Paws To The Rescue

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.