Hi Guys!
 I recently had a reporter, Bill Hageman,  from the
> Chicago Tribune
 ride along on a transport I'd coordinated. Luckily,
> the transport went
 off without a hitch! Whew!  He wrote a great article
> that was
 featured in the lifestyle ("Q") section last Sunday
> (below)!
> Hopefully, it'll help us all! It's a bit long but
> great PR for us!
>
> Peggy Dial
>
> Peggy Dial
> President
> Ragdoll Rescue USA/International
> CFA Purebred Rescue Coordinator
> (618) 624-2511   Fax (618) 624-4492
> petfinder.com/shelters/IL297.html
> freewebs.com/ragdollrescueusa/
> pdial5@c...

>
> Have critter, will travel
> A network of drivers fetches the pet world's orphans
> and takes them
> to a place of hope
>
> By William Hageman-Tribune staff reporter
> Published October 3, 2004
>
> They're on the road every weekend, hundreds of them,
> crisscrossing
> the nation.
>
> And as Q found out, they're not off to visit Grandma
> or follow some
> rock band.
>
> They're animal transporters, who haul cats and dogs,
> mostly, from
> kill shelters or owners who have to surrender them
> to rescue groups
> or adoptive families where they'll find new homes.
> They shuttle the
> animals--along with their beds, bowls, toys and
> medical records--on
> their own time, at their expense, in their vehicles.
>
> "It's just out of pocket," said one driver. "I don't
> know that any of
> us deduct expenses [on their taxes]. I doubt it."
>
> That's a lot of dedication for a puppy or kitten
> you've never seen
> before and probably will never see again. No
> problem, they say.
>
> "I do this because it makes me feel good in my
> heart. Because it is
> the right thing to do," said Debbie Lewis of
> Vandalia, Ill., who's
> good for a couple of transports a month. "I think
> everyone should do
> something to improve the world. Certainly, rescuing
> and transporting
> homeless animals will not bring about world peace or
> end prejudice,
> but it does make a world of difference to the
> animals and hopefully
> to the families that adopt them."
>
> Transports are actually relays, well-planned trips
> that can cover a
> few miles or hundreds of miles. A driver takes an
> animal X miles,
> then turns it over to the next driver. And so on,
> for hours or
> sometimes days. Coordinators plan things down to the
> mile, to the
> minute. They plot handover locations and pass on
> details, like the
> color and plate number of the vehicles.
>
> Q recently joined a transport that took two cats
> from Northbrook to
> O'Fallon, Ill., near St. Louis. The cats, a pair of
> 7-year-old
> ragdolls named Magic and Casey, belonged to a woman
> who had to
> surrender them for personal reasons. A family member
> contacted Nancy
> Montana, a neighbor who is involved with Aid to
> Animals, a Barrington
> pet rescue organization. Montana, in turn, worked
> with Ragdoll Rescue
> USA/International to find a new home for the cats.
>
> Because of their age and the fact that they had been
> raised together,
> the preference was for the cats to be placed in one
> home. But first
> they needed some minor medical attention. So Peggy
> Dial, the head of
> Ragdoll Rescue, set up the 400-plus-mile transport
> to get the cats to
> a temporary home, from which they'd be adopted out.
>
> The trip went off without a hitch. Magic and Casey
> were great
> travelers. Pretty boring, in truth, satisfied to
> snooze or watch the
> world go by from their carriers, which were stocked
> with small pans
> of cat litter.
>
> But the transporters, they were worth the trip.
>
> Let's hit the road . . .
>
> Leg 1: Northbrook to Romeoville
>
> This was the first transport for Madeline Kisting,
> who learned about
> these relays on the Internet. The idea of
> transporting cats intrigued
> her and she filled out the online profile. Once
> that's done,
> coordinators post upcoming transports and try to
> fill in the legs.
>
> "This was Northbrook to Bolingbrook on a Saturday.
> It was a no-
> brainer," said Kisting, an art dealer who flies
> 60,000 miles a year
> and who has also offered to accompany relocating
> pets that travel by
> air (private pilots and truckers are also part of
> the network).
>
> An owner of several cats and a couple of dogs, she
> was prepared for
> anything. Armed with a blanket, she and Montana
> entered the townhouse
> where the cats had spent the night.
>
> The cats were most cooperative. No climbing
> curtains, no clawing, no
> biting. The first leg of the trip itself was even
> more peaceful. With
> nary a complaint, the cats traveled down Interstate
> Highway 294 to
> Interstate Highway 55, then south and west to
> Bolingbrook.
>
> It took about 50 uneventful minutes to cover the 43
> miles, ending in
> a gas station parking lot at I-55 and Weber Road. A
> flawless maiden
> voyage.
>
> "Oh, I'd do it again, in a second," Kisting said.
> "Absolutely."
>
> Leg 2: Romeoville to Kankakee
>
> Waiting in the lot was Vicki Michalski, doing her
> first cat
> transport. She'd hauled dogs twice before, so she
> knew the drill.
>
> "I'm amazed at how all this gets put together," she
> said, wedged in
