The Great Rescue Run, Part Four

Mom says this is the next to the last installment of The Great Rescue Run and it is kinda long. Y’owl need to be sure to go potty before ya start reading, okay?

So, the parents settled us all down for the night. Jack and Sissy went to bed in the dog den. Buddy curled up in Dad’s office. Me and Maggie were in the big bedroom with Mom and Dad.

After Mom and Dad chased them around for awhile, the puppies got crated in the guest room. They were used to crates so that wasn’t a problem. But they weren’t used to the guest room or to the rain, the thunder and the lightning that was going on outside.

So they howled. And they howled and they howled and they howled.

Well, natcherly the rest of us had to chime in and teach them what howling is sposed to sound like. Pretty soon there were EIGHT Hooligans AAAROOOING at the top of our lungs! We sounded great! Xceptn I think we might have startled the puppies because after only a few seconds, they stopped singing and they didn’t make a peep the rest of the night.

Mom set the alarm clock for early thirty so she could get up and get us all medicated and fed before time to get the pups ready to go to Florida. We woke up all excited like we usually do and Maggie stopped on her way outside to growl at the door to the guest room. Mom bopped Maggie on her rear end and helped her move on down the hall. I always like it when that happens.

Just so’s you can appreciate the mileage involved in transporting the Grrls, here’s how the whole thing was organized.

Jackson, MS to Hattiesburg, MS to Gulfport, MS to Grand Bay, AL (overnight) to Pensacola, FL, to DeFuniak Springs, FL, to Tallahassee, FL, to Gainesville, FL, to Lakeland, FL. From Lakeland, Purple Grrl had to go about another hundrud miles to get to her new family. All in all, Miss Cindy at Sunshiner Airedales in Florida said she guesstimated it was about an 800 mile trip for the puppies. That’s a lot of stress. But they did fine because all the people who chauffeured them took time to cuddle them and kiss them and talk to them. One lady even rode in the back of her SUV with them while her husband drove.

Here’s a picture of the MS-ALA rescuers and drivers. That’s Miss Virginia on the left, Miss Delia is next to her, Mom is next to Miss Delia, and Miss Diane is next to Mom.

the Rescuers in the Rain!

It had been storming when the Grrls got to our house and it was storming when they left. Thunder and heavy rain was drenching the entire Gulf Coast and there were flash flood warnings from New Orleans to the Atlantic Ocean. But Mom kept on driving (she always only does the legal speed limit anyway) and even though she passed two bad wrecks near Hwy 59 in AL, Mom didn’t have any trouble getting to Pensacola.

When she got there, she met Ms Kathryn and her husband at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. The rainwater in the parking lot was ankle deep. They had to carry each pup separately to Ms Kathryn’s car and of course, everybuddy got completely drenched. The pups were smelling like… well, like wet dogs. Mom kissed each Grrl and wished them long and happy lives. Then she hugged Ms Kathryn and got back in our SUV. And Mom cried most of the way home. It doesn’t take long to get attached to dogs. That’s cause we’re Man and Woman’s Best Friends.

These are pictures of the Grrls trying to evade capture by hoomans and by the camera.

This was pretty much how the entire evening went.



Sunday night, Mom admitted to Dad that she was having separation anxiety. She *needed* to know how things were going and if the pups were okay and where they were and when they would finish their long trip. Late late Sunday night, Ms Cindy emailed all the chauffeurs to let them know that in spite of a long delay outside of Gainesville due to a traffic jam, the pups had arrived safely in Lakeland. Mom cried again, but this time it was from relief.

She let me sleep with her that night. Which is where I should sleep all the time, except that Dad has a different opinion.

But sometimes, Dad has to travel away from home on business.

                        AAARRROOOOOOOO!