Another Texas-Washington Shuffle

Often our team of foster parents and volunteers here in Washington teams up with the Texas volunteers to get rat terriers who are listed to be euthanized transported from Texas to open Washington foster homes. Up here in Washington we are lucky that puppymills aren't as prevalent as other parts of the country and Texas has a bunch of them. We are also lucky to live in a part of the country where more couples have dogs than have kids, so it's very dog friendly and full of folks interested in adopting rescues. The shelters that we work with in the Dallas and Austin areas are woefully underfunded and dogs with any medical issues like heartworm, mange, broken bones, etc. doom most of them to the euthanization table. Thankfully, the shelter workers go above and beyond the call of duty to find breed rescue groups to save some of these dogs.

So, meet "Blessed". She's a young girl who was determined to be heartworm positive in an Arlington, Texas shelter. They contacted New Rattitude volunteers attempting to save this little gal. And so the Texas-Washington shuffle began.

Jodi in Texas contacted Kathy who agreed to pay to fly this gal, a momma and her 5 week old puppy to Washington and find them foster homes. The shelter was notified and little Blessed was taken off the euthanization list. She was pulled and transported to Jodi in Dallas. Now, we are scrambling, trying to find a volunteer at Alaska Airlines to fly her so she doesn't have to fly cargo because of the heartworm. The E-mails fly fast and furious - who is picking up at the airport, how soon can they get flight health certificates, who can temp foster for a week until the three can be transported to their foster homes.... It happens time and again. Incredible volunteers working together, giving of their time, money, and energy to save another 2 or 3 or 4 dogs.

I'm proud, you might even say "blessed," to be part of this team.

Psst... don't forget to click the link on your left (purple colored icon) and vote for NR Georgia in the shelter challenge. We have dropped out of first place in Georgia, which means we won't win that $1,000 unless we can move back up the list.