Super 8 Puppies

Early in December 2003, a woman who works for a shelter in Texas rescued a female Wheaten from an auction, not knowing at the time that the female was pregnant. After she was checked by the vet, the woman contacted Gwen and asked for her assistance in placing the soon-to-be-born puppies, wanting to make sure they all had great homes. About week later, 8 puppies were born – 4 males and 4 females.

With Gwen involved, homes were quickly found for all of the babies, most of them in Texas. They stayed with their mom for the first 9 weeks of their lives, and left for a big adventure to meet Gwen and their new owners in a Wal-Mart parking lot somewhere in the middle of Texas. Gwen noted that they drew lots of attention, and she assured the People that gathered, including the local sheriff, that she was not peddling puppies out of her motor home, that they were rescues and all were spoken for!

But for three of these little pups, Molly Lee, Murphy, and Abbie, the journey did not end that day. They were going to the homes of 3 different WIN volunteers, all of whom lived on the east coast, far away from Texas!

In what has to be the longest single-person WURL in history, Molly’s dad, Guy, planned to drive out and pick up his Molly, and then volunteered to drive Abbie, who was going to NC, and Murphy, who was going to live in Baltimore, along with him. He made the several day trip from his home in Pennsylvania to meet Gwen in Texas. After the other pups were picked up, they made their way back to Gwen’s in Houston for the night.

The three were lucky to be able to get some extra attention from their Auntie Gwen as they spent the night at her house the first night of their journey. Baths, nail trims, and haircuts were all part of their “spa” treatment of the morning!

Guy and the pups then got in the car and started their first big leg of the journey from Houston to Mandeville, LA. As Guy described, the pups were not sure what was going on and did quite a bit of “singing” in the car – among other things, which made for several clean-up stops for Guy. The night went well at his friends house, and then it was off for the longest drive of the trip to Atlanta.

After a night in Wheaten home in Atlanta, they started off for their next leg of the trip – after a stop at a vet for the itchies, they landed them in Raleigh, NC, and Abbie’s forever home! The pups played quite a bit, and Abbie’s new older brother was a bit grumpy with 3 ten week old puppies in the house. Guy, Molly and Murphy got an early start the next morning, only to arrive back at our house 5 minutes later for a crate and paw clean up – Murphy hadn’t quite finished all of his business before he got in the car!

Guy was in the home stretch, with a stop at his parents’ house in Baltimore to meet Jenn, Murphy’s new mom. After dropping Murphy off, he headed back, finally, to PA the next day to bring his little sweet pea, Molly Lee, home to his wife and sons.

It was an exhausting 5 day trip home for Guy and Molly (and Abbie and Murphy!), and the grandest WURL of all times. We will never be able to thank Guy enough for not only making the trip, but for taking such wonderful care of the puppies on the journey. Guy is simply amazing!

Molly, Murphy, and Abbie are all settled happily in their new homes, thanks to the efforts of Gwen and Guy!