Harriet's way Home

Today, Harriet begins living the dream! This afternoon, Harriet our foster basenji, embarked on an 1,100 mile journey, whisking her off to her new “forever home.” For every dog that comes into rescue, the dream is the same: to get to this day where a happy new life begins in a place where she can unpack her bags and stay forever. Her foster life is complete - Harriet’s heart has been opened wide to love and the perfect forever home for her is selected - two time zones away!

So, off across the country she goes. Harriet is traveling to Pennsylvania by way of the Basenji Underground Railroad. Seven BRAT volunteers in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, are lined up ready to drive the 11 legs of the trip over 3 days to escort this little rescue dog into her future! What a thing! Each of the drivers has a copy of a schedule that includes the route, transfer locations, a description of vehicles to make identification easier and the cell phone numbers of the other drivers. Harriet will be transferred from driver to driver as she makes her way across five states. Finally, a thousand miles later, she will meet her adopter, Bill, and they will travel the last 90 miles home together.

So, this afternoon the plan was set in motion. 1,100 miles away, Bill is waiting for Harriet, ready to welcome her home. I am kind of a wreck and not ready to say good-bye to her, but I am committed to this great thing for Harriet. She is relaxed and happy and excited to meet the first driver and jump in the car. Perhaps she understands that the last seven months have all been leading up to this great adventure, which of course they have. There will be plenty of transition later. But today, this was her day!

In her new life, Harriet will be part of a Quaker community. This excerpt from a Quaker prayer is for Harriet on her path home and the drivers she meets who help her along her way:

Illuminate the path
That will lead us home
And grant that we may be
A light to those we meet
Along the way.

~ Lindy Ireland

Lady and Champ

Lady and Champ had been living outdoors for many months, due to a change in the family structure and priorities. Luckily, their family was very responsible and contacted BRAT. The pair were no longer house trained and not guaranteed to be able to get along with other dogs. Because of this, it was difficult to find a foster home. Most of our foster homes in the mid-Atlantic and southeast already have at least one basenji, many with more than one. Thankfully, we were able to find a foster home for Lady and Champ in Zion, IL. However, since they were coming from North Carolina, we were faced with a huge transport problem to get them to Illinois.

Traditionally, BRAT coordinators arrange most transports as car trips, where we recruit multiple drivers to drive different legs of the trip to get the dogs where they need to go. This is typically what we refer to as the Basenji Underground Railroad (BUR), and it is very time-consuming to arrange and relies heavily on the goodness of our volunteers to “pull through in a pinch.” However, doing long-distance transports this way is not really feasible – for example, if Lady and Champ were to be driven to Illinois from North Carolina, their travel time would have been at least 16 hrs by car (not including stops or overnights) with approximately 13 different drivers, increasing the probability driver delay or worse, the possibility of escape!

Recently, BRAT coordinators have been trying to find alternative ways to arrange long-distance (or sometimes even short-distance) transports. Rather than traumatize a dog by putting them through multiple drivers and multiple transfers, we can often get dogs where they need to go using air transport. Organizations such as Pilots ‘n’ Paws, Animal Rescue Flights, and more will give free air transport to rescue animals through their networks of private pilot volunteers. For Lady and Champ, BRAT coordinator Michelle Martenis reached out to Animal Rescue Flights and was able to arrange a free air transport that spanned 6 states and involved 3 pilots (instead of 13+ drivers) to get Lady and Champ to Illinois in a matter of hours instead of days. Because of ARF, Lady and Champ are now happily in their foster home in Zion, IL. On behalf of BRAT, a big thank you to ARF!!


Here are Lady and Champ at the beginning of their first flight.


Here is the flight path from Lady and Champ’s itinerary.

Here are some tips from BRAT coordinator Michelle Martenis for setting up a flight with ARF:

