1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:15,040 Hello friends, welcome to Rough Life. This episode is actually dropping a day late because 2 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:21,280 yesterday was my precious baby's 7th birthday and we spent all day doing all his favorite 3 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:27,000 things. We went hiking at our favorite waterfall spot and then we had dinner inside a cave 4 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:32,440 with our family. If you missed Ollie's background story a few months ago, make sure you check 5 00:00:32,440 --> 00:00:38,720 it out so you can fully understand just how important this day is to us every year. But 6 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:44,940 let's get started. What a transport. We had seven adult dogs on this van and that makes 7 00:00:44,940 --> 00:00:50,840 me happier than anything. There were also some super special babies on this load too. 8 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:57,920 So Earl Greyhound is a stray that was picked up by the shelter. The ACO texted a picture 9 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:02,840 to Jessica and Jessica sent it to me and said, would you kill me if I go get this one from 10 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:08,000 the shelter? I think it's a puppy. I wrote back and said, I will kill you if you do not 11 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:12,920 go get that baby. I do not care how old it is. I was actually hoping to get to foster 12 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:18,400 it but we ended up having someone in Virginia that was willing to foster it instead. So I 13 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:27,800 let him go. Poopay, otherwise known as doofus, otherwise known as tank, who is most frequently 14 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:35,320 known as stop is an eight month old albino doberman. I've talked about him before on 15 00:01:35,320 --> 00:01:40,360 the episode titled storytime doofus. Make sure you listen to that episode if you missed 16 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:46,400 it so you can get a clear representation of what his foster is about to go through. Doofus 17 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:51,560 was taken to the vet at the end of February when he broke with Parvo. His owners told 18 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:57,560 my vets to do whatever it took to save his life, which they did. And then the owners 19 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:02,520 never came back to get him or pay his bill. The vet surrendered him to us after he spent 20 00:02:02,520 --> 00:02:08,760 almost three months living at their clinic. He really, really is a sweet dog. Seriously, 21 00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:15,280 I am so glad that they gave him to us. I know he will keep his new family laughing but golly, 22 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:20,880 I am not going to miss him one bit. He was awful. 23 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:26,200 Keely Jones is from our new shelter friends here in Alabama. She was actually born at 24 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:31,000 the shelter last year and has watched her mom and all her litter mates except for one 25 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:36,360 sister get adopted. She was super, super sick when she was a baby, but the manager at the 26 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:41,640 shelter took her home and worked around the clock for weeks to save her life. She is doing 27 00:02:41,640 --> 00:02:46,880 absolutely fantastic now. She spent the majority of her life coming to work with her foster 28 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:51,320 mom at the shelter and hanging out with all her foster friends and then going back home 29 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:58,560 at night. Her foster mom was so tore up about sending her away, but like all of us at Animal 30 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:04,400 Rescue, she knows what a wonderful life she's going to have up north. Wonder Kid is an owner 31 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:10,720 surrender. She was part of the H-Litter from January 17th. The owners had given her away 32 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:15,840 to a friend before they asked us to take the other ones. The new family is elderly and 33 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:20,320 they didn't realize how much work and energy a puppy takes. 34 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:26,560 Coach Beard was found as a stray roaming the streets. He was completely matted to the point 35 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:31,040 that his urine would soak him every time he went potty because it couldn't get through 36 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:35,320 the hair. Someone picked him up and held on to him for a few days while looking for an 37 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:39,600 owner in the area. She then reached out to our rescue partners and asked if we could 38 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:43,960 take him. We held on to him for several more weeks looking for an owner, but no one ever 39 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:45,840 came forward. 40 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:52,520 The F-Litter of 2 are part of the Doodle Bunch that came last transport. Long story short, 41 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:58,000 their owner surrenders, but if you missed last week's episode, I do go more into depth about 42 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:05,080 their story. There are two more doodles that will be coming on the next transport. 43 00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:11,080 The J-Litter of 4 were dumped in a neighboring town. The finder had to pull them out of the 44 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:17,160 bushes. They were scared to death. The finder kept them until transport because she knew 45 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:21,160 how many coyotes they had in their area and that if they weren't eaten, they would be 46 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:25,080 hit by a car before they got to leave for transport. 47 00:04:25,080 --> 00:04:30,800 The B-Litter of 8's mama was a neighborhood dog that just roamed around. When she delivered 48 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:35,080 this litter of puppies, a neighbor heard the puppies crying and saw some kids throwing 49 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:40,120 rocks and sticks at them. She went and got them and kept them until transport. Mama was 50 00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:44,440 spayed earlier this week and the foster is going to keep her. 51 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:51,160 The D-Litter of 4 is actually a Litter of 5. We held one of the puppies back due to ringworm 52 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:57,120 suspicions. You are welcome to whoever was going to have to foster her. This litter is 53 00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:02,040 from our Alabama shelter and they were owner surrenders. 