Do you drive? Have a car? A little time to spare?

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It’s one of the busiest and saddest times of year for dog rescues and we are appealing for new transport volunteers. If you can drive, own a car and have a little time to spare, you could help to save lives…

TreacleCar

At Oldies Club we rely on transport volunteers to get the dogs we take into our care to their foster homes. Our transport co-ordinators have a list of volunteers who help on a regular basis but we desperately need more volunteers as in some cases we rely on the same folks too much and in some areas we have a distinct lack of volunteers. The summer is a particularly difficult time as it’s one of the busiest times of year in terms of numbers of dogs needing help but it also coincides with the time when lots of our regular volunteers are away on holiday.

Transporting dogs is one of the most rewarding things a dog-lover can do. Most of the dogs we take into Oldies Club care come directly from their former home. We arrange transport runs using a chain of volunteer drivers to get the oldie to its foster home. These dogs are usually calm and quiet and simply bewildered as to what is happening to them. The majority make wonderful passengers – like Gemma the Gem, shown below taking a break at one of the meeting points on her transport run:

gemmaGem

Our transport co-ordinators also work closely with transport co-ordinators for other rescues. Some of these rescues, for example Rochdale Dog Rescue, battle week-in-week-out to find places in reputable rescues for dogs that find themselves on death row in dog pounds. Dogs are dying in pounds and the saddest thing is that some dogs are dying simply because no-one volunteered to help transport that dog to its rescue place before its statutory 7 days were up.

Pound dogs also usually make excellent passengers – they are just so thankful to be out of there. It’s as if they know you are helping to save their lives – like Trusting Treacle shown waiting patiently to transfer to the next car in the transport chain that took her towards her wonderful new life:

TreacleOCCar

If you could help with transporting – how often, how far, and when is entirely up to you – please email transport@oldies.org.uk today! (If you don’t receive a reply within a few days try emailing oldies@oldies.org.uk as the chances are we didn’t receive your original email.)

If, before volunteering, you want to get a feel for how transport runs are put together, you can see some runs that are currently being arranged in the Transport forum in the Help Needed section of The Refuge (you’ll need to register in order to access the Help Needed section).

Thank you!

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