Yes, sometimes the trip to Harlan and back does feel like that other similar expression “to he** and back”. It’s long. It’s really long. And did I mention yet that it is long? Theoretically 16 hours in the van might not seem that long to those of you who are hardened road trip fanatics. But on the way down it’s 16 hours of anticipation (what will we find when we get there - another Bella? another Tonka/Kitty/Tippy & Tozer?, a Bear?, a Cashew?, mixed in with more than a bit of dread, what faces await us that we will not want to leave behind, what faces await us that we will have to leave behind?. This trip saw two new people who could only wonder if the shelter would be as they expected, better? worse? just different? They heard stories, we tried to prepare them for the reality. Some things though you just can’t explain no matter how much you try.
For me the trip always begins as it ends, in a sleep deprived blur. No matter how hard I try to be organized far in advance, it just never seems to work that way. Circumstances conspire to delay my progress, Time is a funny thing, there is never as much as I think there is or should be. Janine, Terrliea, Sue and I picked up the van, loaded up a full truck load of dog and cat food donated by the good folks at Fetch! Delivers along with crates, blankets, and other transport supplies. At midnight I was still finalizing details on the foster contact list, the current list of dogs at the shelter, other rescue friends who might help us out and on and on. At 1 am I packed. At 2 am I went to sleep fitfully. Terrilea, trying to sleep on my couch and finally relieved of a Cashew in her face, was finally able to sleep too. Janine and Bear slept downstairs on the air mattress. At 5:30 we were up and preparing to hit the road. We picked up Sue and Dr. Melissa along the way and we were off.
Our trip was slowed by a major crash involving semis (but not us this time!) somewhere in Indiana and a delay and eventual detour that cost us well over an hour. Later more road construction and more delays. We rolled into Harlan late, I don’t even remember how late. We knew morning would come all too soon.
At 8 am we were at the shelter so Dr. Melissa could look over the newest HBC (hit by car), Sugar. Sugar landed on her face, on first inspection it appeared she had two badly broken teeth, one which left the root exposed, the side of her face and shoulder abraided and a soft tissue injury to one of her legs. She was scared but sweet and happy to have attention and affection. We gave her antibiotics and pain medication. Dr. Melissa and Sue took their first tour of the Harlan County Animal Shelter. It wasn’t easy. So many faces, so much desperation. We went to get Melissa started at the spay/neuter clinic.
The clinic was set up and ready to go, the other vet starting her first surgery. Melissa jumped right in. Terrilea stayed with Melissa to assist in recovery of the animals and also learned to pack surgical equipment for future surgeries. The rest of us headed back to the shelter to evaluate, deworm, photograph and wheel and deal with other rescue groups to maximize the number of lives saved.
It seems every trip we take to Harlan has one dog or one event that stands out in my mind forever and it is this one dog or incident which forever characterizes and identifies it. The Bella trip, the Cashew trip, the van crash… This will be the trip of Charles Wallace Martin III. It is at this point in the story where Charles Wallace joins us. But Charles story needs to be told in another email. I need to tell you Charles Wallace’s story and I don’t want to summarize or edit or be concise. I want to tell it all. All of us on that trip want to tell Charles Wallace story and what he means to us, how he touched us.
I also want to tell you everything that happened, I want you to feel like you were there too. I just can’t though. I can’t relive it all, I can’t take two days of your time which is about what I’d need and I can’t do them all justice and all of our experiences there are unique and different and we all experience things in a different way and I can’t being to relate what it was for all of us. Hear are some snapshots:
We start down the first row of dogs, only a few kennels in we find Aby, and her two tiny babies. Wait, there is another one, tiny feet and tail sticking out from the blanket, so small they look like a gerbils feet. Our hearts sink. This puppy is not moving and it is so much smaller than the other babies. I go in to see. It is tiny, it is wet and freezing cold, it is scrawny, it is alive. While I disentangle it from the blankets I feel another tiny puppy. She is also wet and cold and scrawny, but alive. They have to be warmed, they need to eat, they are one third the size of their siblings. Were they tangled and unable to get out and nurse? Is there something wrong with them? We don’t know. We just know we have to try. We warm a water bottle, get a dry blanket, wrap them up with their warm bottle and rush them to the vets at spay/neuter. Aby appears to be a first time mom and she doesn’t really seem to quite know what to do. The littlest two won’t survive if we leave them with her. They are dehydrated, they get fluids, they get nutrical and sugar water and then puppy formula Sue and Janine got at Walmart. They are put on a feeding regime, small amounts every 30 minutes. One of the vet techs assumes their care and they will be delivered to a foster home experienced with bottle babies later that evening. We have not heard how our tiny gerbils are doing, we pray they are growing strong like their siblings who are here in Minnesota with momma at foster mom Lea’s house.
We find Vinnie, hiding in the back corner of his kennel with his momma. We find Karen and Shannon, happy and playful and begging to be free, we find a little chihuahua girl that looks to recently have had babies with a tail like elephant skin, begging for affection, we find Bigme and Minnieme, the Eleven with their ribs sticking out and bellies big and bloated and so many others from the pictures. We deworm, we wheel and deal, “will Jack take Cody if we take Watson?” - Yes. “Will you take Karen if Jack can take Shannon” -Yes. RF will take momma so we can take Vinny and they can both get out. Who will take all the moms and babies?? Jack will take the little chihuahua girl? Great!!