54 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:08,640 The M-Mama and her Litter of 7 are from the Alabama shelter as well. Mama was found at 55 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:13,360 the fairgrounds. Animal control actually had the hardest time getting her to come out of 56 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:18,280 whatever she was under. I think it was like a deck of some sort. She was acting like she 57 00:05:18,280 --> 00:05:24,240 was just so vicious and they were scared to death of her. Turns out she was an active 58 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:28,400 laborer and was about to deliver puppies. She had the first one as soon as she got to the 59 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:34,320 shelter. She and her puppies have been at the shelter since the beginning of April. 60 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:39,760 The S-Litter of 8 were found in a box at our local park. Jessica pulled them during our 61 00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:44,800 five week break where I gave strict orders not to pull any large puppies because they 62 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:51,800 would be humongous by the time we had transport. She texted me and said, A-C-O just messaged 63 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:56,280 me about some puppies found in a box. I'm gonna go get them. They're in a box. How big 64 00:05:56,280 --> 00:06:00,880 could they be? I didn't answer her right away but honestly I probably would have agreed 65 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:06,640 with her if I did answer her. But the next text I got back from her said, Turns out they 66 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:15,200 were found at the box which is a storm shelter at the park. Not in a box. They're huge. Don't 67 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:23,440 kill me. And I was okay with all that. But then the next text I got was, So one of these 68 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:30,240 puppies can't walk. I think it's got a broken leg. I will understand if you kill me. I didn't 69 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:38,160 kill her. I wanted to but I didn't. And then my precious L-Litter of 3. I wasn't even gonna 70 00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:43,000 send them. They actually weren't even on the list to go at all. But the morning of transport 71 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:48,720 we ended up getting several extra people that signed up to foster. So the way that works 72 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:54,080 on our end, if you didn't know, is when people sign up to foster there's usually a 50% chance 73 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:59,240 that it will actually pan out and they will end up fostering. When they sign up our foster 74 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:04,200 coordinator will reach out to them to go over everything and again 50% of the time they're 75 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:11,080 either like, Oh no. I didn't realize it was a live animal we'd be taking. Never mind. 76 00:07:11,080 --> 00:07:16,760 Or I live in Canada. Is that too far away from y'all? They probably don't say y'all. 77 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:21,640 But seriously, like they can't pick up on pick up day or they can only keep them for 78 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:28,680 a few days. So just because we have 50 sign ups does not mean we're gonna have 50 fosters. 79 00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:32,400 So anyways, I asked our foster coordinator if there was any chance that we would have 80 00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:37,040 extra spots available. If so, I would bring my three babies to transport with me so they 81 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:41,720 could go. And then, you know, I would just bring them home if they didn't get to go. 82 00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:45,680 So I brought them with and about an hour before the van was supposed to leave, they told me 83 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:51,280 we did not have enough fosters for them to go. But if I did a post on the Facebook page 84 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:56,460 and I found the fosters, they could go then. So I put a post up, but by the time we were 85 00:07:56,460 --> 00:08:00,000 getting ready to load them on the van, we still hadn't found fosters for them. So I 86 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:04,480 was like, Oh, well, I'll just keep them. We can put a different letter in this crate 87 00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:10,480 that we were going to put these in now, like we'll have extra room. So we unload some other 88 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:15,400 puppies, we move everyone around since we were going to have this empty crate. And literally 89 00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:20,720 as we were closing the door on the van, I get a text that says, Do the van leave yet? 90 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:27,920 I've got fosters for them. So we rearranged everything yet again to squeeze my baby's 91 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:33,320 on so they could start their new life. They are actually part of the sick puppies that 92 00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:38,440 I talked about in my podcast last week. I went to the shelter here in Alabama a few 93 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:45,080 weeks ago to drop something off. And like an idiot, I decided to walk through the shelter 94 00:08:45,080 --> 00:08:50,920 to see the puppies I was coming back for in a few days. They are actually the M mama and 95 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:56,480 her puppies that I was going to see. Well, I apparently forgot to put my blinders on 96 00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:03,200 as I walked through because when I passed these puppies, my heart broke. Oh my goodness, 97 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:08,680 they were so cute and they were so pitiful. There were six puppies at the time, two of 98 00:09:08,680 --> 00:09:13,520 them, two of the three that left this week, were in a crate in the main area of the shelter 99 00:09:13,520 --> 00:09:20,440 because they were relatively fine. Two others, the two I still have currently were in a crate 100 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:26,480 in the isolation room and they were absolutely terrified. They were probably like right at 101 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:31,480 three weeks old. They were curled up together looking so sick and so weak. And they were 102 00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:38,360 shaking uncontrollably. And then another two, the third puppy that went this week and then 103 00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:43,800 one that died the day I pulled them were also in that same quarantine area of the shelter. 