Fifteen Legs

From Fifteen Legs, a documentary soon to be airing on PBS stations.

At about the 40 second mark, the woman who is talking about the highly neglected dog she is holding is about to say that she rescued it from a ... then pauses and says "breeder".

Pickup and delivery

That's a long drive. Eva and her mother left Montreal SPCA at 8:15 in the morning with 15 dogs in the back of the van. That's 15 dogs that had to be crated and packed and secured inside the van so I'm guessing they started at least 2 hours earlier. They're transporting the latest shipment of shelter dogs from Quebec to Ontario where the dogs will hopefully find new and better homes. Toronto Animal Services South is the transfer point this afternoon where various rescues will come by and bring back with them the dogs they've arranged to foster.

Eva and her mother arrive at Toronto Animal Services at 2:00 p.m. and the unloading begins. We start with the two biggest dogs, a beautiful but very underweight female brindle Great Dane. She looks a little dazed coming out of the van but maybe she just woke up (it usually takes my Dane, Stella, three to four hours to wake up and then she's tired again from all that effort). She's going to make someone a very proud owner.

Next is a German Shepherd cross who is quite happy to be out and stretching his legs. Both these dogs are taken by Pawsitive Praise dog rescue located in Chippawa near Niagara Falls.

I help out with the uncrating of the rest of the dogs and they all look to be in average to good shape except for two. One is a Shitzu with a back leg that won't bend. At first I think its knee is locked or something and then realize that this particular leg is actually shorter than the rest. Maybe it's a birth defect, maybe something worse, I don't know. The little guy falls over a lot when it gets excited, bumping and playing with the other dogs.

The other is a poodle who looks like a stick. It had been found in a cage with dry urine saturated hair which had to be all carefully shaved off revealing the skin and bones underneath. Nevertheless, it's a happy dog and its tail constantly whips back and forth. He's one of the guys I'll be transporting.

It looks like there's a mix of puppy mill dogs and "regular" pound dogs here but I can't be sure. It was supposed to be all mill dogs but something got a bit messed up and substitutions were made. Not important, though, as long as all the dogs eventually find homes.

Cathy from the Owen Sound Animal Shelter shows up next and we sort out which of the 5 dogs she'll be taking. At first it looks like there may be a poodle gone missing but it's found buried deep in the crates and Cathy's got her full house.

In this shipment, TAS only has one dog, a little fatty of a Wirehaired Fox Terrier and judging from its temperament and cuteness profile, won't last long on the adoption floor.

That leaves just four dogs unclaimed as I load up my three into the car to take to Leaside Animal Clinic. Dr. Ruth Weintrop is taking in these three little ones to put up for adoption at her clinic. She's getting two Shitzus along with the skinny Poodle. The Shitzus both seem relatively healthy.

As I pull out of the TAS parking lot, the last rescue driver shows up so the remaining four dogs should be well on their way. Once those dogs are off, Eva and her mother will be making the long drive back to Montreal.

My much easier drive up to Leaside Animal Clinic is quick but not quick enough for the cow patch coloured Shitzu in the passenger seat beside me. Every few minutes, he looks over and quietly barks for attention. I didn't know dogs could do quiet barks but there you go. A finger scratching his nose satisfies him and he settles down for a few minutes. The two in the back don't make a peep.

At the clinic, I'm greeted by Joanne who helped arrange this first time adoption try-out between Dr. Weintrop and CAACQ in Quebec. She helps me bring the three refugees inside and they're promptly examined by the vet. A couple of the dogs need some teeth cleaning and the Poodle, aside from needing to gain a substantial amount of weight, has a bad case of ear mites. All fixable. Dr. Weintrop's only concern is the kennel cough symptoms a couple of the dogs may be displaying. If they've got kennel cough, they'll have to be quarantined until they're better which means quite a bit more work for the staff and adoptions may be delayed. Still, it's all doable.

I'll be keeping track of how these guys come along over the next few weeks. When the adoption information for any of the dogs comes up, I'll provide the links and we can keep track of them together.

Update on Great Dane here.

Immigrants

Three rescue dogs are coming in from Serbia and the driver who was supposed to show up at the airport to pick them up has cancelled. Luckily, Gudrun is happy enough to help out with her van and that's a good thing because the dogs show up in two large crates and a mid-sized one. Cathrine, who brought them over on the plane, introduces us to Irene, the smallest, Dominick, the largest and Smiley, in the middle, all variations on shepherd mutts and all very tired. They all seem healthy except for Smile who walks with a pronounced limp on her front right leg. Cathrine tells us that when Smiley was 2 months old, she was hit by a car and left for dead. She was found and taken to the vet. After surgery, her bones have mended back together and she is able to walk again except for the limp.

