Visiting Tanner's Hometown

Arkansas may not be a state that evokes much emotion to travelers passing through, but as our visit neared, feelings started bubbling up inside us. I took a few trips down memory lane, pulling up old photos and videos from May 2013, a pivotal time in Anthony's and my relationship. After dating for several months, we decided to rent an apartment together. Already a big step in any relationship, but as we tend to do, we decided to tack on another major decision. We're already moving in together, so why not also get a dog?! Lily had already been my feline companion for over a year, and so we'd be looking at pet-friendly apartments anyway. Why not narrow our search to places that allow one dog and one cat? We'll admit that it was pretty strange, telling leasing offices that we "have one dog and one cat" when we didn't in fact have a dog yet. But as we were searching for apartments, I was online looking at rescue sites.

I had this idea of adopting a white dog, for no other reason besides the cuteness overload that would be having a white dog and a black cat as pets. So Anthony and I focused in on breeds that would fit the bill. Spitz breeds, American Eskimos included, came up often in our search results. The only problem was, usually they were purebreds from breeders and not often available from rescue agencies. Nevertheless, I kept searching.

Then one day, I was perusing adoptapet.com, filtering for Spitz dogs, when a photo popped up of a cute little white fluffball named Tanner. The webpage said he was available for adoption in Connecticut, which was perfect. We could drive down from Massachusetts to meet him, and if all goes well, put in an application. Beyond my superficial reasons for wanting this dog, I immediately got a sense that he was meant to be mine. He had just been added to the adoption listings and I knew that a cute face like that would get scooped up quickly, so I needed to act fast. I immediately emailed the listed contact.

I was informed that Tanner was not actually in Connecticut, but in Arkansas. They list the dogs on East Coast webpages because they hope to ship the dogs up north. I really didn't want to rescue a dog sight-unseen, but I couldn't deny the pull I was feeling. Anthony and I decided to move forward with the application process. I asked the rescue agency to send me photos and videos to ensure that Tanner was legitimate, and videos would help me better gauge his temperament.

After our application was accepted, Tanner needed to be fostered for two weeks, and then he would be shipped up to New England on Alpha Transport, a company that brought rescued dogs from the South up to various states in the Northeast. The stop furthest north was in Connecticut, hence why the adoption pages initially listed Tanner as being adoptable from there. Tanner's journey would take 3 days, and we were given his state for pickup: May 25.

The timing was a bit crazy. We moved into our new apartment a week before picking up Tanner. We did our best to settle in before he came, but we were all definitely frazzled. We will never forget the day we got him. It was a dreary, rainy morning, and we drove the hour and a half down to a highway rest stop in Connecticut, where we and several other families waited patiently to meet our newest family members.

The Alpha Transport truck was like nothing we had ever seen. It's a huge climate-controlled trailer, and inside they line the trailer with crates for the dogs. I couldn't believe my little fluffball had been riding in that trailer for 3 days! The transport guys came out with a clipboard, announcing family names, and one at a time, going inside the trailer to retrieve each dog. The poor dogs were so scared, they were literally frozen in fear! The guys needed to carry the dogs out because they wouldn't walk on their own! After a few other names were called, it was our turn. We waited eagerly as a silhouette appeared behind the foggy trailer window, and then the door opened, and there he was, our Tanny! Only, he wasn't frozen in fear like all the other dogs. He pranced out of that trailer like he owned the place, running over to greet all of the people. Everyone laughed delightedly at his charm.

We like to tell the story that he knew he needed to be on his best behavior that day, because it turns out Tanner's personality is absolutely not charming. That day, though, he was more than ready for his forever home. I brought him over to the backseat of our car and gently asked him if I could put a harness on him, which he allowed. I strapped him in, but it was only a few minutes before he stood up and relentlessly tried to climb into the front seat to sit on my lap. For safety reasons, we never let our pets roam loose in the car, but I made an exception this day. Tanner had had a long drive. Actually, he had had a long life already. He was only 18 months old, but he had already been given up to the shelter twice. They wanted to adopt him up north because they felt he would be better taken care of and committed to in that part of the country, where pets are truly considered part of the family.

We won't say it was love at first sight with Tanner and Lily, but eventually the two began to tolerate each other, and they have remained tolerant ever since.

