At 9pm Nick collected me from my friend Brenda’s house, rescuing me from death by chocolate fondue, which was a near certainty until he appeared in Brenda’s kitchen, ate one chocolate covered strawberry and said, “It’s time.”
The car was loaded with a collar and leash, plus blankets and crib mattress pads to line Galina’s crate. (See? Isn’t it a good thing we didn’t get rid of those pads we haven’t needed for ten years?). We’d be getting a loaner crate from OPH at the pick up. Many of the dogs coming from these shelters aren’t housebroken, so the crate and crib pads would be necessary to save our carpet.
We headed down the road, only to turn back after I checked my e-mail enroute and discovered the transport truck would be delayed by accidents in North Carolina, and our pick up time was pushed back to 11pm. To kill time we watched an incredibly pointless sitcom called Two Broads. That was 30 minutes of my life I’ll never get back, but at least I wasn’t eating myself into a chocolate coma.
Finally, at 10 we took off for Pikesville. It was a balmy 5 degrees and I wondered what our little southern girl would make of that. Nick asked how we would find the OPH crowd, but when we pulled in the bowling alley parking lot it was immediately evident. There were a multitude of SUVs with motors running, next to a streetlamp where a small group of eskimos chatted, handing out dog crates, bags of bedding and food, even cookies, oblivious to the cold.
We received our crate and Nick put it together in the back of our SUV, lining it generously with the pads and warm blankets. And then we waited.
Nick stayed in the warm car, but I wandered over to chat with some of the experienced fosters. I learned that two pregnant mama dogs were in this shipment and many of the families were there to retrieve multiple dogs. Two of the other Pennsylvania foster mommies talked about their experience with state inspections. They’d both fostered over 25 dogs in one year which made them qualify as a kennel and required the inspections. I couldn’t imagine doing this 25 times, but then maybe that’s what they thought the first time, too. I found it heartening that, to a person, everyone was friendly and kind. They were happy to be there and excited to meet their new foster dogs, even on a night as bitter cold as this. Continue reading “Galina Arrives!” →
Another Good Dog™ 
