Another Saturday...another animal rescue transport

As usual, I packed a cooler this morning and my friend Mari picked me up at 8:15am and we headed down I-85 to Spartanburg, SC, about an hour and a half away, where we met up with four other vehicles. Two had come from further south where they picked up the animals at the Greenville, SC shelter and the third and fourth were headed to Charlotte, like we were. We walked and watered, then carefully moved the dogs, one at a time, secured the paperwork for each dog, and headed up I-85 to Charlotte. Sounds easy? Not so much.

The passengers Mari and I were transporting were a pregnant border collie named Jasmine, a weineramer named Kenzie, and a long haired brindle retriever named Angel and her 5 puppies. These animals were all pulled from a high-kill shelter and were headed to Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusettes. Most of them will travel two days, one leg at a time, then moved to the next vehicle every hour or so, all done by the generousity of unpaid volunteers who donate their time and gas money to save these fur babies. If not for a transport, today probably would have been their last day. They would likely have been gassed late this morning. This is the harsh reality of the lack of spay/neuter laws in the south: death in a gas chamber.

Jasmine

Angel with Mari

Angel's Pups

Kenzie

Mari

Edie

When we got to Charlotte we were to meet two other drivers. One showed up. The other one, who has a reputation for not showing up or showing up very late, didn''t show up. Rather than wait for her, the two drivers that were taking the next leg to Salisbury, NC each took an extra dog. We added a beautiful golden named Austin to our truck. He was rescue-tethered because we didn't have another crate for him.

Most of these shelter dogs were once family pets. The sweet border collie was turned in to animal control "because she got pregnant again." Never mind that the moron owners never got her spayed and probably left her tied out in the backyard where she was a sitting duck. She looked like she had never had a bath. These dogs don't jump into the vehicle. Most of them have to be lifted, and they average 50 dirty pounds. These poor creatures got the most basic of health care at the shelter - rabies shots so they could travel, and possibly some flea treatment, before they hit the road. About half way to Salisbury, Mari and I started to see fleas hopping around the car, we think courtesy of our new passenger, Austin.

This is hard, stinky, but very rewarding work. These animals and their puppies will end up in happy homes or in the foster care of rescues in the north. It was about 250 miles of Mari's driving and gas. Today we helped save 9 dogs and the future puppies of sweet Jasmine. That's why we do it. And that's why next Saturday we'll do it again.

Spay and neuter your pets!<