Hello friends! Welcome to Ruff Life! It is finally the day we have all been waiting for,
transport day. We've got lots of critters on this load today so I'm just going to jump right into
their stories. First up we have Murph. He is a five-year-old scruffy little thing. His owner
was an elderly lady who couldn't take care of him anymore so some of her relatives took him in.
He ended up being too hyper for their liking though so they surrendered him to one of our fosters.
His hair was so matted and nasty when we got him that he had to be taken to the groomers
immediately. The hair around his eyes was matted to the point it almost blocked his vision completely.
But luckily Murph is looking and feeling so much better now. The B litter of two three-month-old
lab mixes were dumped behind a restaurant in a nearby town. One of our rescue partners in that
area took them home and she fostered them over the five-week break for us. The P litter of two
beagle mixes were dumped in front of our veterinarian's home. I'm telling y'all if people know you're
involved with animals in any capacity your road immediately becomes a dumping ground. Unfortunately
for the vet's neighbors the animals often wander up to his home as well so he's taken in several
of them himself and he's found homes for several others. When these two puppies were dumped he
asked the vet if he knew anyone that would take them and our vet recommended our rescue.
They were actually dumped with an adult who we originally thought might have been their mom.
We don't think that's the case however but she was pregnant at the time and she just had seven
puppies a few days ago so he's going to keep them until the June transport when they're old enough
to go but he does want to keep the mom because he already loves her so much. This is actually the
first time he's ever sent animals on a transport before and he was so heartbroken about it but
when I explained you know all the insanely amazing lives these animals get I could tell that made
him feel better. We're so thankful that he kept them these last few weeks for us and he's even
offered to foster for us in the future so we love a win-win. The A litter of two was dumped at the
kill shelter. They were actually found running around and playing at the water treatment plant
that's right behind the shelter so someone definitely just dropped them off in the shelter
parking lot and just hoped the best for them. Luckily they didn't wander out into the busy
road and get run over. The C litter of four husky mixes were picked up by the shelter because they
were sitting at the street department. Jessica and I actually don't even know where the street
department is and I had never even heard of it and so they sent us that text. It was actually just
a day or two after our last transport in March. We had agreed not to pull anything for the first
few weeks of the break so we wouldn't have to foster them for so long and well you can see how
long that lasted. The animal control officer asked us to take the four puppies. He sent us pictures
of six puppies and gave us five genders so we had no idea what we were really going to end up with
when we got them. They had some pretty rough mange when we picked them up but we got them started
on treatment right away and they look so much better now. The W litter of three were found
curled up on a headstone at a cemetery. The headstone was Mary and Jay Prather so I think that
would be really great names for these puppies. They were picked up by whoever found them and they
were taken to one of our rescue partners who got them settled in a foster home until transport.
The T litter of seven were found in a box at City Hall a few towns over. A police officer picked
them up and got them to one of our rescue partners. He actually kept one of the puppies and then
contacted the rescue a few weeks later and asked if it was too late to give them this puppy too.
Okay Dolly and her nine Labradoodle puppies. This girl will always hold such a special place
in my heart. She is definitely a hard one to let go of. She is actually part of the oodles of doodles
bunch that we pulled last year. So last year I got tagged in a post on Facebook that someone
had made about doodles that needed help because she was from out of state. Her post didn't get
much attraction so no rescue stepped up. I messaged her to get more information and she said a friend
of hers had gone to the breeder to buy one of the dogs and when she got there she was just
horrified at the conditions they were living in. She took a few pictures and that's what was posted
on Facebook. So I got in touch with the breeder and he surrendered eight Labradoodles to us that he
was no longer able to take care of. Flash forward a few weeks and the lady who went there to buy a
dog and took pictures and got the whole ball rolling reached out to me herself. She said she
no longer wanted the dog that she bought and she asked if I would buy her back from her. I told her, um,
no, but that I would be more than happy to come get her if she needed me to for free.
A few days later she wrote me back and she told me I could come get her. I was just about to leave
when she texted me that she changed her mind and just couldn't give her up. So two weeks later I'm
on vacation in Gatlinburg and she messaged me that she needed the dog gone by the end of the day.
