Never Do This To Your Dog.

This is the second half of the transport pictures from last Saturday. Here's the thing, these are mill dogs. And it made me cry. Now, some people might say I'm just over sensitive, but I wonder how one can NOT be when they see things like this.

Meet Jill.

Jill is very very skinny, has obviously been bred, and is a very sweet dog, if a little unsure.

A good, responsible breeder would never have let Jill get into this poor of shape. Heck, a good breeder would not have had her dog go into rescue like this. When I say I'm not against breeding dogs, I mean I only want good, responsible breeders to produce the best quality dogs they can. If I ever see a dog owned by a friend of mine that looks like this, I will personally do something... not very nice.

Daisy and Ethel were riding together in a crate, and weren't in as bad of shape, but even so, there is no reason that purebred dogs should be ending up in shelters. I wish I knew of a better way to educate more people about neutering and spaying their pets that would actually get it through their heads. I just try, one at a time to talk nicely to people (while mentally screaming obscenities at them sometimes) and explain the advantages.

Anyway, here's Daisy.

And Ethel.

Ethel is like the very definition of the opposite of a flight risk. And such pretty colors. Here they are waiting to get loaded up.

I often try to do a little picture snapping while I'm on the road, if I feel I can do it safely. Of course, I can't really AIM the camera very well and watch the road, but sometimes I get pretty lucky. Here are the tiny mill dogs that rode together in the crate right behind my seat.

They didn't have names yet, and this is probably the first time they'd been in such 'luxurious' accommodations.

Under the towel and blanket, there is a foam pad wrapped in plastic, to make it easy to clean. These sweethearts didn't have an accident in the car, which was great, but I was prepared. This was great all around, because all the dogs were safely contained. You can see the Bassetts in their crates behind the little dogs, and everybody could get a bit of the AC that I had turned up. And the Jeep ran like it was supposed to, so it seems that it is fixed now. Yay!

We were guessing that this was also the first time they'd really gotten to be outside, on grass, and exposed to so many new things. The little Cavalier wasn't too sure she wanted to jump over the curb and get in the grass.

The Yorkie was happy to get in the grass, and just sniff sniff sniff.

She was a kissy pup too, and washed my face several times as I loaded her. But the grass was super interesting when we were on it.

And we're down to the final dog on the trip, a mini Aussie. Ugh, mini dogs. Very very adorable, but not a sign of good breeding.

She was very frightened, and also very interested in being loved on, which had to be quite confusing for her. I doubt she had ever been on a leash before either, from the way she reacted to that. If she had a tail, it would be firmly tucked in this picture.

I really, seriously wanted so so badly to scoop her up and bring her home to show her how wonderful life can be when you're spoiled rotten. Of course, she's smaller than most of our cats, so it wouldn't be too wise to bring her here, with our big dogs, but boy did I want to.

Another reason I couldn't bring her home is what The Mate told me the other night. I mentioned something about how much I'd love to have brought a dog on a transport home, and he told me that five was the magic number. I asked, "The magic number for what?" and he replied, "The magic number of dogs that would make me move out." He was mostly joking, but he is right. We do not need any more animals. We're already over the reasonable limit with 14 cats, but with homes being so few and far between, the kitties are pretty much ours for life, and we'll do our best by them. The exception is Jet, who will be moving in with my best friend when she's in a position to take him. And hopefully she'll be able to adopt a shelter kitty to keep him company. He loves kittens. I'm getting off track here. Anyway, one last shot of the Aussie, enjoying some petting time.

It looks like next weekend is shaping up to be another big run, possibly a couple combined. I'll be taking my 'regular' leg from over in Ohio back into Erie. And now, I had better get into bed and try to sleep, so I can do some of my work. I've got swatches and manis to show you, and a brief review of some of the stuff I got from Viva La Nails. Oh, and my Model's Own polishes arrived, so I think that next week will be Model's Own week. Since I got 7 polishes, I can do one each day to show them off.