Ask Roxie

from 78209 Magazine - March 2021

Church Directory

Words of Advice from an ‘09 Petwe move on. First thing, they want to pet the dog. And my first question to them is: 'Do you have a pet?' and they'll bring out their phone. We just have a conversation!” Bella and Bonnie are a volunteer team with Pups n' Planes, where “comfort” dogs and their owners offer distressed travelers a little sugar. “People are waiting, their flight has been canceled, or they may have a four-hour wait, and they are upset.” “One time, two little girls stopped to pet the dog, and I looked up, and the mother was crying. Her husband was being deployed. I spent probably a half-hour with them, and the dad thanked me so many times because it got them thinking about other things,” Bonnie says. Airport staffers implemented the idea after learning how well it worked at the Los Angeles International Airport. Pups n' Planes has been reducing blood pressure and turning frowns upside down for six years. “In the car, she knows that we are almost at the airport. She gets so excited! Her job is to make people smile. She does that job.” And if you saw Bella, you would smile, too. The girl team also spends time at the airport USO, softening the loneliness and longing of our troops, so familiar to military life. While Bella offers kisses, Canine Explosive Detection Supervisor Sgt. Andres Lopez, and his police dog Keyno, provide safety and security. “We are there to make sure that the traveling public is safe, the dog makes that any threats associated with aviation there aren’t real threats,” says the airport K9 police officer. Lopez and Keyno “nose around," sniffing out threats that could come from a parked car, a suitcase, or a person. “Dogs are about as mobile as you can get,” says Lopez. He means the nose is mobile.

Bella is a volunteer with Pups n' Planes, the airport greeting committee. She wears her little pink coat, cheering up tired travelers at the WESTWARD, HO! OR EAST, SOUTH, AND NORTH Welcome to the Life of a “Dog Transporter” San Antonio International Airport. Workin' BY BERIT MASON for a Living! Mary Kay Tennant, a long-time Northwood resident, has a After checking in at home, it was off to Memphis, Dogs with Jobs different kind of retirement plan. She spends her days rescu- Tennessee, to deliver nine dogs. ing pups from terrible circumstances to drive them across the “Somebody says: Let’s go somewhere. I say: How far? I BY BERIT MASON country to a loving home. am ready.”

“I was not doing anything, and a friend who got me into fos- This volunteer job means going in all directions at once! tering asked me to transport some dogs, to keep them from A widow with two married daughters, her time is her own, so The San Antonio International Airport is HUGE!being euthanized,” says Tennant. the intrepid 70-year-old rolls onto another off-the-beaten-path

It recently broke a record, flying some 15,000 people A DAY, Other rescue groups heard about Mrs. Tennant, and her to collect more abandoned pups. Before they’re even loaded, for a total of 10.36 million passengers in 2019. Passengers most certainly frequent the airport, but pups do too. Meet Bella. Bella is a petite dog with light, wavy hair, offering everyone she meets the sweetest smile. Several hours a week, Bella and owner Bonnie Gioiello roam the airport, searching out the tired, the weary, and the bored. “If they look up and smile, they are a dog lover. If they don't, phone started ringing off of the wall. “Sometimes I am paid, but it is basically gas, meals, and expenses.” She transports dogs around Texas, but the evening that we talked, she was preparing to go to Buffalo, New York— where the temperature was in the 20s. “I have to transport 30 puppies, and with another driver, we will drive four hours on and four hours off. Now, by myself, I’ve driven all the way to Indiana, and most recently, I did a trip Airport therapy dogs help soothe people who may be upset because of a long wait, delayed or cancelled flight. here comes another email or voicemail, with instructions for her next run. “It is all different rescues, from Canada, from Michigan, New York, Connecticut, from right here in San Antonio.” Grants, foundations, and philanthropists fund many opera-tions. “Since there is such a stray problem in San Antonio and the valley, a lot of dogs would be euthanized if rescues did not to Mississippi in a day.” pick them up.”

But in northern states, stray dogs are rare and, therefore, pre-cious. “I have one lady in Connecticut who cannot get enough dogs. We just transported ten to her on Wednesday. They have no difficulty having them adopted them out.”

Why does Texas have a problem and Connecticut does not?

“People here don’t have money for spay and neuter, or they breed them.”

Quarantine is the first order of business to ensure that the an-imals don’t have distemper or another transmittable disease.

Many of them are very scared because all they have known is street life or shelter life. Some are older dogs that owners have surrendered. They get a new puppy, and they get rid of the old.”

Ageism is a problem in my world too.

It’s become prevalent to transport pets.

Some transporters are big operations, with trailers or vans to ferry 50 to 60 homeless hounds.

Some programs fly dogs to their new owner, courtesy of volunteer pilots.

Mary Kay does pick-ups and deliveries about five days a week, but most of her trips are just half a day or so, which still al-lows her to foster.

“The foster dog I had recently had seizures and needed medi-cine three times a day, once at midnight. No one is in the kennel then.”

True dedication!

“It fills me with happiness because many dogs won’t be eu-thanized and will have found a home to lead a happy life the rest of their days. Sometimes, they come to give me a lick, telling me that they are glad for me to be there.”

Until next month! Woof, woof Roxie

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