I wish y'all could hear my eyes rolling right now. I was so annoyed. So I sent a mass text message
out to all of our people to see if anyone could just stop what they were doing and go get her right
then. Thankfully one of our rescue partners was able to go get her and take her to one of their
fosters. Their foster kept her until I got home and then she came to stay with me. We were closed
for Christmas and New Year at the time and by the time transports resumed we had a hunch Dolly was
pregnant. A few weeks later it was confirmed. Dolly stayed with me while she delivered puppies
and I gotta tell y'all I have seen a lot of mamas. Hands down, hands down, mama dogs are some of the
best mamas in the world. But Dolly girl, she definitely wins the award for the worst mom in
the world. The moment those puppies came out of her she wanted nothing to do with them. The look
on her face when the first puppy plopped out was absolute disgust. I would try to put it on her and
she would look at me like do not touch me with that thing. Actually one of my funniest memories
of this litter, well it's funny now but it was traumatizing when it happened, was the day after
their birth. It was my mom's 60th birthday and I had this whole day planned for us at the spa.
My dog, Ollie, begged to come with me when I was going to Mississippi to pick my mom up that morning.
So I just let him ride with us since we would be going right past our house on the way back
when we were on the way to the spa anyways. And thank goodness I did because when I stopped at
home to put him back in the house I opened the door and it was utter chaos. At the time I had Dolly,
peanut butter, who was still completely feral and big boy. So I walk in the door and I hear puppies
screaming in every room of the house. Dolly is sprawled out on the couch, sound asleep.
Big boy is running laps around our dining room kitchen living room and he's panting like he has
run a full marathon. And poor peanut, who was only a few weeks postpartum herself at the time,
was picking puppies up and putting them in her dog bed trying to make them stop crying.
It was it was like the whole house was on fire. I have no idea what happened while I was gone. My
best guess is either Dolly would lay down with them and then when she got up some would still be
hanging on to her and they would just fall off all over the house or and this is this is probably
more likely what it was. She didn't like to be alone with her puppies so I wonder if big boy and
peanut were in the other rooms and she attempted to carry her puppies in there with them to nurse.
I honestly don't know. I got everyone gathered back up though and set up a nanny camera appointed
directly at them so I could stare at them the whole time I was at the spa which was so relaxing.
And then Justin was getting home from work just a couple hours later so
Dolly just hated being a mom. She just wanted to play with her friends and cuddle on the couch.
I will say though despite all of that and all the mean things that I just said about her
all 11 of her babies were born alive and she kept all 11 of these babies alive this whole time.
She may not have wanted to but she did. So you might be thinking 11 I thought you said nine.
Well only nine are on this transport because we are holding two of them back. My little charcoal
girl and my little runt man got sick out of nowhere last week. It hit them hard and we have
absolutely no idea what it is. Four different vets here have weighed in and we've done multiple
tests and everything is coming back negative. They're just refusing to eat or drink. I honestly
don't even know how they're still alive. They're only surviving by the fluids that I'm putting in
them. I go in every hour and I poke food, nutricle, formula or medicine in their mouths.
We're trying everything but it's been a week now and they have not made much progress at all.
Thankfully the other nine are completely fine and totally healthy. We're just going to hold these
two back until they're strong enough to make the trip. Hopefully that'll be the next transport but
if they have to stay here a little longer that's fine. This litter was born in my living room,
raised in my dining room and just completely stole mine and my husband's hearts. Their sweet mama is
as good as gold and I'm so thankful for her that this was her first and last litter. She has been
through so much in her two short years. She deserves the absolute best home where she can be the care
free dog that she wants to be and I can't wait to see the wonderful homes all of them get.
It's a good thing that I still have two of them here with me right now or I'd be saying all of
that through tears. Okay moving on. The tea litter of nine is another crazy story. Their mom is not
on this transport but her name is Mary D. We first found out about Mary D last year. She wandered up
to someone's home and they thought she looked pregnant and asked us to take her. We got her
scheduled for transport, had someone ready to take her so she could deliver her puppies in a
foster home in Virginia but the hussy went and delivered the puppies before transport. She had
them deep in the woods and the owner couldn't find them. A few days later Mary D brought a couple of
the puppies back to the house and the weather was so cold that night that they froze to death.
We were gutted. Absolutely devastated. We were still going to send Mary D on transport that next
week but the owner decided she wanted to keep her. We gave her a spay voucher but she thought she had
more time than she did to get it done because she contacted us in February saying Mary D was
pregnant again. We were determined to get her in a foster home down here before she delivered
but she had her puppies two days before our transport left and all of our foster homes opened up.
