Welcome to Ruff Life. Um, it is currently a
little after 5 a .m. Mississippi time, which
is 6 a .m. y 'all's time. The van is already
at the Wolf Trap headquarters and they've already
started intake. So this is so, so, so, so much
later than I ever record the podcast. However,
my toddler wanted me to rock her to sleep tonight
instead of her dad, which is very out of the
norm for us. I am the bedtime book reader and
he is the bedtime rocker. Anyways, I passed smooth
out in that rocking chair with her. I woke up
at 3 30 completely unaware of where I was, who
I was, what day it was. I did snap back into
reality when I realized I still hadn't finished
my transport documentation for like work or this
podcast, which I just do for fun. So I dumped
her in the crib and got back to work. But for
those of you who are wondering where Justin was
and why he didn't come get me, he's asleep now
like a normal human, so I can't confirm this
with him. but I vaguely remember him coming in
and tapping my shoulder to wake me up, but it
woke me and Mary Sue up and then we were both
like half yelling, half crying at him that we
were sleeping and to go away. The only reason
that I think that that might even be true and
wasn't just a dream is because I have a text
from him at 1101 that says I'm never doing that
again. No context. No other messages. Just I'm
never doing that again. So I I think that really
did happen Let's get into the stories though
so that I can go back to bed The theme is Reba
McIntyre because I wanted my best girl fancy
to get to keep her name That's it. That's the
only reason I am surprised though that we had
never done a Reba theme before that seems like
something we should have done Keep On Loving
You was originally a litter of five. A foster
friend saw these puppies posted for free on Facebook
and asked if we could help. The mom is a purebred
husky who the owner bought but never had fixed.
They have had her for a little less than two
years and this is already her second litter.
They surrendered the whole litter to us and are
very thankful to be getting the mom's bait for
free and already have her scheduled with Dr.
Jamie. However, right after they contacted us
to take them they messaged us again letting us
know that some of them seemed sick and asked
what they needed to do so we told them take them
to our vet in the morning like she'll work them
up it's no big deal the next morning two were
dead when the owner woke up so she raced the
other three to the vet and two more ended up
dying within the next day or so so only our little
guy survived it was it ended up being parvo I
don't know if I said that. He's the only one
that survived from the whole litter. So super
sad for them. And still was an owner surrender.
He was a gift for their young son. However, they
were having some behavior issues with their son.
He's on the spectrum and I think they were kind
of hoping that this would be a therapy dog for
their son, but he was not treating the dog. very
kindly so they wanted him to go to a good family
out of state. His name is Tucker and he does
seem to respond to it but you can change it.
Starting over again is part of a hoarding case
that we're helping with. A puppy mill breeder
was forced to surrender seven of his dogs, and
last I heard they were trying to force him to
surrender another six, but I need to follow up
on that, find out for sure. The shelter working
the case reached out to us to see if we would
take this sweet boy and an even sweeter Pomeranian.
We said, duh. The pom isn't on the van this week
though because she had a rotten tooth and needed
a dental before she could come. This guy though
was so matted and so pitiful that the vet school
that neutered him had to shave him down completely
because they were so concerned with how tight
the mats were to his skin. Of course starting
over again is the perfect name for him after
he was shaved down to start over again. Just
like them horses is an owner surrender. The guy
had gotten a puppy for his son with good intentions
but quickly realized he was in over his head.
The puppy stays in a crate all day every day
while they're gone and then is just wild in their
tiny apartment at night. The owner at least had
sense enough to know it needed a better life
than what he could give it and didn't want to
just give it away for free. Hal Blue is from
our Alabama shelter friends. He was dumped by
his original owners and picked up as a stray
and then adopted out locally in late 2024. Then
one of their kennel techs was on lunch in 2025
and found him standing in the middle of a super
busy intersection on the four lane highway. He
almost got hit by an 18 wheeler. So she jumped
out of her car, picked him up, brought him back
to the vet. to the shelter and they have been
searching for a rescue to avoid adopting him
out down here again. The shelter manager has
been so stressed out anytime anyone comes in
to the shelter to look at him because she knows
he's gonna have a horrible life if he's adopted
locally again. They picked him back up in October
but she didn't tell me about him until February
1st. and I just wanted on the record that I had
him on transport within the month, so she should
have told me in October. Also, how blue is the
most perfect name for him with his piercing blue
eyes? I'm very proud of the names this time.
Because of you was an owner surrender to a different
Alabama shelter that I don't work with. We're
unsure of the reason that the owner surrendered
this one, but This was my little deal sweetener
from last transport. We were asked to take the
sea litter of sex from the Mardi Gras transport
earlier this month, who in and of themselves
were tiny and adorable puppies that I would have
said yes to in a heartbeat. but for some reason
that shelter thought that it would be hard to
find a rescue for them. So when they contacted
the shelter that I do work with, they said, if
you can find a rescue to take these six, tell
them that we'll throw in this tiny and adorable
three month old Yorkie mix to sweeten the deal.