When I rescued Lily, I had gone to a shelter where my family had adopted cats in the past, one town over from where I grew up. No one knew much about her early life, but her whereabouts were not a mystery to me. She was feral and then taken into a shelter on Cape Cod, before being transferred up to Duxbury. All places I know well. I was able to meet her and make sure we were compatible. With Tanner, nearly everything was a mystery. All we knew is that, down in Arkansas and surrounding states, pet ownership was different, especially back then. We knew that culturally, Arkansas felt like a world away. Tanner's animal shelter was in Ward, a little less than a half-hour outside of Little Rock, and there was not much civilization in that town.

Never in a million years would we have thought that, someday, we would travel to Arkansas with both our pets, but RV life granted us an unforeseen opportunity. Crossing the border, Anthony, Lily, and I all checked off a new state visited. Tanner had checked it off 12 years before.

We had needed to change our travel plans at the last minute the day we entered Arkansas, and so we ended up booking a site further east than expected. I thought that if our travels brought us toward Little Rock, perhaps we could go visit Ward, but where we set up camp, we were an hour and a half away. We didn't think it was in the cards.

But the thought kept nagging me. I couldn't stop thinking about how special it would be to come full circle. Tanner has fulfilled our lives in ways we can't even explain, and now we have the chance to learn a little more about where he came from. Ultimately, we decided to call the shelter. We figured, if they could fit us in for an appointment, we would go visit. If not, we'd take it as a sign.

Ward Animal Shelter is owned and funded by the city, so we had to contact Animal Control by way of the city police department to get in touch with the right person. Our contact person from 10 years ago is no longer there, and now the shelter is headed up by a woman named Kelly. After getting word that we were trying to reach her, she called us back and was so excited to hear from us. She told us a little about how the shelter has changed over the years, and she asked if Tanner was still with us, and we happily replied that he is. We explained that we're RVing full-time and happened to be in the area and wanted to see where Tanner came from. We made an appointment for the end of that week.

Pulling up to the shelter was surreal. I had only seen it on Street View and in the video we got as we went through the application process. The shelter itself was much smaller than we anticipated, with only about 10 crates in one room, and a tiny office in the other. We got to meet the dogs and then spent the next hour and a half chatting with Kelly and the other animal control officer, Kasey. We told stories about Tanner and the RV life. We learned that the shelter had been renovated shortly before Tanner arrived there, and before that, it was only a few outdoor pens. Now, the shelter isn't perfect, but naturally the city funding typically goes to higher priorities. They work with what they have, sometimes housing dogs in other shelters, and sometimes fostering and adopting them themselves. When possible, they still try to send the dogs up to the Northeast. Alpha Transport no longer exists, but they work with a couple of other transport companies.

We asked if they often get updates on adopted dogs, and they said all the time, which makes us happy. However, we were the first that had visited in-person this many years after the adoption. They said that one lady from New York ended up picking her dog up directly because she was visiting family in Arkansas, but that's about it. Ward doesn't really attract a lot of visitors. We learned that most of the families that live there commute to other towns and Little Rock for work. Back when Tanner was there, the population was about 1,000 people, and now it's around 6,000.

Kelly and Kasey have a nonprofit organization called Fund the Fur, so that they can supplement the city funds to provide care for the animals, and pet ownership education to the humans. One dog that's available for adoption is a pittie named Kevin, and he captured our hearts right away. We joked that if we had a house, we'd be adopting him immediately. Kevin's adoption fee has been paid for, and he is having free obedience training. This is just one example of the hard work that's put into giving the animals the best care possible while they are in the shelter.

Update: Before this post went into publication, Kevin was adopted! He had been at the shelter the longest of all the dogs. It's difficult to adopt out pitbulls because they have a reputation of being aggressive, but they really are the sweetest! We are so happy that Kevin is going to have the life he deserves.

Among so many topics, we also ventured into territory that some people might shy away from, and that's the conversation that ensues when two Massachusettsans and two Arkansans talk politics. And guess what. No one died! That's one of the things we love about RV life. We always say that the media does not accurately portray the divides in this country. We may have our different beliefs, but at the end of the day, we all want to be happy and free.

We knew that visiting the dogs and not being able to adopt would be a challenge, but we left feeling at ease. The dogs are in good hands, and we have every hope that they will go to happy homes. We left a donation and thanked Kelly and Kasey for spending time with us. When we got home, we gave Tanner extra hugs (whether he wanted them or not!).

Some people wondered if we were going to bring Tanner on our visit, but we decided against it. Even though he was very young when he lived at the shelter, we didn't want to risk any memories surfacing. Being at a shelter in general would likely make him anxious, and we never want him to think even for a second that we are returning him. We also figured it wouldn't be fair to the other dogs to see a "free" dog. This was a journey for us. Tanner's job is to just be happy.