Saturday Dog Transport

Look at this handsome fellow. His name is Mikey. I fell in love with him today. He's part Australian cattle dog/blue heeler. He rode shotgun in the passenger seat. It was important to him that his body be in contact with mine. He wanted my lap. He had to settle for my hand gently stroking his face.

I drove to Emporia this a.m. to meet up with two of my other compatriots and wait for the SPCA van that travels the 120 miles from Kinston, NC to Emporia. The shelter workers and volunteers arrive as early as 4 a.m. to prep the dogs. We shuttled 24 animals: kittens, puppies and adult dogs. I carted Mikey, Tilly, Igor, Sophia & Olivia, and two small crates of kittens.

Sophia and Olivia were 5 months old. All of the animals come from the SPCA in crates. Cats/kittens and puppies (less than 5 mos old) REMAIN in crates (though they are serviced for water and to clean pee and poop both on them and in the cage!). The older dogs are tethered. But one has to allow for behavioral issues when tethering dogs in small spaces--dominant females and dominant males must be paired well or there will be problems.

We determined that Mikey should not be tethered with other male dogs. We were having a devil of a time with space. Sophia and Olivia were uncrated from their respective crates--though it was very hard to get each of them out of her crate. Both were very frightened--shaking to the point that they had to just be physically placed in the back seat of my car. I had Igor's crate on the passenger side back seat. Both Sophia and Olivia immediately nestled against each other. No more shaking. The picture of contentment. They both slept the entire way--though they were none to eager to be removed from the back seat to my F'burg compatriot's vehicle for the handoff. Thankfully both Donna and I could pick them up--but each were an armful and more.

After F'burg, I had to make one more drop to the Pestmart in Garrisonville--about 12 miles north of F'burg--Tilly's and Igor's final destination. Janet runs a pet adoption operation within the facility. I mentioned to you last week that I had mixed up a dog and had Tikki (who I thought was Lilly) going to Janet's rather than further north. I sought her out and spent about 5 minutes with her in my lap--a bundle of wiggling joy. I received lots of kisses from her. And the original Lilly who was left behind because there was some confusion about whether Janet could take her was adopted out of the Lenoir County Shelter . As Shakespeare said: All's well that ends well. And that ended VERY well indeed.

It was a 7 hour day of driving and caring for animals. Butt and back take the brunt of it!

I came home to find that my neighbor Tim (who our blog friend, V_6 knows too) has brought me a duck breast and a plucked black duck. So we had a very easy dinner: Lentils cooked in some homemade stock that I had in the freezer, pan fried duck breast (med rare) with a wine reduction (dried cranberries, red rasperry preserves, a bit of hoisin sauce and red wine), and a salad with fresh greens, grape tomoatoes, cukes, carrots, goat cheese, toasted pecans and a few dried cranberries served with a homemade honey mustard dressing (mayonaise, french mustard, honey, olive oil and some balsamic vinegar) . Red wine on the side.

Now, I have an entire duck in the fridge. I've only cooked duck legs and duck breasts, so I'll do a little whole duck ferreting aroun.

We have snow this evening. My son, a new driver, will be driving home from his job at Panera (and when he closes, he always brings some yummy baked goods that are not taken by the charities that Panera generously donates its unsold baked goods to daily) in a modest sprinkling. So, I'll be worrying a bit.

I hope that you had an enjoyable day.