104 00:09:43,800 --> 00:09:47,960 It was so loud and so scary in there for them. You could just tell they were not doing well 105 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:52,600 at all. The shelter manager took them to the vet about an hour after I left the shelter 106 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:57,600 and I told her if this isn't something horribly contagious because you know, I do have other 107 00:09:57,600 --> 00:10:03,200 animals at home and if the vet even sends them back today instead of keeping them overnight, 108 00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:08,200 I'm coming back to get them as soon as they get here. So she texted me about 30 minutes 109 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:11,640 before the shelter closed and told me that the vet really didn't know what was wrong 110 00:10:11,640 --> 00:10:17,680 with them but thought it might be possibly giardia, which is just you know, a sickness 111 00:10:17,680 --> 00:10:22,760 in their intestines that you know, gives them really bad diarrhea and you know, they just 112 00:10:22,760 --> 00:10:29,480 don't feel good. So I raced back to get them. I got them home literally through every medication 113 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:34,240 we had at them and about 20 to 30 minutes after we got home, one of them died in my 114 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:42,040 arms. It turns out this was actually a litter of nine originally. Well, kind of. There were 115 00:10:42,040 --> 00:10:49,000 nine total. My two itty bitties that I still have are not part of the same litter of the 116 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:54,400 three that left. So I don't technically know which litters the four that died were part 117 00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:59,800 of but regardless, there were nine and now there's five. They were all taken from the 118 00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:05,480 same home so their cousins or half siblings or something. The house they were taken from 119 00:11:05,480 --> 00:11:11,400 has over 40 dogs they said and they think there's still another litter there. These 120 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:17,120 three that left this week on transport are doing just fantastic. They actually really 121 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:22,920 were never that sick. Not on desk store anyways like the two I still have. There were several 122 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:27,400 nights where I would go to bed and I would look at these two puppies and think I sure 123 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:31,960 hope you're gonna be alive when I come back to check on you. But thanks to Lord they have 124 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:36,160 pulled through. They probably could have gone on transport with the other three too but 125 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:40,640 I'm still a little too obsessed with them for them to leave me so soon. When you take 126 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:48,000 care of puppies that are so sick for so long you form almost like a trauma bond to them. 127 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:53,000 I'm so used to checking on them every hour and poking medicine or fluids or food in their 128 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:58,360 mouths. I still need them here so I can physically see them and see how great they're doing 129 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:03,200 and how healthy they are. But trust me in a few days I will be begging for another foster 130 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:11,360 for them. As for the cats Higgins is from the Alabama Shelter 2. He was found as a stray 131 00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:17,640 and brought in by whoever found him. The T mama and her kittens are from the shelter 132 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:22,840 2. They were picked up as strays when the kittens were newborns. Nathan Shelley was 133 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:28,320 found in a tree in someone's yard several weeks ago. Jessica went and got him last week 134 00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:33,360 and almost didn't even let me send him on transport. She texted me after she had had 135 00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:37,600 him for a few days and said, this kitten gets to sleep in bed with us that night because 136 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:43,680 he is so sweet and so well behaved. While he spends half the night kneading on my head 137 00:12:43,680 --> 00:12:48,520 and he barely has his claws out so it feels so good. Like when you go to get your hair 138 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:53,760 washed at the salon but without the uncomfortable chair part. I told her I wasn't sure if he 139 00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:57,800 had a foster yet and if he was going to get to leave on transport the next day but she 140 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:01,680 needed to bring him to transport regardless because if he didn't go I was taking him 141 00:13:01,680 --> 00:13:08,520 home for my massage. The R litter of two kittens were bottle fed by one of our fosters when 142 00:13:08,520 --> 00:13:14,160 we were contacted about a mama cat with newborn kittens who had all been killed by a resident 143 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:19,520 dog. So only these two kittens survived the mama and all the other litter mates were 144 00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:27,520 killed by the dog. And that is all the stories for all 53 critters on the van this week. 145 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:34,680 As of right now our next transport isn't scheduled for three more weeks but I am hoping and praying 146 00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:38,960 that something changes and they give me something sooner because we have got kittens and puppies 147 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:44,880 coming out our ears right now. But for now I am going to snuggle with my totally healthy 148 00:13:44,880 --> 00:14:02,920 puppies that I have worked so hard on. It's a rough life but someone's got to do it.