There's nothing extraordinary to report here. The trip from YYZ to Toronto Animal Services is fairly uneventful so I take the opportunity to have a chat with the dogs.

Me: So what is it that made you decide to come to Canada?

Irene: Well, I've always wanted to study your western democratic system first hand. I'm especially interested in things like your systems of checks and balances, your rules behind campaign financing, political transparency and, in general, the responsibilities for everyday citizens living in such a democracy.

Smiley: Wow, that's deep.

Dominick: Yeah, deeply dull. I came to Canada cuz I hear the food's really good. All my friends on Facebook are constantly throwing messages up on my wall about how good the food is. You can only read so much about Asian fusion, food courts and Timbits before you figure that's something you gotta try out for yerself.

Me: Smiley, why did you come to Canada?

Smiley: I'm an artist and the last few years of my life have been a mess back home. I'm a very sensitive person and I think it was Marlon Brando who said that a sensitive person receives fifty impressions where somebody else may only get seven. Sensitive people are way too vulnerable. I never allow myself to feel anything, because I always feel too much. You know I've being going to therapy for a while now and ...

Dominick: Cripes, she's going on about her therapy again. Look, you've had a few bones busted. Boohoo. How long you gonna ride that wave?

Smiley: You shut up, fatso. All you ever talk about is food. As if that's the only thing that's important in your life. Stop being so two dimensional.

Dominick: Yeah, well you should try to do some real living. Look up from your navel sometime, at least long enough to smell the shi ...

Irene: Alright, enough already. You two are embarrassing me.

Dominick: Oooo, Miss Hoity Toity is embarrassed. Well, I hope I don't embarass you as I take a leak ...

Me: Er, that's going to have to wait until we get you outside.

Dominick: Aww, man. How much longer? My bladder's gonna bust.

Me: Just a few more minutes and then we'll be there.

Dominick: Alright, I'll try to hold it but I can't promise anything.

Me: Well, do the best you can. Thanks.

I check the time. It really isn't much longer to TAS. Dominick's talk about food has made me hungry.

Irene: Emm, excuse me.

Me: Yes?

Irene: Do you have parks here?

Me: Yes, we do.

Irene: You've got parks where dogs can run around?

Me: Yes.

Smiley: Off leash? I heard we might be able to run around off leash and meet other dogs?

Me: Mmm, hmm. They're called dog parks. Some of them are off-leash and some are not.

Dominick: Why aren't they all off-leash?

Me: It's complicated.

I don't have the heart to tell them. Even here, not everyone likes dogs. Even here, sometimes terrible things are done.

Irene: Do you think someone will want us?

Smiley: Will someone take us home?

Irene: I hear some dogs even get their own doggie beds.

Smiley: I'd like that.

Dominick: I'd like to sleep on a couch.

Irene: Oh yes, that would be even better.

Smiley: Ooo, that's a great idea.

They all go quiet for a moment savouring that thought. How easily satisfied, I think.

Irene: Are people here nice?

Sometimes, I think.

Me: Yes people here are nice.

Irene: Are they nice to dogs?

Some people are, I think.

Me: A lot of people are very nice to dogs.

Irene: I hope somebody nice chooses me.

Smiley: Me, too.

Dominick: Me three.

And me four. They'll be spending the weekend in quarantine until the vet comes by next week. After they pass their health checks and temperment testing, they'll get put into general adoption where they'll be competing with purebreds, puppies and an assortment of other abandoned dogs for the hearts and minds of prospective adopters.

Dominick: Hey, I heard you got this thing called back bacon and maple syrup. Can you tell me about that?

Relay

One of the more difficult aspects of dog rescue is getting the dog from where it is to where it should be. Often the journey is split up into several sections with the dog being passed from volunteer to volunteer as it is transported across the country or countries.

Take the Serbian dogs which arrived last Monday for example. They started out at Jelena's shelter in Nis. They were brought to the airport by a taxi driver friend where they were met by Cathrine, an overseas Canadian coming home for a visit. She brought them on board her Lufthansa flight as cargo. Upon her arrival in Toronto, she was met by Elizabeth, Janet and Michelle at the airport. Janet, on behalf of Happy Tails Dog Rescue, would be fostering Koko the scruffy little brown dog while Michelle, who usually does cat rescue, would transport Pinky (named for the pink spot on her nose) to Toronto Animal Services where she would be temporarily housed in one of the spare kennels.

After some exchange of paperwork, Janet departed with Koko and Elizabeth left with Pinky to find Michelle's car and then onwards to TAS.

At TAS, James gave Pinky a quick once over health check and then fed her some food which she gobbled up. Luckily for Pinky, Michelle had taken a liking to her and decided to foster her herself. So, after a few words of advice from James, Pinky was taken home by Michelle where she will spend the next few days or weeks until a permanent home is found for her.