At 7:00 am, we met the hauler ... who left the kennel in central Florida 12 hours earlier.
With the back seat of my Jeep folded down, and the floor padded with comforters, there is plenty of room for four greyhounds to ride comfortably. It didn't take them long to settle down.
Our passengers on this trip were:
Olive (race name, Barts Comin Home)
Okra (race name, WWK Fried Okra)
Cooper (race name, JW's Cooper)
and Nichole (don't know Nichole's race name)
As with all trips like this, we are dealing with all sorts of different personalities among the dogs. Olive (the black one) just wanted to lay down and go to sleep. Okra (the brindle) was a happy boy who thought Olive was adorable, and wanted to sniff her ... Olive didn't care for that and told him so on at least two occasions.
This is why the dogs wear muzzles while they are traveling ... for their safety. If one of them gets cranky and snappy, no one (dogs or humans) gets hurt.
Nichole (white with black patches) was a snuggler, and she tried multiple times to climb into the front seat to get into my lap. I spent quite a bit of the trip with my hand on the side of the driver's seat, holding her back.
Nichole wants to help drive.
Cooper (the white with brindle) stood up for a while, but quickly settled in and went to sleep. The only time we heard anything out of him was when Nichole sat on his head. (again, muzzles made sure that barking didn't turn to snapping or injuries.)
blurry photo of the head-sitting incident
We have had our Jeep for two years now, and this was the maiden voyage with four dogs in it. (I have hauled two or three, but had yet to go for four.) We figured it would hold four ... but we knew we couldn't be sure until we stuffed them in to test it out. It was a bit tight, but each dog had enough room to lay down, stretch out, and get comfortable.
Yesterday's trip was a short one. We picked up the dogs in Fredericksburg, and met the next set of drivers at the Maryland Welcome Center, just south of Baltimore. We walked the dogs so they could potty and stretch their legs ... then we loaded them into the next vehicle to continue their journey ... to their new forever homes in New York.
Ferrying the dogs like this is my very favorite part of volunteering with greyhound adoption. The Husband and I have done this since 2000 (or is it 2001) and I stopped counting years ago at 300 dogs that we have transported. We love to meet them, enjoy them for a few hours, and send them on their way.
As far as the holiday traffic was concerned, we had a pretty easy time of it. We did the speed limit almost the whole way north along I-95 ... and we took an alternate route to get home, since we had seen back ups building in places on the southbound side.
When we got home, we were subjected to a thorough inspection ... as Daniel and Ruby snuffled us all over. We had been cheating on them with other dogs, you know.
Happy Sunday, Everyone!