Saving dogs, one trip at a time

On Sunday, my wife, Lois, and I took temporary possession of Brutus, an 80-pound pit bull mix, after an exchange in a parking lot off Exit 95 in Cape Girardeau.

A mellow, level-headed boy, Brutus rode contentedly in our SUV, licking Lois' face repeatedly as the three of us trundled north on Interstate 55.

This wasn't the first time a new dog traveled with us.

We've been transporting dogs on the weekend for about six months now under the auspices of Missouri Transport or Many Paws, just two of a variety of organizations that locate volunteer drivers via social media to help dogs travel to adopted homes in other states.

We have a black-mouthed cur, Sammy, at our home and he's my buddy.

I'm not sure what we'd do without Sammy, and I'd like to think what we're doing along with many others is helping other men and women, strangers to us, find love and companionship with humanity's best friend.

"I am deeply committed to rescue," Lois said of the experience, "(because) some of these animals are being saved from high-kill shelters. If we can take an hour or two on a weekend to take a dog from death row to a happy life, why wouldn't we?"

Brutus left Lamessa Adoptables in Lamessa, Texas, at 6:45 a.m. Saturday and arrived at his final destination — Our Pack Animal Rescue in Berlin, Wisconsin, at 7:25 p.m.

There were 20 transport legs in Brutus' journey, and we happened to be leg No. 13, from Cape Girardeau to Arnold, Missouri.

Brutus was handed off to us in Cape by Carol Mitchell, a retired internal medicine physician from Memphis, Tennessee, who is a veteran of nearly 19 years of ferrying both dogs and cats.

"You could say we (drivers) are FedEx Ground for animals," said Mitchell, who first began participating in volunteer transport with cats but in the last six years has also driven dogs.

"What we do would not be possible without the internet," Mitchell said, adding drivers typically communicate with one another by Facebook messenger to signal arrival times.

"There are many questionable things about social media, but it connects rescue groups with drivers," she noted, suggesting coordinating a transport among so many different drivers in a short time frame using landlines would be next to impossible.

Lois and I appreciate the clear instructions we receive.

We drove for the Many Paws organization last weekend, which requires a photo be taken every time the dog is handed off that visibly shows it is double-leashed and with a manila file containing the canine's certification and health history clearly visible in the picture.

"With a double-leash, if one leash fails, you've still got a way of keeping the dog from flight, from running off," Lois said.

Mitchell said her mother was saving animals before there was such a term as "animal rescue."

She said she appreciates rules and expectations clearly enumerated.

"The groups I work with tell you how the transport will work, explains who to call if you have a flat tire or if the next driver is late, that sort of thing," she said.

The best way, we've discovered, to find a rescue organization is to look up one on Facebook and investigate its policies for driver acceptance and expectations.

A partial list of groups includes Many Paws, Missouri Transport, JGMD (Just a Girl Moving Dogs) and Purrfect Match (cats).

For those who prefer to frequent a website, visit www.pointerrescue.org/helpus.html.

My wife said friends tell her what a wonderful thing she is doing, but Lois said she gets far more out of these trips than she gives.

"It's date night. It's not hard work, and we find driving the dogs delightful and fun," she said.

She's absolutely right.

Jeff Long is a reporter with the Southeast Missourian.