to contain them because the neighbors and. by
neighbors. It was just three trailers lined up
on an acre of land. They were getting irritated
with the puppies. So we started making plans
to get them soon before the rain started this
coming weekend because they didn't have a good
place to stay where they would stay dry. But
because so many of our animals got sick, they
were able to make it on transport instead of
having to go to a foster. and it turns out that
these puppies weren't dumped and she just suddenly
had to find a place for them. They belonged to
her dog who was on a chain in the backyard. She
did not want to surrender the mom and we can't
make her surrender the mom, but she did agree
to get her spade using one of our vouchers. The
R litter of four, these were picked up on the
side of the road. They were super skinny and
so hungry. One of them, the male, could barely
walk when they first found them. By the time
we found out about them, he was getting around
a lot better. but we went ahead and sent him
to the vet anyways just to see what was going
on. The vet did an x -ray and found that his
leg had been broken either by being hit by a
car or by being thrown out of a car. It's healed
back about as perfectly as it could though and
he was very impressed by that and said we really
don't need to do anything for him at all and
it's just going to keep getting better. The end
letter of two. So Tasha got a call that someone
had seen two puppies three minutes away from
Tasha's house on a super busy four -lane highway
So she takes off driving all around finally finds
them and they're on the side of the highway eating
a dead deer and We know that they were eating
the dead deer because they got car sick and Tasha's
car and they threw up deer guts all over her
back seat. And you know, you know how we have
litter names for everyone down here that we call
them before they get their actual wolf trap names?
Like the laundry basket litter that was found
in a laundry basket. So these guys are fondly
referred to as the deer guts litter. The M letter
of seven are owner surrenders, the mom who actually
looks to me like a standard poodle. Maybe she's
just a doodle mix though, I don't know. But she
wandered up to someone's yard and they never
found the owner so they just kept her. She ended
up being pregnant and then had the puppies the
day after Christmas. They reached out to their
vet to see what to do about rehoming the puppies
and their vet just happens to be the one and
only Dr. Jamie. If you didn't know, Dr. Jamie
was one of Dr. Burton's students in vet school
down here at Mississippi State and they turned
into lifelong best friends. Dr. Jamie gave them
my number and they reached out to me when the
puppies were only about three weeks old at the
time so I gave them the whole spiel about surrendering
the whole litter of nine. Nine to get the spay
voucher for the mom. They said absolutely I asked
them if they needed me to find fosters for them
before After they were weaned before they would
leave on transport and they were like, no, no,
no We want to keep them until the day that they
leave on transport Well, they actually live right
by Tasha who actually lives 90 minutes away from
me So a few weeks later I passed them off to
Tasha to get with the owner about vaccinating
them and giving them any supplies that they might
need and he tells Dasha he actually needs them
gone as soon as possible because he has three
other dogs that he has to take care of and Dasha
was like okay well I have 26 so I think you and
your three will be fine for a few more days until
our fosters leave on their scheduled transport
and then we have a spot open up for years. So
two days later she goes to meet the guy to get
the puppies and he tells her it's actually only
seven puppies because he gave two away. and one
of them was the chocolate one. It was so cute.
So annoying. He did not get his spay voucher
but oh well. The bee litter and her eight bee
puppies were posted for free on a Facebook page
that our rescue partner Tasha manages. So before
she even approved it to be posted on the page
she called me to see if we could take them and
I was like duh. um they actually said in the
post that they were going to keep the mom but
when we asked them if they needed a spay voucher
for her they said no we're not keeping her she's
on a wait list to go to the local shelter whenever
they get room the kill shelter um but she was
on the list before she even got pregnant and
delivered puppies and weaned the puppies so i
was like okay well if you're just keeping her
if you're just gonna keep keeping her until the
shelter can take her just let me have her which
they were more than happy to do. The C letter
of six were posted on Facebook as free to a good
home. Another local rescuer here in Alabama got
them. I've never actually worked with her before,
but I've heard of her often. She mainly helps
at a different shelter than the one I help out
at in a different town. but she called her shelter
and asked them to call my shelter that I help
at to see if I would be willing to take these
puppies because all of her rescues were full.
And then I guess to make sure that I would say
yes, she said she would also throw in a four
month old Yorkie something mix. And I told my
shelter people I will absolutely take these.
adorable tiny small breed litter any day of the
week and they were like well she just wanted
to sweeten the deal and I was like okay well
no take backs because a deal's a deal but you
should tell her next time save your four -month
-old Yorkie mix for a litter of six one -year
-old black pit mixes instead of these adorable
puppies that I would have taken anyways happily.
but anyways the Yorkie mix is coming next transport
so get your bespoke apps in now. As for the kitties
we have a lot of cats on board this week which
is fantastic and I'm so happy but all except
for one is from our Alabama shelter friends which
means no stories really. Um, but Dacry is from
Jess. This is what she said about him. my daughter
-in -law started befriending the cat. They call
him Orange Cat, which is a terrible name for
him. I call him Wally. During the year that they
lived there, he became very very friendly. He
still roamed a lot and he missed several of his
neuter appointments because he was roaming. But
when Ellie and Caleb, her son and daughter -in
-law, moved, Orange Cat disappeared for a couple
weeks. He showed back on Jess's porch one day
with a huge gash down the side of his face. The
vet said it was an abscess probably from a cat
fight. So they got him fixed up. They got him
snipped up. And then he spent a week inside at
the doghouse until he got his drain tubes taken
out. During that time, any doubts he had about
laps and cuddles and people were officially gone.
When Jess brought him back to her house, he declared
her front porch as his home. And that's when
we discovered how terrified he is of other animals,
especially dogs. He went a little postal and
then eventually made Jess's dogs afraid to go
out. their own front door. So she set him up
a place on the porch down at the dog trailer
where she fosters and he's been pretty happy
there. He even calmed down a little when Justice's
dogs are close by but he'll probably still run
them off the porch if he needs to. um when he's
been off roaming for a couple days and he comes
back to an empty food bowl he'll go up to jess's
house and wait at the door for her and then go
straight to her jeep and waits for her to open
her car door and then they drive down to the
trailer and she feeds him he loves to sit in
your lap and he purrs so hard. He is going to
love having more attention. Side note, the places
where he had the tubes on the side of his face
and his neck took forever to heal. They just
in the last week have had the scabs come off
without reforming again. He's probably the biggest
cat I've ever seen and I love him so, so much.
He is such a lover boy and I'm so, so glad that
we were able to get him on transport. All the
rest of the cats and kittens are from the shelter
and they were all, every single one of them,
brought in as strays and never claimed. There
are a few that are related though, so the E litter
of two are mother and son, the J litter of two
are litter mates, the S litter of two are litter
mates, and then of course the F litter of five
are all siblings. That is all the stories for
this week. We are officially done with transports.
We have done four transports in four weekends
in a row and I am so tired. So far in 2026 we
have transported over 240 animals in what like
six weeks. That's insane. That's incredible.
It's all because of y 'all and your never -ending
support and encouragement. We are just so so
thankful for y 'all. and we are so so very tired.
We are very excited to have a weekend off before
our next transport. It is a Ruff life, but someone's
got to do it.