Thankfully she had them under the lady's porch this time so as soon as transport left
Mary D and her nine two-day old puppies moved into the doghouse. She is the absolute best mama dog
I have ever seen. She is the complete opposite of Dolly and I was just going to end her story here
but it's so crazy. I'm going to just tell y'all now. Mary D isn't on transport with her puppies
today because she's staying here to nurse puppies. About 10 days ago we got a call from Animal
Control that a police officer shot and killed a mama dog in town. She had six puppies that were
barely a few hours old. She was so close to her puppies when she was shot that her puppies were
covered in her blood splatter when they were brought to us. They would have absolutely died at the
shelter because there's no one there to bottle feed them or even just to keep them warm but we
had no bottle feeders either or formula or anything. Luckily we did have Mary D. Her puppies were
already starting to eat puppy food and beginning to wean so we went ahead and just put them at
my house with Dolly and her puppies and gave the six newborns to Mary D. It was a gamble whether or
not she would take them in and feed them. She could have very easily said not my puppies not my
problem but she saw those six little bitty babies cold, bloody, and hungry and she laid right down
with them. She cleaned them and fed them all night. She is still the best little mama to them. She
hardly ever leaves their side. Unfortunately Mary D's owner is not sure yet if she wants her back
or not when she's done feeding this litter so I don't know if she will ever make a Virginia
debut in a few weeks but I do know we will never be able to repay her for everything she has done
for these puppies. She absolutely saved their lives and we are going to make sure she has the
happiest life ahead of her whether it's in Mississippi or Virginia. We actually let her have
a little family reunion today with her original babies before we loaded them on the van and
let's just say out of sight out of mind for Mary D she did not care a flip about seeing those babies.
She was just concerned with getting all the petting by us. Maybe she thought we were going to make
her take them back too and she was going to have to feed everybody. Who knows but she wanted
nothing to do with them babies. As for the cats we were originally just sending the J litter of
three kittens. Actually they're not even technically a litter of three. Two are from a rescue partner
who had a feral cat gift birth. We spayed the mom and she's a barn cat for them now somewhere
and the gray kitten was abandoned as a baby and has been being bottle fed for the last month by one
of our fosters but they were all the same age and they all needed a place to go at the same time
so we've only had one foster that was able to take them so they've been staying together the last two
weeks. But then yesterday the day before transport Dr. Burton reached out to me and told me that the
cat condo at PetSmart contacted them and told them if they didn't get some more cats in there soon
they were going to have to partner with another rescue and y'all already know we were not going
to let that happen so I got to do one of my all-time favorite things in the world. Go shopping.
Not for clothes or shoes or anything like that. For critters. Any animal we save is rewarding for
sure but there's just something different about going to shelters and walking through picking
who you're going to take home with you. It's like when you go on a road trip as a kid and your
parents let you pick whatever snacks and candy you want from the gas station. No it's even better
than that because this was unexpected. It's like your parents pick you up from school and tell you
you can get whatever candy and snacks you want. I am definitely like a kid in a candy shop when I
get to do this. It's rare that I do. Usually my transports are filled weeks if not months in advance
but when openings come up like this at the last minute and I get to just bust some extra animals
out of a shelter it's amazing. All that to say. Nine to five and the seven S litter kittens were
part of my shopping spree pull. They actually came from the shelter that I talked about in one of my
introductory episodes when I first got started so it was super nice to be able to help them out and
save these babies. Nine to five was actually born at the shelter last year. Her mom and all of her
litter mates were adopted but she never was. She's a year old and she's been there her entire life
but because there are no kill shelters she would just stay there forever until someone eventually
came and adopted her which is great for her but that means that's one less cat that they can take
for as long as she's there. So we're really glad we were able to take her for them. The kittens
were brought to the shelter as owner-surrenders. They were brought to them in a big Tupperware
container which is terrible but it was a super cute picture. Run Rose Run was part of a Littera
five kittens that were found by someone visiting Mississippi from out of state. They were found
abandoned behind a convenience store and were just a few days old. The family looked at the closest
vet to them and that vet gave them our rescue partner's information. Two kittens died immediately
but the other three kittens were bottle fed for weeks by the by the rescue's owner. The other
two kittens went on transport somewhere else but when it was time for Rose to go on transport it
got canceled at the last minute. By the time the next transport came around they told her the kitten
was too old to go and they would no longer be taking her which is ridiculous. We're so glad we
got to add her on last minute because she is absolutely beautiful. Good golly Miss Dolly is
actually from my former boss the elementary school principal. She's in the process of moving to a
new house and she's renting a home since hers just sold but she's not able to keep her cat with her
at the rent house. I also kind of got the impression that this was just a stray cat that wandered up
to their old house and they took care of her just because she was there but they didn't want to leave
her behind for the new owners. They've taken great care of her and she's a super sweet cat but I think
this was more of a she just moved in with us kind of situation. But that covers all of our stories
for all 53 animals on today's transport. Next transport is on Friday so our episode won't drop
until then. Make sure you hit that subscribe button to get notified when it goes live next week
and follow us on our Instagram page to see all the backstory photos. Next week's episode is going
to have some wild stories and some crazy before and after photos. It's a rough life but someone's
going to do it.