The dogs from Val d'Or, Part 2

(Continued from here.)

The next day, or maybe it was the day after, I started sifting through all the dog emails from CAACQ which were in the trash folder, still undeleted. Why? I don't know. Maybe because I didn't have enough nails lying around to jab into my eyes.

After looking through all the dog profiles, I decided to find out more about the SPCA de Val d'Or so I went online but couldn't find much information on them. They didn't have a website and most Google hits pointed to nondescript address listings.

There was this, though, from the Forum Canin Abitibi Temiscamingue:

The dog in the lower left corner, Rossy, Lab mix, looked like one of the dogs mentioned in one of the e-mails. I checked the date of the forum post. May 3, 2009. It couldn't be the same dog. What kind of a high kill shelter would keep an unadoptable dog around for two years?

I dug through my e-mails from CAACQ until I found the one I was looking for and this was the attachment:

Same photo. Same name. Same dog? Couldn't be. Maybe there was a mix-up. Maybe someone was just re-using old photos. When I brought this up with CAACQ, the intermediaries, they thought the same as I did. Probably a mix-up. It was highly unlikely that a place like SPCA de Val d'Or would keep a dog for that long. How could they have the resources?

Well, I guess we'll see, I thought. Rossy, or whoever it was, was one of the dogs picked to come to Toronto.

Later on that day, I got an e-mail from James telling me the dogs would arrive on Saturday.

I called him to confirm the time. Around 4:30.

And then he said, "Yeah, they're going to be driving that big truck for ten hours."

"Why a big truck?" I asked.

"Sixteen dogs," he said.

"You're bringing down all sixteen?"

"Yeah."

Between all the TAS locations and various rescues, including Speaking of Dogs and Happy Tails, they managed to find placements for all the dogs.


5:30, Saturday afternoon, the truck arrived. The dogs inside started barking with excitement even before the trailer doors were opened. I'm not sure if there were exactly sixteen dogs - there may have been some confusion with the e-mail numbering - but the cargo area was packed. Eyes peered out of the shadows, nervous, curious, happy. Lots of panting, whimpering, barking and scratching at cage doors. Lots of tail wags. People, spilling out of the Marlies game, gathered around, wondered what was going on and came to their own conclusions.

Rossy was right up near the front and it was indeed Rossy, the same dog in the photos. His pale blue eyes incongruous with the reddish, shaggy coat, looked at me and then looked away as I took his picture. If he was nervous, he didn't show it. He sat there, patiently waiting for his turn to be taken out of his cage.

I didn't see the Berger Anglais so I got into the trailer and started looking into the crates. I was surprised by how many large dogs there were. The photos in the e-mails made them look smaller.

She was near the back. She was pacing her cage, excited. Much bigger than I had thought. Ninety pounds maybe? Certainly well fed. Clean. When I took her out to relieve herself, she ambled along, pulling a little but not bad. She definitely wasn't an Old English or a Beardie, more like a Doodle of some sort. Labradoodle, Golden Doodle, maybe even a Beardie Doodle. Who knows?

Over the next couple of days, the dogs were transferred to their respective locations. TAS South was keeping Rossy so I got to see her again. I was told the women who transported the dogs from SPCA de Val d'Or cried when they said goodbye to him. It must have been difficult to have to say goodbye to the dog who was saved out of the dozens or hundreds who were killed over the years. This was the dog they pinned their hopes on in a place of too much suffering and they finally succeeded in getting him out.

Here's a video from Carol at Happy Tails Rescue who took in Cheryl and Bosco, renamed Lana and Harley:



The Doodle has gone to Speaking of Dogs:

They asked me if I'd be willing to foster her but, after thinking about it for a night, I declined . Seriously not enough time and mostly I'm not ready yet.

But in a few weeks, who knows?