I fall for Flora who climbs into my arms and leans into my neck, straining to stay there when I try to put her down. Cute, sweet, smiling little Flora. “You are coming home tomorrow” I tell her.
I enter a kennel with a small white dog and a beautiful merle coated shepherd. The white dog climbs up me and into my arms. I hold her and she melts. When I go to leave she is frantic, desperate, way beyond what is normal. I gently push her back as I shut the gate. Moments later when I am in the next kennel I hear a fight. The shepherd has white girl on the ground, attacking her, biting her face and neck. I make loud noises to interupt and I go into the kennel and grab up the white girl. We leave the kennel. She is bleeding from puncture wounds. I clean them. I feel her all over and feel the scabs from prior punctures. I am mortified that I left her in there when she so clearly tried to tell me she needed out. I tell her she will come to Minnesota tomorrow. I find a big kennel in the puppy room where she can safely spend the night.
We fall in love with sweet, sweet Benny, mellow boy who just wants to be loved, thank you. So distinguished, so kind, so grateful. Who will foster him, who can we beg?? We fall in love with Lanie, beautiful, playful, adorable Lanie. Who will foster her - she’s not that much bigger than 25 pounds right?? What’s another 10 (or 15) pounds really? She’s just a big baby, honest. And she doesn’t have a chance if she isn’t on that van tomorrow.
Our home team makes it happen. Suzanne whips out the phone and dials madly and we have places for Benny and Lanie, they can come home, they will be safe now. Our home team. How amazing are these folks, we could not do these trips without them. We need the home team to keep our intake and foster people updated and organized and ready to go. We need the home team to set up and prepare for the arrival of all the new faces. Daddy Vyto hauled loads of crates and supplies to Roxy’s shop to be ready when we rolled in Sunday am. These folks who give their weekend to keep us together and welcome the new arrivals have my utmost gratitude.
Saturday passes, Sunday dawns, too little sleep, too much on our minds. We spend the day helping Margie load the roughly 70 animals she will deliver to rescues that day. We perform vet checks and vaccinate and deworm (again) all our new charges, we load the van, we walk a few of the animals that we can’t take with us.
I say goodbye to Digger, the yellow dog in the back who has my heart, the one that it is killing me to leave behind. He is sweet and scared in that loud place, he is gentle and he easy going and he is not doing well there. He is sad. He needs to be out and he will be so grateful to whoever can save him, whoever will give him a home, a quiet place, some love. I hold him in my arms, tears stream down my face and I promise him somehow I will get him out of there.
For Melissa it is Max, big beautiful shepherd Max. He’s been there too long. He needs to be out of a cage. Yet when Melissa takes him for a walk he just wants to lay his head on her instead. He craves a human of his own.
For Janine it is Sadler. He is maybe 30 pounds, he is cute and energetic and needs a yard to run in and a friend to play with. We all have loose ends we have left behind.
With the van packed and Charles Wallace riding on his blanket between the seats, everyone careful to place their feet just so that Charles will be comfortable. we depart for home. The trip becomes a blur of mile marker after mile marker. We stop to feed, water, walk and clean crates for all of our charges. Then the steady pace resumes as we press onward. Day turns to night turns back to day. A traffic delay in Chicago adds an hour to our trip. Finally, we reach our destination, Southpaw Grooming, Roxy’s shop, and the many volunteers that came to help greet the new arrivals and get them started on their new lives.
Epilogue:
Sugar had three broken teeth and during surgery they removed the broken the part of her K9 tooth from her tongue. She is now doing well and is a happy girl!
Flora and Lanie have already found their forever homes and their adoptions will be finalized post spays this week.
Digger, Max and Sadler are at the shelter, waiting their turn on the freedom train.
On the off chance that anyone might be touched by their photos and offer a foster home or a forever home I’ve also included pictures of Laycee and Ariel - two bonded females, sweet, playful and loving and also Decha, a white shepherd mix, about 50 pounds, who has been at the shelter way too long and is mellow and quiet and who would like a second chance at life.
If you or anyone you know can help us get any of the dogs still there to safety by providing a foster home please let us know. We would be truly and eternally grateful!
The trip to Harlan and back is long, grueling, physically, mentally and emotionally hard. This group we traveled with did an amazing job, maintained calm amid the storm and civility in uncivilized moments. I’d travel with them any time and am immensely grateful for each of them and all of the Safe Hands family.
Other Safe Hands news:
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds ~ Albert Einstein Part Two
Dr. Mickey’s defamatory letter did have a negative effect on our spay/neuter weekend as appointments cancelled. The local paper promised to run rebuttals written by the Woodstock veterinary staff. a local Harlan woman involved with helping rescue dogs and investigate animal cruelty cases and Hannah who first introduced us to Harlan. For reasons that we will never know they did not run any of the articles until the week after our spay/neuter event. We hope this will mitigate further damage and that by the time of our next clinic things will be back in order. Nonetheless, over 30 surgeries were performed at the one day clinic!
Waiting in the Wings No More
Penny and Micki have found and joined their forever families. When I finalized Penny’s adoption and told her new family that we could not understand why it took so long for the fabulous Ms. P to find her home they told me, “It’s because she was waiting for us.” How sweet is that? And Taschio-t-o Rodeo Girl has met a couple that adores her with a doggie sister/playmate who is a great partner in crime, confidant and best canine companion. If all goes well Taschi’s adoption will soon be finalized and she will be with her perfect family, where she was meant to be!