On the Road to a Better Life

Vince and Emily embark on an Adoption Adventure!

At 3:45 a.m. on a Sunday morning, my alarm sounds.  Usually on a Saturday night, I'm in bed sleeping by this hour.  However, today is a Transport Day!  See, states in the northeast have enacted and enforced very effective spay and neuter laws.  The laws are so effective that if you go to a shelter in Connecticut, for example, you will be placed on a waiting list.  In Kentucky, we euthanize abandoned animals from shelters frequently.  Fortunately, some good folks up north put Connecticut and Kentucky together and realized that they could save animals while filling a need.  As it turns out, it is even cheaper for them to get the critters vetted (vaccinated and altered) in Kentucky and reimburse us than in their area.  So, it's a win/win for everyone -- mostly our sweet shelter dogs!

Sweet shelter dogs like this one!  He was on transport!

Here's how it works:  the rescues in the north see the photos of our dogs online.  They contact us, and a member of our group will pull the selected dogs from the pound for vetting and quarantine.  They get vaccines, wormers, alterations, and heartworm tests.  When Transport Day rolls around, off we go with a vehicle full of dogs! Usually we drive to Hagerstown, Maryland, and meet up with a whole network of people who are coming from and going to different places.  Sometimes, though, we just meet up with one or two people.  That's what this transport is going to be in Hershey, Pennsylvania.   

On Saturday, my husband, Vince, and I picked up a rental cargo van, and one of our group members and her partner brought us a truckload of crates, which we assembled and loaded into the van that is now waiting.  We have double-checked that our transport kit is loaded with paper towels, bottles of bleach and water, paper towels, garbage bags, slip leads, and other supplies.  Vince's phone is loaded with podcasts.  The coffee pot timer is set, and the coffee brews while we shower and dress.

This guy is ready to start his new life!

We gather up the GPS and FM transmitter.  I have the address of the meeting place in Pennsylvania and phone numbers of the people we will be meeting.  I text the folks with the dogs that we are running a few minutes behind, and we get on the interstate.  At 5:30, we arrive at the truck stop in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky.  Foster parents with 21 dogs await us!

You HAVE to be good at Tetris to do this.

We jump out of the van and start loading up dogs.  Our founding member Shannon has provided a floor plan of how the crates will fit and which dogs go in the crates.  We got them all loaded without much difficulty. Some of the dogs have been in foster care for several months, and their foster parents are sad to see them go.  However, we all know that with this group of dogs going to rescue, that means we will be able to help more dogs who are in the pound. The dogs who are traveling today have no idea that they have hit pay dirt.  I always wish that I could explain it to them because the travel is stressful.  Transport day is one of the best days of their lives, though they don't comprehend it!

We're already ready already.  Let's go!

Vince and I get on the road with the dogs.  We started off with some episodes of This American Life.  The dogs are quiet.  They are like colicky babies -- once the vehicle is moving, they are fine!  Vince and I miss the window for fast food breakfast and decide to just keep going.  We don't want to taunt the dogs with the smell of food, and we don't feel comfortable leaving them unattended while we go into a place to eat.

On the road again.  Just can't wait to get on the road again.

We drive through West Virginia without much incident.  One of the dogs near the back door throws up, but it isn't a bad mess.  We clean it up and get back on the road.  Then, right after we get on Interstate 81 in Maryland, we hear a couple of yips.  Vince shushes the puppy, and then the smell hits.  We have a pooper!  We take the first possible exit and have to go several miles before there is a spot to turn off.  Of course, the mess is in a crate that is not accessible, so we have to move four crates outside the van.  Two puppies are in the crate with the mess, so I put them on slip leads. Vince holds them while I clean the crate.  We get the mess handled, put all the pups back, and continue down the road.

The Poopers.  Don't they look guilty?

I am excited to cross the Mason-Dixon line.  I have been in places north of it but never actually crossed it in a car.  We drive through miles of Pennsylvania farmland.  The area is beautiful.  There are barns built of stone.  The farms and yards are very tidy.   We are still listening to podcasts, and by this time, we are starving!  We arrive at the truck stop just outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (the capital!).  It is 2:30 in the afternoon, and we are excited to see that the people from Vermont are already there.

We jump out of the van and start unloading dogs.  We walk them and give them water.  Eighteen of them still have six more hours to travel to their destination in Vermont.  They are happy to stretch their legs and get some petting. Anna and Dawn, the ladies from Vermont, are excited to meet our dogs.  They pet the dogs and load them into their waiting crates.

Laura from Safe Haven Rescue

Then Laura, the lady from another rescue in the Poconos, arrives.  She is taking the other three of our dogs.  They are all Australian Shepherd mixes.   Laura puts all three on slip leads and walks them at once. They will only have to ride about two more hours to their destination.

Emily says goodbye to Flirt.   

As the dogs are walked and loaded, we begin breaking down and cleaning the crates.  As I get them cleaned, Vince loads them in the van.  Soon, Anna and Laura drive away with the dogs, and we are at a truck stop in a windowless van full of dismantled crates.  We get back on the road, deciding to see how far we can get before we have to stop for the night.  We end up deciding to just push through since we theoretically can do it. Besides, if we turn in the van on Monday, then we will save a day's rental.

Several diet Dr. Peppers, podcasts, and hours later, I pull the van into our condo parking lot.  It is 12:45 on Monday morning.  It is 20 hours since we left.  We are exhausted but full of adrenaline.  Our mission is complete; twenty-one dogs are saved.

Some of us are already adopted!

In the week since the transport, we know that one puppy has been spoken for.  A senior beagle and one of the Australian Shepherds have home visits scheduled.  This is the best part of the process -- when the dogs make it to their forever homes.

We want to emphasize that we are very very fortunate to be networked with the people in the northeast who rescue our abandoned animals.  However, we still have many left behind.  We are grateful to run transports, but they are not the solution to our over-crowded pound.  The answer is responsible ownership -- spay, neuter, and adopt!

PS  If you would like to assist with transports financially, we can always use donations toward the cost of a rental van and fuel.  You can do so without parting with any of your own money by using our Kroger cards.  Spend money that you spend anyway, and let Kroger's dough roll in!