Travelling between Medicine Hat and Edmonton? Help transport a rescue dog

The foundation doesn’t have a physical shelter, and relies on foster coordinators across the province.

Jessica Templeman, adoptions coordinator for Ruff Start, said that their job is to communicate with foster homes.

This is to organize dates and times for vet appointments, but also pickups for transporting the pets.

“We use volunteers like foster homes, even past adopters have helped with these transports across the province,” she said.

“Semi-truck drivers help by bringing the dogs to wherever they’re going, and then we’ll make a train from there to here,” she added.

“Somebody else takes the dog, and then the foster comes to meet them and gets the dog home. So, it’s a really cool process to see.”

Templeman said that it’s interesting to see how many people are willing to contribute to the transport process.

Some even travel out of their way to help with the transports.

She assured that safety is a factor that is also considered.

This goes for drivers, as proof of license and insurance is required prior to a driver transferring a dog.

It also applies to the dogs as well, as not everyone may be comfortable around a foster or rescue.

“For dogs that we’re not sure about, definitely crating them for transport is an easy way to do that,” she said.

“Usually we have some sort of history on the dogs. I don’t think we’ve ever had any issues with safety.”

She said that the rescue not having a shelter makes it really unique, and they appreciate the volunteers that help them.

“Our foster homes are everything to us, and these volunteers help make it possible for us to run our rescue the way that we do and to be successful,” she said.

“We always appreciate them. We always need more volunteers if people are interested.”

by Jayk Sterkenburg

Travelling between Medicine Hat and Edmonton? Help transport a rescue dog

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