I would have taken them anyways, but very happy
to be getting the Yorkie too. and i thought because
of you was a fitting name since supposedly it's
only because of her that the sea litter of six
got to go last week new fool at an old game was
born at the shelter last year her mom rejected
her like almost immediately and their transport
driver actually took her in and bottle fed her
this whole time the rest of that litter ended
up dying though not a single puppy survived except
for this one Another rescue pulled that mom at
the beginning of January but the shelter isn't
actually sure what happened to her because the
last they heard she turned out to be super super
dog aggressive and she wasn't sure if they had
to euthanize the mom or not. Does He Love You
was an owner's surrender at the shelter. The
owner said they couldn't keep him because their
house burned to the ground and where they were
staying wasn't dog friendly. They told the shelter
that he's a chorky. That's a Chihuahua and a
Yorkie and that they had papers saying that but
I guess they were lost in the fire. He is not
a Chorkie though. Like I will go to my grave
saying he is not a Chorkie. Either they got scammed
or they don't know what a Chorkie is. But whoever
adopts him, I need a DNA test done on this dog.
Fancy, my bestest girl. She was brought in as
a stray at the Alabama shelter and no one ever
came forward for her. They held her for seven
business days and at five o 'clock on the seventh
day, they texted me a picture and said, she's
yours. And on day nine, I had them bring her
to transport, which was the gems transport at
the beginning of the month so that I could foster
her for the week because she was so tiny and
so cute and I was like, we've got to get her
out of the shelter. Well. Joke was on me because
that one week quickly turned into three when
my fancy girl started coughing her head off.
She had picked up kennel cough during her week
at the shelter. She was also in heat when I brought
her home and was absolutely in love with me.
Really, though, just my leg, I guess I should
say. So I am fully betting that her owners just
let her outside to go to the bathroom and she
wandered off looking for a mate. I cannot figure
out though why they never looked at the shelter's
Facebook page or contacted them at all when they
realized that she was missing. She's not microchipped,
no one recognized her, it is just so weird to
me because she is the perfect little dog. But
this is so funny to me. The shelter posted her
picture on their Facebook page saying she was
brought in, picked up as a stray. They're looking
for the owner. And I commented and I have like
one of those weird Facebook badges where it says
like top fan or top comment or something like
that. And if you click my name, it very clearly
shows that I'm an animal rescuer. Well, anyways,
I commented on it because I'm always commenting
like stupid stuff on their posts. because I'm
mainly just talking to the shelter manager who
is my good friend and so I go oh it's me I'm
the owner I'll pick her up in seven business
days with like a bunch of laughing faces clearly
a joke got several ha ha reactions from strangers
There were like five or six people who apparently
thought I was serious and I was the owner and
I was like, oh, I'm just going to leave my dog
at the shelter for seven days. And they went
on a rant on that Facebook post talking about
how if I was an owner and willing to leave my
dog there at the shelter for seven days, I should
have my dog taken away. This is ridiculous. I
should be placed on a do not adopt list. The
shelter manager was coming back to them and like,
listen, she's our best rescue sheep. She pulls
animals from us every week. It's just a joke.
But I thought that was so funny. Oh, and another
fancy story. So she's in heat, but I did keep
letting her go outside in my fenced in area around
the pool so she could go potty. But I only ever
let her out there when I was out there because
she could literally walk through a chain link
fence. So fitting between my pool fence was a
breeze for her. But one night I was out there
late at night letting the dogs go potty before
bed and I was talking on the phone with my mom.
I looked away for literally 30 seconds, couldn't
have even been 30 seconds, and when I turned
around there was a giant black pit bull in the
corner of my yard who I had never seen before
in my life. Fancy was on the ground in front
of him, lying on her back, belly up with her
legs spread wide eagle, just wagging her tail.
And this boy was literally drooling over her.
His tail was going 90 miles an hour. He was in
his glory. So I take off running, trying to get
to Fancy, which, of course, spooks this strange
black pit bull in my yard. So he runs into the
neighbor's yard, which is not where he lives.
