Have you ever wanted to get involved in rescuing or helping animals, but you’re not sure where to start or you don’t have a lot of time to spare?
I know I’ve spoken of my desire to help and I’ve started working with a couple of different rescues offering some limited services.
Last Saturday at the Marion County Animal Shelter in Mullins, South Carolina a few cats and a number of dogs/puppies, totaling 28 in all were loaded into crates by volunteers. This group of volunteers goes by PTTR or “Paws To The Rescue.”
Their destinations were rescues and Humane Societies along the east coast. Every hour or hour and a half, after a quick leg stretch, potty/drink break these animals were transferred from the vehicle of one volunteer to the vehicle of another volunteer.
Some of them arrived at their receiving shelters sometime on Saturday. Some of them spent the night at a host shelter and continued their journey on Sunday.
By the time the human chain reached Vernon, CT it was down to six of the “P” pups; Paige, Paisley, Patton, Perry, Patsy and Peony.
We expected they would be restless and cranky, but that was far from the case. These sweet little fur babies were so loving it was hard not to pick them up and cuddle them. But it is strictly forbidden.
Due to the risk of Parvo, you are only allowed to pick them up wearing disposable gloves, and you should change gloves after handling each dog, unless they belong to the same litter, which these guys did. There are a number of other precautions you must take, such as bleaching all crates and any towels or blankets you used. We also had a bleach solution in a spray bottle just in case.
Once we had them loaded in the car Hubby said, “Let’s just go home.” But we were on a schedule and had to have the pups in Worcester, MA by a certain time.
There was a little excitement when we first started. Somebody pooped in the crate and somebody (not sure if it was the same somebody or not, decided they were hungry.) This was accompanied by me screaming, “No puppy no! Pull over, pull over,” and me jumping out on the side of the highway to remove the dirty towel. (I put it in a garbage bag and threw it away.)
We got back on the road and then one of the puppies decided they would chew on the paper tag from the towel, which resulted in me trying to jam my hand through the bars of the crate and finger/paw wrestle the puppy for the tag. Eventually I won and the puppies settled in for their ride.
Not one peep, out of any of these guys. They were so good and so cute.
These little guys came in jammies.
Please can I come out and play?
Are we almost there yet?
This little guy kept looking up every time I snapped a picture.
How much longer?
What is that flash I keep seeing?
Finally, a picture of them all snuggled up.
This was the tiniest one and so, so sweet.
All too soon we were in Worcester and it was time to say goodbye.
Thank you sweet puppies for letting us share just a small part of your journey to your forever homes.
We hope you have the best of everything that life has to offer. xoxo
I have to thank PupFan for this experience, I saw her post on facebook a few weeks ago, I sent an e-mail and it was that easy. Because of my busy schedule I can’t do this every weekend, but when I can I intend on participating.
If you live on the east coast, close to Interstate 95 and Interstate 91 and would be interested in helping with the transportation of any of the precious fur babies, PTTR does this run every weekend. You can check out the available legs on their blog post.
Together we really can make a difference.
Hey it’s Jet here. Hi Miss Jodi. Do you and Mr. Jodi wear wings like the angels you are? As a pup who was saved from I cannot even discuss what, thank you for helping K9s that needed a helping paw.
Hi Jet, thanks for stopping by. No, we don’t have wings, just a desire to help where we can. I’m glad you found a really wonderful home Jet, our Miss Delilah as taxing as she can be at times is was saved and I feel so grateful that someone helped her so I’d like to help someone else.
Thanks for your kindness.
Most welcome. Mom has washed dogs for a day, volunteered at Best Friends in Utah for 3 days, brought food to shelters and stuff like that. Mom echos your feelings about paying it forward for those that helped Koko, JJ, Puffy, Fluffy and I over the years.
🙂 Love the PJs. Glad so many people are prepared to help these little chaps and all the others.
It’s really nice that a bunch of people, most who have never met can band together to help some furry ones! The PJs were really adorable!!
Applause for you! We’ve done a few short hitches in the doggie railroad, too. It’s easy and feels pretty dog-gone good! Tried to tweet this post, but the Twitter pop-up window would only open a blank page 🙁
It is pretty easy (except for the cleaning!) but it did feel really good. Not sure why the tweeter didn’t work. I clicked it and it sent me to twitter. Thanks for trying though!!
Glad you got to help! I have been saying for a while now that I want to help out a shelter, just have not taken the time to do it. I really want to help them with some photos of adoptables, if they are in need of a photographer. It is amazing how a good shot of a dog can increase their chances of getting noticed, I would love to be part of that. I have always thought of fostering too, but with Luna being the picky dog she is it would be really hard to bring foster dogs in. So maybe at some point in my life, if I can convince the husband, I will get to. But helping a shelter with some photography is on my resolution/to do list for this year for sure. Hopefully my back will behave and allow me in front of the computer for editing.
Anna
http://www.akginspiration.com
Pictures are really important. I’ve said it before, if it had been based on Delilah’s picture, I wouldn’t have chosen her!
I’ve offered to help Labs 4 Rescue and our companions with picture taking but so far no-one has taken me up on it. Of course I’m not the photographer you are, but I figure if I get someone out there helping me we should be able to get a decent picture!
Someday fostering will be on my agenda too. 🙂
I am surprised that you did not come home with one. 😉 Good for you for helping out.
It sounds like that rescue takes all the precautions necessary to move dogs state to state. Just this month there were some dogs that were imported from another state which were quarantined here for not having the required vet certificates.
If it hadn’t been forbidden I probably would have, but then again they were so adorable none of them would have made it to CT.
The rule is, if you want one of those dogs you have to contact the receiving shelter and then I would have had to drive to Maine to get her/him, which I totally would have done. But since I am focusing on Delilah I just can’t do a puppy right now.
How sweet are they? Good Job Jodi!!!!! I would definitely have had to keep one (or more) of those sweet faced dears.
Don’t you have enough dogs, Laura? LOL It was difficult, but I had to think smartly about it. 🙂
Thank you for sharing this Jodi. It’s great that you helped these lovely pups.
Oh Bassa, you are too kind. Somewhere along the way someone helped my Delilah get to me, I just want to return the favor. 🙂
You are a lovely person Jodi xx
I’m sure those puppies are eternally grateful for your kindness too. xxx
You are one great lady, Jodi! That was so cute that they came in jammies. Good idea too in case it gets cold in the car. Thanks for sharing all of the little things that I might not have learned about, such as the gloves in case of parvo…