6 volunteers/covoitureurs made the trip possible, as well as the fosterers driving good distances to meet up with their new charges. Well done to Lynn, Lianne, Sunny, Anna, Caroline, Kate, Christine, Debbie and Nicky for this amazing effort.
So much time and effort goes into planning and executing these trips. You have to work out where each animal is and where it has to go, find volunteers and figure out everyone’s availability, then plan who can do which stretch, and the best meet up points along the route.
Someone needs to collect all the animals and get them to a central point to start the trip. You need to figure out if you need crates or seatbelt clips, along with collars, leads or harnesses. Supplies such as puppy pads, towels, wipes, blankets, water and bowls need to be prepared.
Time for pee breaks and handovers must be factored into the total driving time so no one is waiting too long. If the animals don’t know each other, they must be strategically placed in the car. The animals may be nervous and skittish in cars so the volunteers need to be sympathetic, and understand dogs or cats.
Poly is a 2 year old German Short Haired Pointer. She came from the local refuge and had an urgent hysterectomy 2 days ago and needed a place to recover. She has never known family life and it appears she was on a chain most of her life- her front teeth are damaged from trying to chew through the chain. Poly needed to get safely to her fosterer, Christine.
The two German Spitz were transported to their fosterer, Debbie. Les Amis des Animaux was helping another association, Animaux Vraie, with these two dogs. They had both come from awful lives, and one is almost blind. They are 7 and 8 years old and had lived tied up on a terrace, covered in fleas and flea poop. One had 2 open wounds, one of which turned out to be cancerous.
