With Scottie McGowan, Assistant Transport Coordinator

It started with an urgent phone call. It was a plea from El Paso. Five Goldens needed homes.

Connie, the president of our sister rescue, the Golden Retriever Rescue of El Paso (GRREP), needed help with finding homes for 4 dogs in El Paso and one in Las Cruces, NM. It was the signal to alert The Golden Express to get on the road again.

There was a flurry of tasks and team interactions as we prepared to receive these Goldens. The Intake Team collected known information; the Placement Team quickly found foster homes; the Vet Team made appointments for anticipated medical care; the Transport Coordinator Team found local transporters to complete the delivery to fosters, I coordinated with Connie and the El Paso transporters and prepared the pile of paperwork. This was all accomplished within a small window of time prior to our leaving Arizona.

Tom and Ginny Williams were eager and ready for their first El Paso transport. In El Paso, the three of us me at our hotel to discuss strategy for the transport and had a fabulous Texas steak dinner followed by a good night’s rest. We were ready to meet our new Goldens.

The next morning, we met Gracie, Sammy, Buddy, and Eddie who greeted us with smiles and wagging tails unsuspecting that they were about to embark on a great adventure. Amidst lots of activity, we completed all of the paperwork and loaded the dogs. Gracie, Sammy, and Buddy rode with Tom & Ginny; Eddie rode with me; we began our long journey back to Arizona.

But we had one more pickup to make. We were to pick up a sweet, little blonde girl named Skye from her foster in Las Cruces, NM. Skye is a special interest girl because she is partially blind and will eventually be fully blind. It was imperative that we quickly get her into her forever home so she could learn her way around before that happens. Skye and her foster bid a teary farewell, she jumped into my dogmobile and met Eddie, and we continued our journey back to Arizona and home.

After one potty and food break, the next stop was my house in Tucson. Humans and canines stretched their legs before continuing the trip up north. Susan Quisenberry was at my house ready to take Skye home with her to foster and to take Buddy to meet up with Chris Brant who delivered him to his foster in Scottsdale. Tom & Ginny, fosters for Sammy and Gracie, continued their journey home. Eddie was staying in Tucson, so I loaded him back in the car and delivered him to his foster.

All have been adopted, but Gracie didn’t stay. Sadly, she was suffering from renal failure among other things and she was in a great deal of pain. We tried to save her but there was nothing we could do. Tom Williams was with her as she was mercifully helped to the Rainbow Bridge. Tom and Ginny were her adopters of record.

There were so many people from many teams scurrying to make this all happen. A special Tail Wag to everyone for helping these Goldens. We couldn’t do it without you.

In the future, we will be making more trips to El Paso to rescue more Goldens. Stay tuned for more adventures of transporters On the Road Again.

If you would like to get into the action and join one of our Golden teams, apply on our website; www.golden-retriever.org.