Saturday's Shepherd

Here is my passenger from yesterday. He is a 5 year-old shepherd being transported all the way to Wisconsin so he can have a second chance. He was the most frightened passenger I've ever transported. He had a precious heart though. With a little love and patience he'll be a wonderful best friend. He didn't know how to walk on a leash and I had to carry him to the grass to let him pee (which he was too nervous to even do that). His heart was pounding when I lifted him into my arms. He never whined or complained and you could tell he wanted to be friends but was just to scared. He laid down in the back with his head between the seats so he could be close and so he could see where he was going. Poor guy...I don't think he even had a name yet. He just broke my heart, but I have high hopes for him.

A Southerner in the Snow...

As I am sitting here in my nice warm house, I am thinking about tomorrow, mountains, ice, snow, and if my Mini Cooper (and me) will come back in one piece.

Tomorrow is my usual rescue transport...four dogs who will most certainly never see a home if they do not travel tomorrow. My leg of the transport journey just happens to be in the mountains with a forecast of snow.

"So?" You Northerners say...well, we Southerners close down shop when there's snow in the forecast. No one knows how to drive in it and the mere mention of snow causes a panicked run to the grocery store for canned goods. I mean, you could starve to death in the 24 hours the snow sticks around before melting.

Actually, more often than not, our problem is not enough snow to be driven on and just enough rain/snow to harden into ice. Now, that's a disaster waiting to happen. It's a modern production of Rednecks on Ice, except there's no happy ending--triple klutzes do not earn a good score.

So, ashamedly I admit I am very nervous about driving over the mountains into Kentucky tomorrow with a bunch of rescue dogs in my tiny Mini Cooper. Yes, I am a true Southerner-"afeared" of the white stuff. I don't think I qualify to be a major character in the Rednecks on Ice production, but I do qualify as a Nervous Southerner in a Mini Cooper that's had to be fixed twice in the last year because of a hit-and-run and a nasty burglary. Poor Smidget can't get a break. (Think positive Smidget!)

I am looking out the window at the cold rain coming down, well-aware it will be freezing over tonight, making a nice slick base for the shallow snowfall to come tomorrow. And I can't help but wonder if our Northern transporter counterparts are rolling their eyes, laughing hysterically while gunning their snowmobiles in disgust.

Yup, we're chickens down here. But we're chickens with big hearts. I am going to pretend I drive in the snow all the time tomorrow and race over the mountain at a scorching 15 mph if I have to. I won't be the link that takes the transport down and lets these adoptable dogs go by the wayside like so many do.

I'm laughing and crying inside...laughing at myself for being scared and crying because, well, I really am scared. But what do you expect? I will be a Southerner in the snow. Just give me a wide berth if you see me coming!!