Transporting Leo

So last night I was going through my emails when I open one from a transport group. I always check them but I am never able to help because the transports usually take place on the weekends and that is when my husband and the kids are home. But I always check and try to forward on accordingly. Well last night at about 10:20pm I opened an email and read about a Bloodhound named Leo. It seemed as if his adoptive family felt he just wasn't going to work out. He needed to go back to his foster mom, who he was quite bonded too. The rescue group was trying frantically to fill a transport for the follow day, today. Well, for the first time I could actually help out! I was thrilled so I called and all the arramgements were made.

I showed up 30 minutes early at the intended meeting site, a Bob Evans at 71 & 18 in NE Ohio, and when I got there I found out the transport was running late. You see what happens with  a transport, I will take Leo for instance. Leo was at his adoptive home in Albany, New York. He needed to get back to Loveland, Ohio. That is a 700 mile trip that takes  11 1/2 hour of driving, then you have to figure in potty breaks. Now since this is a rescue/foster home that is taking Leo back, they can not afford to fly him home, so volunteers agree to pick up legs of the trip consisting of about 45 minutes to an hour drive so Leo can get out of the car have a break and be passed on to the next person. A transport train if you will. This effort was a 2 day event for Leo, and as I am writing this he is on his last leg. Almost done.

As I said, the transport was running a little late, but when it got there, I saw Leo for the first moment in the back seat and my heart just ached for him. I let him walk around the grass a little and as I was talking with the other driver and absentmindedly scratching Leo's head he suddenly put his paw in my hand. So I looked at him set it down and loved on him and went back to talking again. Then he did it again. There was something about what he was doing, it was as if he was trying to say "Hey, I like you, can I come home with you?" He immediately climbed into my car and settled in for the ride. I talked to him the whole way. I told him about my dogs, and how much I would love to take him home but it would be too crowded. And I told him he was going home to his foster mom and would be happy to see her. When we got to Leo's next stop I was truly sad my part of his journey had ended.

I have to say, I have done rescue for years, and have done many transports in the past, but this one really grabbed my heart. I am not sure why Leo didn't work out for the family that adopted him. All I know is that it took me 5 minutes to fall in love with him, a 50 minute car ride to become attached and I will have a liifetime memory of a Dog that loved anf trusted me to help get him back to a place he thinks is home.

Anna, The Pilot’s Wife

Late last night around 11:00pm Leo was reunited with his foster mom and dad. I am sure they were all relieved he made there safe and sound and I know he had a good night's sleep in a home where he is loved...

ELVIS AND THE POODIDDLE GANG

This is the story of a dog… no, two dogs, okay, three dogs and how they came to be the POODIDDLE GANG!

Once there was a girl, she was a kind girl with an open heart and an empty home. She spent her days working hard and her weekends helping animals. She especially liked to help animals that were thought of as beyond help, the ones that no one wanted. You know the ones you see in the ads on TV for the ASPCA. They always bring tears to your eyes…

And, once there was a dog, a small dog, he was a smart dog with a good heart and no one to call his own. He wandered the streets of the big city making his way anyway he could. Until the dogcatcher picked him and brought him to the shelter the kind girl was volunteering at.

They met through bars, this kind girl and smart dog. She opened the cage and held him close but knew he was meant for someone else. So she put him back. His last day at the shelter came but no one wanted this smart dog with the good heart and the kind girl could not stand the thought of what would happen next, so that was when ELVIS came to live with her…

ELVIS was very smart and knew he had it good with the kind girl so the very first night, he marked her as his own while she slept! Now he was a little confused at the scream when she bolted up right out of bed covered in his pee. You see he thought he was paying her the highest of compliments… He soon realized this was not so, and that was the last time he complimented her like that.

After a while, things settled down and they grew accustomed to one another, but ELVIS was lonely when the girl went off to work during the day. He did not understand why he could not go. So the girl thought about it and decided a companion for ELVIS was the answer.

The girl searched hi and lo, and in between. She was going to rescue a dog but she wanted the perfect dog. She had decided on a Chinese Crested. A powder puff, they are the ones that have all the hair. The she went on petfinder and she thought she found the perfect dog.

She packed ELVIS in the car and they drove 2 ½ hours to meet ELVIS’S new friend. She was not like ELVIS, she was shy, and she had lived a hard life and did not know what it was like to be loved. She did not like to be touched or held and cowered at everyone and everything. The kind girl felt for this dog so she took her home and decided to give her the best life possible... that was when PRISCILLA came to live them…

PRISCILLA preferred corners, and hiding under tables, but the girl was patient. Sometimes the girl would turn around and catch PRISCILLA watching her from around a corner. PRISCILLA was coming out of her shell a little bit at a time. She grew to trust the kind girl, and she loved ELVIS.

Then there was a boy… This boy was everything the girl had dreamed of. He too was kind, and he loved animals. He had 2 children that also loved animals. He asked the girl, and ELVIS and PRISCILLA to come to Ohio and be a family with him and his kids. The girl, agreed, and she, ELVIS and PRISCILLA drove 2200 miles across the country to a new home.

The boy loved the girl, and her dogs, but her dogs were loyal to her. While they loved the boy too, they thought the girl was their reason for being. The girl saw that the boy longed for this too. And she wanted to give him that.

The girl thought and thought and talked with the boy, and they talked about what kind of dog he might like. Then the girl decided… It would be his Christmas gift. She wanted to give the boy the happiness she felt when her dogs loved on her, the comfort she felt when her dogs cuddled up to her, and fulfillment she felt in caring for them… that was when ISABELLA came to live them.

So now, the boy goes to work and the girl stays home, and the kids, they play… The dogs, well they are a gang. ISABELLA is the newest member, and honestly the funniest, and grossest one so far. They have many nicknames for her, Poo-tongue, Biscuit-eater,(She has a thing for poo) Fart-blossom (she farts rainbows, you see) just to name a few. The other dogs have decided she is a wizard for her ability to produce treats (in other words reproduce the food she has already eaten). to them, it's a reason to have a carpet picnic. Every day is a new adventure, and one more story more disgusting than the day before…

But, the girl, she is happy. And the boy, he has his dog. And ELVIS, he is now the leader of the POODIDDLE GANG!