Tails from the Front: Dogs Travel Long Distances To Adoption

Shelters all over America are full to the brim with great dogs.  It is a sad fact that supply always exceeds demand.  In every city, volunteers for local shelters see wonderful dogs, great family pets who are well trained and healthy, go unclaimed.  There is only so much room and tough choices have to be made.

Fortunately in every city those same great volunteers start grass roots email and Facebook campaigns to find rescue for those dogs.  Got a great Labrador in a shelter?  Emails fly to every Labrador rescue the volunteer can find.  Golden retrievers?  Same thing.  Every breed-specific rescue, every senior rescue, every puppy rescue gets 50 emails a day pleading for the rescue to save just this one dog.  Sometimes a foster home is available and the rescue says yes.  How does the dog get from a rescue in the southeastern US to a rescue in Chicago or Minnesota?  Transporters.

Other volunteers put together a proposed route to drive the dogs from point A to their final rescue.  The routes are planned so that each leg takes about an hour.  Route schedules are emailed and posted on websites with pleas for volunteers to drive just one leg.  With luck and some pleading, the legs are filled and the transport sets off.

Ever driven down an interstate highway and seen dogs being walked at a rest stop?  They may have been shelter dogs on the way to their rescue.  Each driver picks up the dogs at their stop, puts them in crates in the back of their car after walking them, and drives to the next meeting point.  This tag team of drivers can get a dog from Georgia to Chicago in one very long day.

Sometimes the dogs luck out and instead of a very long day driving, they get a shorter day flying.  Pilots around the country volunteer their small planes and their flying skills to transport dogs in style.  A dog can be flown about 500 miles- more than that and the flight has to be combined with ground transport, which is complicated.  A great route can be planned with a volunteer pilot only to have weather change the plans at the last minute.  But for the routes that can be flown, it is a very good solution.  PilotsnPaws is the volunteer pilot group and they deserve lots of kudos for some very good work.

You can help!  Maybe you can't foster but you can probably drive.  Does this sound intriguing?  Write to your local rescue. Is there a specific kind of dog you like?  Go to petfinder.com and type in the breed and your zip code- you'll find lots of rescues who need help.  Do you prefer older dogs?  They are mellow, know about cars, and appreciate your help so much!  Contact a rescue that works with senior dogs (like Young at Heart- yahpetrescue.com).  Ask about volunteer opportunities.  Maybe you will be needed to drive an hour leg for a transport, maybe something as easy as picking up a dog from a shelter in the Chicagoland area and driving the dog to the rescue's vet.

There is always something to do!  And from all the dogs that you great readers have helped save, Woof!  Thanks!