> the small cab of her GMC Sonoma, along with the
> stacked carriers and
> a reporter.
>
> Michalski had planned a trip downstate on this
> weekend and signed up
> for a 61-mile leg of the transport. Her trip fell
> through, but she
> wanted to do her part anyway. She's as good a friend
> as an animal
> could have.
>
> A legal secretary, she has volunteered at shelters
> for about a dozen
> years, she said. Having recently moved back to the
> Chicago area,
> she's not at any one shelter right now, "so I just
> do what I can to
> help animals."
>
> That includes letting people know about low-cost
> spay and neuter
> programs--she carries a pile of yellow fliers to
> pass out--and
> scaring up yard-sale items--everything from blankets
> and brooms to
> laundry baskets and playpens--that could be donated
> to shelters. She
> uses an electronic company bulletin board to list
> animals available
> for adoption. When she sees a "free to good home" ad
> in the paper,
> she'll call the people and tell them where to get
> their dog spayed
> cheaply. ("Some people act like I'm a Jehovah's
> Witness. But other
> people are grateful.") On this Saturday morning, the
> leg down Weber
> Road to I-80 and over to I-57 and Kankakee was a
> breeze. Michalski
> kept a hand on the crates for much of the way,
> peering in often to
> check on and talk to the cats, who rode quietly.
>
> "This was an easy transport. No traffic," she said.
>
> The leg ended just outside the I-57 Flea Market.
>
> Leg 3: Kankakee to Tuscola
>
> Michalski, Magic and Casey were met at the flea
> market by Kim and
> Cheri Cutright.
>
> Michalski asked about the flea market. There could
> be items for sale
> that someone might want to donate to a shelter. When
> Kim told her
> that there's a booth inside where a woman sells
> puppies, Michalski
> got that Jehovah's Witness look in her eye. She
> would check it out,
> she said.
>
> The cats got fresh water, and Cheri went over a
> checklist she has
> devised to make sure everything is covered. Then Kim
> cranked up his
> radar detector, and the Cutrights were soon cruising
> south on I-57.
> They had the longest leg of the transport: 104
> miles. And they'd
> already traveled 72 miles from their home near
> Morris to get to
> Kankakee.
>
> She's a retired teacher, he's a quality control
> inspector, and
> they've been married just over a year. This is
> Cheri's 11th run--her
> 20th and 21st animals--and Kim's fourth trek.
> They've been at it for
> only a month or so.
>
> Cheri has thrown herself--so has Kim, when he's not
> working--into
> transports. She was scheduled to handle a leg of one
> trip, but
> organizers couldn't find anyone to cover the legs
> immediately before
> and after hers. So she did all three legs, 424 miles
> in one day,
> starting in Iowa and ending in Indiana.
>
> The cornfields of Buckley, Gilman, Paxton and
> Rantoul flew by. Cheri
> was nestled in the back seat of the Cutrights'
> Chrysler Sebring,
> keeping the cats company. And vice versa.
>
> Also in the back seat was a photo album with
> pictures of all the
> animals they've transported. Soon, Magic and Casey
> would be pictured
> too.
>
> Our next stop for a hand off was a motel parking lot
> in Tuscola.
>
> Leg 4: Tuscola to Effingham
>
> While Cheri Cutright's checklist includes getting a
> photographic
> memory of their rider, Debbie Lewis keeps no such
> records. She's not
> even sure how many animals she and husband Dean have
> transported
> during the last 4 1/2 years.
>
> "I've done 70, 75, 100," she said. "I don't keep
> track. I wish I'd
> chronicled them."
>
> She got started through her interest in Chinese
> Cresteds, which she
> first saw on a televised dog show. She learned about
> a Chinese
> Crested rescue program, and "then I got turned on to
> the transport
> thing."
>
> Her favorite passenger, she said, was a pit bull
> that she drove from
> a foster home to his new adoptive family.
>
> "I fell in love with him," she said. "I'd never had
> any one-on-one
> with a pit bull. He was the nicest, sweetest, most
> affectionate dog
> I've ever transported. He sat between the seats and
> looked up at me,
> licked my arm."
>
> With Dean behind the wheel, this 53-mile leg went
> quickly. Tuscola
> became Arcola, which became Mattoon, then Neoga,
> then Effingham.
>
> Magic and Casey nestled in their carriers behind the
> back seat, with
> only an occasional soft mew. They'd have to snap out
> of it if they
> hoped to make the "most memorable" list of their
> next driver.
>
> Leg 5: Effingham to Mt. Vernon
>
> Del Daniels is something of a legend among
> transporters. It may be
> because she has handled about 500 animals. Or maybe
> it's because she
> seems to get the interesting passengers.
>
> There was a goose. And rabbits. Six Dalmatian
> puppies once. Two dozen
> pups on another run. And a pair of what she was told
> were pygmy
> goats, although there wasn't much pygmy in them, and
> they left the
> back of her van ankle deep in "goat stuff."
>
> And there was the family of Great Pyrenees: Mom, Dad
> and their three
> puppies.
>
