Freedom Flight

We are going down to Asheville for a quick getaway next week, so I've been busily saying "no" to new fosters until we are back next weekend. However, I did agree to help transport one today for Promises Animal Rescue.

Reid came from a shelter in South Carolina. He had a rough time of it down there; he contracted heartworms and was attacked by another dog. He recovered nicely though and today he got the hell out of there thanks to the local shelter down there and a volunteer pilot who flew him up to Charlottesville. I picked him up from the airport and drove up to Culpeper where I met another volunteer who transported him on to his Promises foster.

Reid had a busy day. He travels very well, although he was reluctant to make the transfer from car-to-car. It made me realize what we put these dogs through and expect them to cope with, being handed off from stranger to stranger again and again and again in the course of just a few hours. There was no time to build any trust with any individual person, we were all relying on dogs' innate trust of humans to make this happen, in spite of the fact that this individual dog probably has plenty of reason to distrust humans. Actually, they all do, but domestication of the species works in our favor to overcome a lot of individual human shortcomings.

Reid is now a Virginia dog with a new future ahead of him. Although no one knows exactly what that future will be, it's a chance at a better life than he had before today's flight. Welcome to Virginia, welcome to Promises, welcome to your new life, Reid.

The next driver pulled in just behind me in Culpeper
so he didn't have much time there either.

Reid might have liked a little more time to stretch his
legs, but the humans were unusually efficient today.
He did have time to pee on the grass after  leaving the
airport, but then it was into my van for the drive.

He seems like a sweet and trusting dog.