Riding the Underdog Railroad

"Can we have visitation rights?" Hardyman pleaded twice. Meddick didn't respond. She had eyes only for Paddy.

Crying, she whispered in his ear, "Hi, baby, you're home."

Paddy was unresponsive. Somewhere in the last several hours, his purple blanket -- his last familiar smell of Laurie and Tennessee -- had been left behind. He slid off the front seat and dozed on the floor as Meddick drove 20 minutes to Silverado Canyon in the Cleveland National Forest. She carried him up a dark flight of steps.

The acrid smell of dog and cat urine cut through the night air. Inside, a frenetic chorus of barking and hissing came from behind a closed door. Three sick kittens with rheumy eyes lay curled up in a fleece basket. Paddy was joining Meddick's menagerie, which already included 26 animals in the 900-square-foot house and backyard, including a litter of puppies.

Four dogs were stacked in crates covered with blankets. Meddick said she crates some of them when she is away on rescues and transports, which can take as long as 14 hours. The living room had little furniture or indoor lighting.

Paddy squeezed himself into a narrow hiding place between the front door and a stack of boxes. Meddick lay down next to him and talked softly.

Along with her unfamiliar non-Southern accent were the familiar sounds and smells of many animals in a confined space.

"It beats the alternative: being put to death at a shelter," Meddick said.

Within minutes of ending his transcontinental journey, Paddy was in a crate, his eyes peering into the dark.

Postscript

After a tentative start, Buck is happy as can be at his new home, his owners say. The web page they've set up includes photographs of him sprawled on their king-size bed and grinning goofily in the living room.

Paddy's spot with Browder was filled the afternoon before he left Tennessee. She lured a stray retriever-husky mix puppy off a weedy hillside, brought it home, gave it shots and put its picture on Petfinder. It was transported to a home in Massachusetts within a month.

But she still worries about whether Paddy is OK.

"I can't tell. I think about it all the time," she said.

In late March, she e-mailed Meddick asking for photos and updates on both Paddy and Rusty, but said she received only vague replies. Over Easter weekend she saw online postings from Meddick boasting: "Yesterday I pulled 11 dogs, 1 cat and 1 duck from the bakersfield/mojave shelters. I WANT to thank the rescue that took the 12 and 15 yo [year old] dogs" and four others, including "an extremely matted" one, she wrote. "I just thank you SO much." The posting heightened Browder's alarm.