• Go to the ARF Transport Request Website to post a transport request. It's most important to read, follow the directions, and fill out the request form as complete as possible. Give them at least 2 to 3 weeks notice if possible. The coordinators (Julia and Clark) are volunteers as well and may not be able to respond to your emails very quickly, so it may take some time to post the request.
• To help determine the best airports to start and end your transport, use this website to find small public airports. The volunteer pilots generally like smaller airports because they’re easier to get a small plane in and out of.
• When filling out the transport request, the information placed in the "sending shelter/rescue" portion of the ARF Transport Request Form will be the address of where they base the starting airport. The individual's name used here will be the person that the pilot will expect to drop off the dog. Similarily, the "receiving rescue" will be the person that the last pilot will have instructions to turn the animals over to.
• From that transport request form, ARF posts the flight request on their website. You may not be able to see it on the website when they post your request, but the pilot volunteers will be able to see it and will begin responding to it. You can also join the aviation meetup group (follow the “Pilots and volunteers” link on the ARF home page), so that you can monitor your transport request and the responses posted to your flight plan.
• Once all legs of your flight request have been filled, you will be contacted by the ARF coordinator with instructions for the day of the flight. They will send you an "Animal Rescue Flights Final Flight Sheet" with all the details of your transport.
• Because the flights are weather-dependent (including variables like wind speeds, etc) and these are small planes that are more vulnerable to weather conditions than large commercial jets, you may not know until the night before that a planned flight is definitely going to take place. So, you may want to keep a backup vehicle transport plan just in case.
• All animals must be crated for plane transport. Some planes are very small, so keep crate size in mind when planning your flight.
• During the process, any questions can be directed to arfmail@aol.com or for help getting started, PLEASE call BRAT Coordinator Michelle Martenis at 252-571-7659

Here are some pictures of successful ARF rescue flights!

Adopting: Should I Apply for a Basenji in Another State?

"Should I apply for a basenji in another state? How far away will I be expected to drive to pick up my basenji? Can't we just fly the dog to my house? What about using the BUR (Basenji Underground Railroad) to get the dog to me?"

These are questions that BRAT Coordinators are asked frequently, and the answer is usually "it depends." The standard response is: "You can check on a Basenji in states near you. BRAT can sometimes arrange long distance placements (up to a maximum of approximately 400-700 miles) using our Basenji Underground Railroad to transport the Basenji to you. If needed, adopters are expected to drive a minimum of 200 miles. There may be other costs involved with a transport to defray the expenses incurred by our volunteers. If the Basenji can be crated and flown, you will be responsible for the cost. Not all Basenjis have the personality to be transported or flown and the coordinator will usually make that clear in the announcement."

What this actually means is that the dog's BRAT Coordinator will usually strive to find a good adoptive home within a few hours' driving radius. If the absolute best adopter for the dog lives more than several hours' drive away and cannot drive the entire trip themselves to pick up the dog, often a BRAT Coordinator will try to recruit volunteers who live along the route to help out with driving the dog for a portion of the trip to get within several hours driving distance for the adopter (we call this the Basenji Underground Railroad, or BUR). However, it is often difficult to coordinate a BUR, and it relies on the goodness of our local volunteers to drive, so we try to avoid this if at all possible. So, what usually ends up happening with adoptions is one of these scenarios:

1) There are several really good applicants for the dog. Some of them live close (within a few hours driving distance of the dog), some of them don't live close but are willing to make the entire drive themselves, and some of them don't live close and would require a BUR to be set up to transport the dog to them. Because there are several good homes available for this dog, the Coordinator will choose the best home out of the ones who are close AND the ones who are not close but are willing to make the entire drive themselves.

2) There are several really good applicants for the dog. None of them live close, some of them don't live close but are willing to make the entire drive themselves, and some of them would require a BUR. Because there are several good homes available for this dog, the Coordinator will choose the best home out of the ones who don't live close but are willing to make the entire drive themselves.

3) There are several really good applicants for the dog. None of them live close, and none of them are able to make the entire drive themselves. The Coordinator will have to set up a BUR to get the dog to whichever adopter he chooses.

4) There is really only one applicant that seems like the *perfect* home for the dog. This applicant does not live close, and is not able to make the entire drive themselves. The Coordinator will have to set up a BUR or a flight (at the adopter's expense, and only if the dog is able to be flown) to get the dog to this adopter.

So, you can see from these scenarios that while a BUR or a flight is available as an option to help get a dog to an adopter, it really helps increase your likelihood of being chosen as the adopter for that dog if you live close, or are able to make the entire drive yourself to pick up the dog. This certainly does not mean you would not be chosen for a dog you do not live close to, because you can see from scenario #4 that if you are indeed the *perfect* home for the dog, then the BRAT Coordinator will make every effort to set up a BUR and get the dog to you. However, we do try to reduce the strain on our volunteers as much as possible, because they don't get reimbursed for their travel or time. They help out purely because they want to see a dog get to the best home possible, so we want to utilize volunteers only when it's really necessary. We couldn't do this without the goodness of our fantastic BRAT volunteers, so we want to be sure to be judicious about asking for their help!

Hopefully this helps to better answer the questions that Coordinators usually get about transporting and long-distance adoptions. Of course, every situation is different, and ultimately all adoption decisions will rely on the best judgment of the Coordinator about which home best matches the specific needs of the dog. So, while the above scenarios are not "rules" and should not be treated as such, hopefully they might help to explain a little bit better some of the variables that a BRAT Coordinator has to weigh when making an adoption decision!