It was my first Monday off after a 9 month internship when I heard there might be a transport coming up. I was SO ready, it had been so long. I let Gisele know that if she needed a transport I'd be happy to help. She shared that she was expecting two pups on the flight, a boy and a girl.
The night before the transport I received the Transport email and I found out it would be a Pilots & Paws transport carrying roughly
37 little rescues: some adult dogs, some infant puppies, and some were
cats and kittens. I then noticed something a bit concerning, only the little girl was listed as coming on the flight... I talked to G and she said he'd just have to find another way down soon. These things happen and sometimes one pup has to wait to a momma can bring her infant puppies along. So, I planned for one, and cleaned out my cat carrier, as the little girl was tiny and wouldn't need a bigger crate.
The next morning, right before I pulled out of the garage I put the medium crate in my car too, just in case. You never know what will happen (heck we've had "mystery puppies" show up before like little
Splenda who managed to find her way into a crate of our 4 pups). So, I was off!
I arrived at the airport just in time for the 2:00 PM arrival time only to find out it had been bumped to 3:10 PM. Which meant an hour of waiting... until I realized I had left my wallet at home... Oops!! Luckily my dear husband brought it to me. By the time that was settled I only had 20 minutes to wait before we saw the little Cessna taxi down the runway.
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| Look between the big plane and the fuel truck! |
We all ran to get the cars and drove out on the tarmac to meet up. Some of the crates had already been unloaded and were resting under the wings.
I saw one crate with yellow tape on it and Gisele's name on it. This must be our girl!
I knelt down and was a bit stunned.
Um... Hello little "not-at-all-who-I-was-expecting"!
I recognized the face, but I was so sure that the little girl was going to be in the crate that it took me a moment to come to terms with what I was seeing. Hi baby boy!
I turned to Jeff and asked if he had another one in there? Sure enough he turned and produced a second small crate. As he handed her down to me, many of the others who were there to pick up their pups/dogs turned and were astounded by her. She was beautiful and tiny and those two things lead just about everyone to the trunk of my car where I transferred her into my cat carrier. I gave her a little water and then turned back to get the little boy out of his crate.
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| (similar look to when he was in the gray crate) |
Oh boy that was an adventure. He was scared and WAS NOT. Going to come out. I tried a gentle tug at the collar and lots of baby talk. Nope. I tried gentle scooping his front legs while holding the collar. He locked his back legs and was NOT coming out. Jeff came over and helped me. It took me gathering all the legs, holding the collar, and Jeff turning the crate upside down before this little guy came
half out of the crate. He is a fighter! With a bit more turning and wiggling he was free and feisty! As I picked him up I could feel him give his best attempt at a "I want you to leave me alone" growl, but you could tell he was more scared than anything else. I scooped him up and carried him to the car.
He ran right into the medium crate and sat in the back, staring at me. I put a small bowl of water in and let him be. Jeff let me know he was one of the pups found in the woods, and probably hadn't had much human contact. Well now his fear made sense.
I also helped unload some very very young little puppies and took them to their mama (you could hold two in one hand). After helping a little I hurried and got ready to go. I almost forgot the paper work (it
has been a long time since transport) but luckily Jeff caught me.
The car trip was a quick one, but never have I been more glad to have my "Transport Tunes," a CD of classical music. Why? Because little girl was not happy to be in another crate and was shrieking to let me know it. Can't blame her, she'd just been on a plane in a crate, and was now back in another crate, I'd want out too! Luckily the music did the trick and everybody conked out.We got to G's and I began the puppy pass-off. The little girl was easy, she practically leaped into my hands when I opened the crate. The little boy... was not convinced. We carried his crate to the side yard, introduced him to
Claire and the puppy, and once he recognized he wasn't in any danger, and the other dogs liked us, he began to warm up.
I had to leave in a hurry because I had to get to school but it was awesome to see him coming out of his shell. The girl was named NiNi and the boy was named Billy Ray. Bellow are more transport pics.
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| One of the Mamas on transport |
Several pictures from TDL's albums.
Next up was Jean-Phillipe, who was quiet (possibly a bit subdued from transport) but warmed up quickly.