My neighbors don't have any dogs. I still don't
know where he lives. But when he left, Fancy
ran after him. And so anytime he would pause
and stand still for even a second, she would
flip over on her back and then jump up and run
away with him anytime he would get scared of
me again and take off. So I finally ease up to
them and I'm literally face to face, eye to eye
with this big, huge, black, unaltered pit bull.
while I am slowly sliding Fancy out from underneath
him. I am so lucky he didn't eat my face off
for taking away probably the hottest girl he's
ever had before. So I bring Fancy back in the
house, scold her, ground her, lecture her about
how we don't do that. And so she lays on the
top of the couch, looking out the window, just
moping all mad. And the black people is pacing
up and down on my front porch crying looking
in the window at her like I want you come back
out and she's like my mom won't let me come out
she said I'm in trouble I thought that was so
funny um We ended up seeing him one more time
just a few nights ago and he was playing with
peanut that time So I still don't know where
he lives or where he goes when he isn't showing
up here in the middle of the night We almost
had some super cute teacup pitbulls though if
I wouldn't have risked my life Luckily, him's
a good boy and he was sweet The I litter of two
were posted on Facebook for free with literally,
literally over 100 comments from people saying
that they wanted them. A foster for us just messaged
the girl and told her that she could get them
into a rescue for her if she wanted and she was
like, yes, come get them right now. And she did.
The L litter of four. So a lady reached out to
us several weeks. ago and she said that the neighborhood
stray had had puppies. I used the word neighborhood
loosely. It's really just a dead -end dirt road
with a bunch of trashy rental homes. Anyways
they started out with nine and by the time we
committed to them she had given two away then
one wandered off with the mom and didn't come
back and then the runt died. So Jessica went
and vaccinated the five remaining puppies and
saw the nasty porch and crate with just a blanket
over it that they were living in and apparently
rode out the ice storm in. So we made plans to
take them in as soon as the last transport left
so Jessica went back two days later and could
only find four of the puppies we kept hoping
that the fifth one would show up but she never
did we still don't know what happened to her
they ended up with a ringworm so they've had
a thousand dips in medicine over the last few
weeks um they are definitely ready for a better
life than what they've had so far the lady is
keeping the mom she really likes her and she
is already scheduled for a spay with our voucher
The O litter of three were found on the side
of the road in a ditch. They were supposed to
leave last transport, but one of them was not
feeling well. We took him to the vet and they
just threw the book at him, distemper test and
everything. No one could figure out what was
wrong with this puppy. The vet was completely
stumped. It turned out he was constipated and
very dramatic. That was it. The Sealer of Five,
we're not sure the backstory but this is a new
shelter partner that we're working with that
reached out for help with these five. They must
have just come in as strays or picked up as strays.
They're also the shelter that is working the
hoarding case with the Cavalier and the Pomeranian.
The tea litter of six are from our Alabama shelter
partner. They were found dumped in the county
and picked up by animal control. They were brought
in with their mom, but she is weirdly aggressive.
I don't know if it's hormones or PTSD from whatever
she's lived through, but she is way way way too
aggressive for us to pull. So the shelter, the
plan right now is the shelter is just going to
let her decompress for a little bit now that
her babies are gone and then work with her and
hopefully we'll be able to get her up on a future
transport. The R family was supposed to be a
mom and nine puppies, but unfortunately only
five of the puppies may transport this week.
The mom was dumped in the county with two male
pipples who were assuming at least one is the
dad. The shelter didn't know she was pregnant
at first when they when they got her in, but
they came in New Year's Day and saw nine sweet
babies in her kennel with her. They were supposed
to go in January when they were like newborn
newborn, but we knew that we were going to be
doing the mommy and me transport in a couple
weeks, so we held off on sending them so they
could go on that. but by the time we did the
mommy and me transport these guys were already
eating on their own and would have all needed
to go to separate foster homes thus defeating
the point of only sending nursing animals and
only needing like four fosters to pick up that
day so we held them back because the next transport
was just one week away well we had so many big
animals on that van that we needed to cut some
animals for space and these guys were our littlest
puppies Fast forward two weeks later to this
transport. The shelter said that four of the
runs They're not really runs. They're just a
little bit smaller They seemed like they were
still trying to get over kennel cough And so
they offered to hold them back to help them fully
recover We said absolutely, but we still plan
to send the mom with these five But no foster
ever stepped up for her, which is so surprising
because she is a great dog So she had to stay
behind for another week with her other four babies.
They should all be coming up on the next transport
though. There were eight kitties on the van this
week. All of them are from our Alabama shelter
and because of that we know almost nothing about
any of them. Every single one of them was brought
in as a stray either by someone who found them
wandering or by animal control. Everyone was
found alone except of course the G litter of
two who were brought in together, their litter
mates. Until they don't love you came in super
super sick and stayed with the shelter manager
for several weeks. Then Jessica took him after
last transport to get him fully well these these
last few weeks. Other than that, that is all
we know about any of them. They were all just
strays. That's all the stories for this week.
We had such a cute load with so many purebreds.
Next week's transport should be even cuter though.
We still have a Pomeranian, some doodle puppies,
and a purebred Australian Shepherd that are needing
fosters, so make sure you sign up if you're not
fostering this week. It's a Ruff life, but someone's
got to do it.