Ponch, Calvin and Nitro came from our local shelter in Warrensburg, MO. We are volunteers who try to help get some of these pups into rescues and began working on these guys with little hope - obviously they weren't purebred. After sending out several emails, our mom got a response from Gail in New York. I called her immediately and she told us to go ahead and pull Ponch and Calvin (she did not yet know about Nitro). We pulled them out and had them boarded at the vet where they were neutered. Gail continued to search for a rescue to take them and we helped narrow down her options when we told her we were making a trip to Wisconsin. We decided to do the trip for the sole purpose of transporting dogs. That is when she put me in touch with Amy Lubeck in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, we ran across Nitro. I sent Amy the picture of him the day before he was scheduled to be put to sleep - never hurts to ask, right? - and after confirming it with the board of GRRoW, she told me to pull him as well and get him neutered.
Our trip to Wisconsin was thrown together literally in a matter of about 2 days. So, on Wednesday afternoon, we set off for Wisconsin via Tennessee. We stopped in St. Louis to potty the pups only to find Ponch had gotten sick. We took him to Happy Hound Haven in Wentzville and they bathed him and cleaned out his crate for us free of charge. We were really worried about Ponch, so I called Gail. She told us that her golden gets car sick and one tablet of Dramamine would help him. Ponch started to do a little better. We arrived in Tennessee and crashed in Nashville with Tiffany DePriest, a friend for the night. By 5:30am, we were on the road. We picked up one more pup and then headed up through Indiana to Chicago. It was a LONG day. On top of stopping several times to keep fluids in Ponch (and potty all the pups), road construction through Kentucky was such a mess - it set us really far behind.
I called Betsy, a foster mom for the Goldens, and they thought it would be midnight before we got to Milwaukee. That's when I called Pam Perrins, a great friend of mine in Chicago who was putting Erin and me up for the night. She said it would be no problem to bring the pups with us and then meet GRRoW in Milwaukee in the morning. We got into Chicago around 9:00pm (guess we made good time!) Not having to go to Milwaukee that night gave us a chance to give the dogs some exercise and loving before going to sleep. Ponch rested very well all night. Pam made all the pups very welcome in her home! As much as it killed us, we piled them back in the car the next morning (I told Ponch he only had a little longer!!!) and drove an hour and a half to Milwaukee.
GRRoW was absolutely WONDERFUL! They took great care of the pups and got Ponch into the vet for fluids. I just heard back from them that Ponch is doing just awesome and is enjoying his burger and rice diet. He is a totally different dog! So, 1800 miles later, having spent 30 hours in a car, Erin and I took the next day to recuperate - and a minor dog transport! J This entire trip would NEVER have happened if it wasn't for Gail and Goldstock. Erin and I are simply college kids and we couldn't have come up with the money to board and neuter Ponch, Calvin and Nitro. When we went to pick up the pups on Wednesday morning, Gail had already made arrangements with our vet. All we had to do was pick them up! Thanks, Goldstock! It was an awesome trip and we would do it again in a heartbeat!