So it's 5:15am, not even light out yet and I've got one eye opened looking at the clock. Ugh. have...to...get...up.... I've learned the hard way that you have to start early when you go to Virginia. If not, you get started back too late and hit all the rush hour traffic in D.C. and Baltimore (does everyone leave early on Fridays in these cities? Rush hour seems to start at 2:30pm!). So, here I am dressed and leaving my house at 7:30am to start the 4-hour each way trip to save some pooches from having to be euthanized.
I want to stress that ARF SEPA focuses our efforts on local shelters and SPCAs - we take in dogs and cats from public shelters that have to euthanize when full. One of our volunteers came to us with a previous connection to a shelter in Virginia that gets in a lot of puppies and hunting dogs, and as a result we do occasionally help out a rural shelter in Virginia. People don't seem to spay/neuter as much in this area, and they let their dogs roam, so this shelter get its fair share of beagle / lab / shepherd mix puppies and we try to help out because even puppies will get put down at shelters. As bad as it can be for homeless pets up here in PA, it seems to be 10 times worse down south.
So here I am, disclaimer over, heading down I-95, Wawa 24-ounce coffee in hand, full tank of gas, radio on. It's a great drive, all highway until you get on Route 301 in Maryland which seems like it has 50 jazillion traffic lights and I hit every one. There's a lot more country radio in this area known as 'southern Maryland' south of Annapolis, so I get my fix of Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw as I'm driving. More lights on 301... ugh. Then "The Bridge" comes (see photo) - it's the Governor Nice bridge over the Potomac that connects Maryland and Virginia. It's one lane each way with no divider between the lanes, and with a small concrete wall not even as high as my car door on the edges keeping my car from driving right off into the icy Potomac. I hate this bridge. It feels like the longest bridge in the country - I get white knuckles just thinking about it. So you hold on tight, look straight ahead and focus focus focus on staying in your own lane (hopefully the tractor trailers heading the other way are doing the same). Whew. Into Virginia.
Why is it that when you cross into Virginia you instantly know that you're in the south? It's not a bad thing or a good thing, juts an observation. Just across the river in Maryland it feels very Chesapeake-ish - cozy and coastal. When I cross in to Virginia I instantly feel like I took a step or two back in time to tobacco plantations. Save for the Sheetz convenience stores, it's pretty darn unspoiled and rural. One thing I always notice is how suddenly Funjuns are front and center on those Sheetz store snack food racks - forget potato chips or pretzels, in Virginia is must be all about the fried pork rinds!
45 minutes later, past General Washington's birthplace and the Lee family plantation (I always think about the slaves that were forced to keep these two mammoth plantations working whenever I pass them by), you come up to Westmoreland Animal Shelter. The staff there does a great job trying to help as many animals as they can with very little funding. It's a county shelter and they can get inundated at times with unwanted dogs and strays.
We pick up:
- 2 lab/beagle mix pups that were found on the side of the road. They're missing some fur and have definitely been through the ringer but otherwise seem to be okay. They're sweet and cuddling with each other
- 2 chihuahua/boxer mix pups. They're owner surrenders, the previous owners had the doggy parents at their home (not spayed or neutered of course, ugh), so we know the breed mix for certain which is rare. The burning question is which one was the mother - the boxer or the chihuahua? What a combo. Both are calm and sweet, snuggling together in their kennel.
- a golden retriever / shepherd mix looking mutt that's a sweetie. He's got a huge head and a skinny body, he looks like he needs a good meal. Apparently he had been running loose for two weeks before animal control could catch him... and no one's been looking for him or had filed a 'lost' report. I can't imagine losing my dog and not trying to find him, but it happens every day. He's a cutie, he literally looks like a brown teddy bear.
- a foxhound type female, she's white with brown and black spots and is gorgeous. she hops right into the crate in my car as if to say, "let's go!". The shelter gets this breed in all the time, apparently hunters use them and when the dogs are no longer good hunters they just let them go or dump them at the shelter. Many of these dogs are kept in outdoor kennels all their lives and are only let out to hunt. Many of them test positive for heartworms at our vet and require $500+ in additional care (well worth the expense). Once we rescue them they become housepets and it's inspiring to see how quickly they adjust and how comfortable these dogs become. I think they figure out pretty quickly that being in a cozy warm house is much better than having to deal with the elements in an outdoor cage.
- a big old husky that wandered around as a stray before being picked up by the shelter. He's old, he's big and he's dark which is like three strikes against him. Research has shown that big dark dogs get adopted last at public shelters, then throwing his age into the mix is just one more strike against him. We have to take this dog because even though he's sweet, he has little to no hope of getting adopted. ARF SEPA has a senior pet adoption program where we waive the adoption donation for any pet age 5 and over, so we'll get him into foster care, get him complete vet care w/ geriatric testing, then find him a home. He's coming to my house to stay so I of course instantly fall in love. He hops right into my SUV and settles into the cushy dog bed I brought for him, gives me a sweet look, then sets his head on his paws and gives the exhaled, breathy dog 'sigh' that I just live to hear. I secure his leash for safety and off we go.
Here's the sad thing: due to space in the car, I had to leave one dog behind. He's a chow/shepherd mix and a sweetie. I make the shelter promise that if they get crowded and have to put him down due to space they'll call us first and allow us to try to send someone to pull him. They agree and I know they'll call us. They really do try to save the dogs when they can.
So back on the road we go! Just some crazy middle aged lady driving her big black SUV full of dogs (7!) up the highway. Miraculously, we hit absolutely no traffic on 301, US Rt. 50 or I-95 north. This is a first. We pull in to my house here in PA about 4:30pm and all the foster homes start arriving to pick up their dogs. The ARF SEPA foster director gets each dog's vet chart together, then talks to the foster about their dog, reminds them how to contact our participating vets to get the dogs examined, spay/neutered, etc. Each dog will have to stay in its foster home at least two weeks so we can observe its temperament, see if its good with dogs/cats/kids, get the dog vetted, etc., but we'll post the dogs asap on Petfinder.com so we can let people know that we have new dogs up for adoption.
I take the senior husky (he's now 'Norman') around my back yard on a leash to introduce him to my two dogs, then let him wander. He won't wander off because it's fenced in. He comes in to the house, looks at my cats, then sniffs one and could care less about them - a good sign because huskies aren't usually so great with the kitties. He settles into his big huge dog bed I bought for him, rests his head on his big paws (see photo)... and then I get that sound I love so much: the contented doggie sigh. sigh
I love that sound.
