Today I went on my first run of the Rescue Railroad. I was invited to ride shotgun on one leg of the journey to Mansfield, Ohio and back to Cleveland with three of the original twelve little dogs that first started out on this run. The engineer of this particular leg was Ted Thelander of Near West Neighbors in Action.
I believe that six of the canines were transported by one driver all the way to New York and the other six were divided into two groups for convenience of the transporters.
There was the cutest chocolate lab/mixed that I adored, and there were two brothers that for some reason got on each others nerves and were at each other's throats. There were a couple of really sweet black dogs but I have to tell you, little Charlie stole my heart. I really would have brought him home and Ted Thelander tried to arrange it so that I could adopt this precious little dog. He curled up in my arms as soon as I picked him up and the little fellow crawled up like a little baby and slept all snuggled up right under my chin all the way to Cleveland. It broke my heart to let him go.
This was one of the most organized net works I have ever seen - all done and paid for by volunteers giving of themselves to arrange and manage a safe life saving journey for these friendly and loveable creatures. The people I met involved in this task were some of the warmest and friendliest individuals that I am so glad I got to meet.
We reached our destination back in Cleveland around 5:00pm or so and lovingly handed over our cargo to the next relayers who would be continuing on the next leg which I believe would end up in Erie, PA., and from there they would be handed over to another set of transporters and so on until they reached New York.
All I have to say is that if somebody says I can have Charlie, I going after him.