This little tyke arrived shortly after 9 a.m. this morning from Louisiana. Rebecca Y., who runs the Shreveport rescue group Becky's Bridge, took him in from another shelter in the state. In her email to me a couple of weeks ago, she wrote, "Is there any chance of you taking a blind, senior yorkie? He is coming to me today from a shelter about 1 1/2 hours away. I am squeezing him in because I can't stand the thought of him being put down. If you can't I understand, but I had to ask." His name was Clyde.
Gale Lang's TLC Pet Transport was booked up on their last trip before the holidays, so we arranged with We Move Pets, another ground pet transport company that we've used before as well, to pick up Clyde. It was a brisk 16° (-8° C) when the driver, Bob, handed him to me in the bright morning sunshine. Clyde was shivering a bit — fortunately he had a sweater on — but when we set him down on the ground, he went off and did his business. And then he was very ready to go inside. He seemed to say, "Okay, now where is that wood stove I heard about?"
Inside the house he was a bit nervous at first and trembled, so I sat in a chair and held him on my lap for a while so he could take in all the new sounds and smells. After a few minutes of that, he started trying to climb down, so I picked him up and set him on the floor. Off he went to explore! Every dog he met — except one — he greeted happily, and his tiny bob of a tail would go up in the air and wag back and forth.
The only wary greeting he had was with, believe it or not, Fuzzy — the only other intact male in the place. (Fuzzy was positive for heartworms and his neutering is pending completion of treatment.) Clyde has to be neutered, too, but we need to have him tested for heartworms first. Fuzzy tips the scales at 12 pounds (5.4 kg) and Clyde at all of 7 pounds (3 kg), but the testosterone has them both convinced they are 120 pounds and 70 pounds, respectively. So there was a bit of strutting going on this morning between the two of them when they first met. Things settled down pretty quickly once the referees stepped in and threw some penalty flags.
Dexter, who is the chairman of our Welcome Committee, went over to give Clyde a special hello:
You can see just how tiny Clyde is compared to Dexter, who's a miniature Dachshund. We don't have any other history on Clyde, but the vet in Shreveport who did his health certificate for us thought he was about 8 years old. He is very skinny, has dental disease, and is blind from cataracts (though he might have had retinal or other issues before the cataracts developed). Needless to say, he will have more vet appointments in his future!
As I write this, shortly before noon on Sunday, Clyde is snoozing on a dog bed in the living room, just a few feet from that woodstove he'd heard about.
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[Every time we write about transporting pets, we get the inevitable emails and blog comments asking if we know about Pilots 'n Paws and similar groups. Yes, we do. These volunteer pilot networks prefer to do transports that are 400 miles or less; beyond that, it usually requires multiple pilots and planes, and things get complicated. A short trip like Snuggles had, coming from Buffalo to Lancaster, is ideal for these groups. Cross-country trips are a different story.]
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*This Is The Last Day To Vote — Contest Ends At Midnight PST Sunday!*
You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.
Please note: Use Rolling Dog Ranch for our name and NH for the state and our listing will come up.
As of mid-day Sunday, we were still No. 2 behind Best Friends, but please vote today if you haven't already. We need every vote we can get to make sure we hold that spot — and win $5,000 for the animals!
The Shelter Challenge winners will be announced Wednesday, December 22, so we'll await the official word before popping any champagne corks — but until then, thank you for all your votes in this round of the contest!
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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