State Ties

We've had a lot of fosters over the years, but Sophie is our first NE foster.  But, honestly I have to worry about her.  I think she is a Sooner at heart.  She keeps trying to drag the OU door rug to the sofa to lay on, or to her crate.  Luckily she never would make it as a thief because she makes such a ruckus while doing it.  Of course the flip side might be she's such a Husker fan she's trying to destroy the OU evidence.  If so, can I really correct her for this??

It got me thinking about all the states our fosters have come from and the people who got them here.  We've had dogs come from MO, KS, IA, OK and of couse, now NE.  Some came via transport.  Which is a group of volunteers who each drive about 1 hour of the journey, then hand off the dog to the next driver.  It's like a canine relay race.  Sometimes you get lucky and find trucker going that way who drives the pup the whole distance.  Other times, like with Sidney, we had a volunteer pilot fly him from OK to NE.  He would not have tolerated the stress of a road transport, so this was such a blessing.  Several times, we've split the distance and driven half way to meet the dog at some roadside gas station or fast food place.  If you ever see a couple cars parked on the fringes of a parking lot with people handing off a dog from one car to the next you've witnessed a transport hand off in progress.  One time we drove a transport with five dogs on it.  Each going down the road to a second chance. 

One any give day there are transports crisscrossing the country.  It's like an underground railroad of animal rescue.  Except we're not really underground, just incognito.  Behind the scenes are the transport coordinator, the volunteers, the shelter workers, the foster homes.  Hundreds of emails fly trying to line up a transport, hundreds of miles are covered, countless hearts are touched to save just one more.

It's what we do.  It's rescue, and it's part of who we are.