> "I was led to believe they were wonderful house
> dogs," she said with
> a laugh. "Boy, was I dumb."
>
> She brought only one crate, for the pups, figuring
> that house dogs
> would be used to riding in a van. In reality, none
> of the dogs had
> ever been in a car before. It was a wild ride.
>
> "One of the parents decides to poop, then the other
> one says, OK,
> I'll poop too. Oh, the smell," said Daniels, who
> lives in West
> Frankfort. "And these are big dogs. I mean, polar
> bears. So I'm in
> the back trying to clean it up, and [husband] Dan
> can't stop because
> there's nowhere to pull over. And then the dog
> decides he wants to
> lift his leg. Then he decides he wants to make more
> puppies, and Ma
> dog decides she wants to drive. . . . Oh, it was
> awful. But I must
> say we laughed about it."
>
> The human element isn't always so predictable
> either, said Daniels,
> who has been burned more than once by drivers who
> don't show up. When
> that happens, "what we do is call the driver who has
> the next leg and
> we try to meet partway. If they can't split the leg,
> then we'll drive
> it."
>
> As for the unreliable drivers, "We kind of put a
> little black mark
> next to their name."
>
> But no glitches in this 70-mile leg. The cats barely
> stirred, and in
> a little over an hour we reached Mt. Vernon.
>
> Leg 6: Mt. Vernon to Nashville
>
> Danielle Barbre left work 15 minutes early so she'd
> be sure to be on
> time for the hand off. It was her first transport.
>
> "I've been wanting to do it for a long time, but
> I've had trouble
> with my work schedule and school schedule," said
> Barbre, who's a
> certified nurses assistant as well as a nursing
> student at Kaskaskia
> College in Centralia, Ill. ("I always wanted to be a
> veterinarian.
> But there aren't many veterinarian schools around
> here. So I went
> into nursing.")
>
> The day was going so well that we actually hit the
> road 8 minutes
> ahead of schedule. With the cats snug in the back of
> her purple
> Pontiac Grand Am, Barbre covered her 32-mile
> leg--the shortest of the
> transport--in less than 30 minutes.
>
> It ended in a fast-food parking lot, where Magic and
> Casey got to
> meet the woman who put the trip together.
>
> Leg 7: Nashville to O'Fallon
>
> Peggy Dial belongs to 50-some rescue groups. She was
> along on the
> last leg of the 403-mile transport, which took her
> two weeks to plan.
>
> "A lot of these, they go right to the last minute
> before you know if
> they'll all come together," said Dial, a real estate
> agent who used
> to raise and show Afghan hounds. "I get about four
> hours of sleep a
> night."
>
> She can't rest easy. She's planning a couple of
> other trips, one
> involving 78 cats, another going from Colorado to
> Wisconsin.
>
> Driving these final 40 miles was friend and neighbor
> Brandy Carlson.
> They're quite a team.
>
> "We once had a dog that was supposed to go to
> Pensacola, Fla., but it
> fell through," said Carlson, a dog groomer who has
> done "probably 40"
> transports in three years. "We went anyway. We had a
> plan. We'd saved
> money out of our paychecks, so we were going."
>
> It's obvious that Dial loves what she does. And
> loves getting other
> people involved.
>
> "[Transporters] don't even have to take the animals
> into their
> homes," she said. "And I try to keep the [legs] to
> 50 miles. It's
> easy on them but tough on me. But that's OK. We just
> try to do what
> we can to get the animals to safety."
>
> Epilogue
>
> The cats were checked out medically, got their
> necessary vaccinations
> and came through OK. A man in Kansas has applied to
> adopt them.
>
> ----------
>
> Information on transports and upcoming trips can be
> found at several
> Internet sites, including www.petfinder.com,
> www.trucksnpaws.com,
> www.mainecoonrescue.com and
> www.acmepettransport.com.
 
> Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune
 
 www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/q/chi-0410030505oct03,1,6207520.story
 

WOW! look at this great Truck!........

I contacted TruckNpaws a few months back... for permission to advertise
your group, your cause on my show truck... IT'S DONE!!! it looks
wonderful!!!

Even though I do plan on adding a few more things..

I attended my first car show this weekend "Super Chevy" in Reading, PA...
Basically, puppymill central in my area!! Amish farms... I was afraid my
truck would be egged driving around that area.

I took second place !!! Spread the word to HUNDREDS of people !!!!! Looks
of shock and horror..
Colleen

I did my first trip a few weeks ago for the Dalmatian Rescue.

Her name is Daisy, and is CUTE as ever! Daisy is about a year old, tiny and completely deaf. My son and daughter came along for the ride and we got such a chuckle out of my daughter trying to take the pictures. She kept trying to get Daisy to turn around and look at her by calling her name and making a bunch of goo-goo sounds! From the updates I have been getting, Daisy is a smart little thing and has learned hand signals being taught by her foster mom. See her picture below. She's a cutie!

Tamara