The drive from Pennsylvania to New Jersey was only a couple of hours, but passengers Lana, Sid and Eddie are eager to stretch their legs. Tracy Terrebush, a 37-year-old volunteer for Muddy Paws Rescue, helps the three dogs out of the van. Lana, a 6-month-old corgi mix the color of butterscotch, makes a beeline for the stretch of grass behind the parking lot. There, she flips on her back and wiggles, bouncing her butt back and forth until her entire body is writhing with joy.
Muddy Paws Rescue, a dog rescue organization headquartered in New York City, has been saving dogs such as Lana, Sid and Eddie — 4-week-old mountain cur puppies from the same litter — since its founding in 2015. Terrebush is here to drive the puppy brigade into Manhattan, where they’ll meet up with their new foster parents and, soon enough, be adopted by loving owners. Shelters around the country do these types of rescue transports to relocate dogs from overcrowded shelters, where they may be at risk of being put down, to no-kill rescues in denser areas where there are more potential adopters.
Terrebush’s blue Subaru Forester is equipped for the occasion: There’s a carrier in the back seat for Sid and Eddie, who like to snuggle; a large crate for Lana in the hatchback; and a Target bag stuffed with paper towels, disinfectant wipes and air freshener, just in case. Another bag holds a gallon of water and several bowls. Parked a few spots down is another Forester with a similar setup. The driver is a volunteer from a different dog rescue, who’s there to take some of the other dogs who arrived with Lana, including a litter of 10 newborn pit bull puppies and their doting mom.
This is the last leg of a long journey for these pups, who were first picked up in Kentucky. It’s a journey that wouldn’t have been possible without a whole bunch of good, giving people. A cross-country dog rescue requires a chain of volunteers, who each drive a few hours and pass the pups to the next volunteer. Don, the driver of the large white van that carried Lana, Sid and Eddie, had picked up the dogs in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, 84 miles southwest. He does this almost every weekend, he says, cradling one of the newborns.
So does Terrebush. She adopted her dachshund, Teddy, almost 10 years ago, and since then, she no longer volunteers as a foster. “Teddy gets jealous,” she says. But she likes to drive – and it’s a tremendous help, especially in New York where most adopters don’t have cars. “I do it whenever they need me,” she says with a shrug, as if it’s nothing to devote hours of her weekend. She also volunteers for a dachshund rescue in New Jersey.
With Sid and Eddie stowed safely in their carrier, Terrebush holds Lana’s blue rope leash and lets her play in the grass a little longer. Alex Lloyd, another volunteer, takes photos. She photographs many of the dogs that come to Muddy Paws; the portraits go on the rescue’s website to attract potential adopters. Lloyd also runs the Instagram account @adoptabledogsofnyc, where she features dogs from Muddy Paws, Stamford Animal Control and other area shelters.
#MakeADogsDay is October 22! Show how you’re giving your pup the royal treatment by using the hashtag on social media.
On the 60-minute drive from New Jersey to Manhattan, Terrebush and Lloyd manage to talk pretty much exclusively about dogs. Lloyd tells stories of Beethoven, the dog her parents recently adopted. Terrebush fiddles with the radio. “My dog loves smooth jazz,” she says. Lana, Sid and Eddie, all snoozing, don’t seem to care what’s playing.
At her past job, Terrebush, who works in HR, started what she calls a “pet club,” a company intranet group where co-workers could share photos and stories of their pets. It helped everyone at work get to know each other better, she says. “Dogs bring people together.”
In Manhattan, Muddy Paws has a table set up outside a PetSmart® near Madison Square Park. The organization is a direct-to-foster rescue; every dog arriving today – 30 of them, all transported by volunteers – already has a foster family ready to go. Lana goes home with a couple in their 30s, a man and a woman who can’t stop petting her. A woman and her two young children arrive for Sid and Eddie. The kids each pick up a puppy gently. They’ve fostered a lot of dogs for Muddy Paws, Terrebush tells me.
Most of the foster dogs will have a home within two weeks — whether through a foster fail, where the foster parents love the pup so much they end up adopting, or a home from the long list of carefully vetted adopters that Muddy Paws keeps. There are a lot of people in New York eager to give a dog a good home. As these pups wait for their foster parents to arrive, they hang out around the sidewalk wearing vests that say “Adopt Me.” Dozens of strangers stop to learn more and give out pets and scratches.
With Lana, Sid and Eddie happily with their fosters, Terrebush is now petting Gibson, a Great Pyrenees mix who snuggles up to her side. Tomorrow, she’ll spend another day volunteering for the rescue at an adoption event in Union Square, another park in Manhattan. “Come by!” she urges as I leave. “I’ll be there all day!”
Learn more about how Subaru supports animal rescue organizations here.
