Through chance meetings and introductions, Gravelle met Cindy Rhoda.
Rhoda had worked for five years with Miss Linda's Dogs for Adoptions in Decatur, placing their photos on a Petfinder site in New England.
Because of strict spay neuter/laws in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island. Massachusetts and Vermont, there are virtually no stray or homeless dogs there.
Gravelle worked with the woman who had the feral puppies. Three days were spent trapping the little dogs and weeks were devoted to teaching them that human care and touch could be comforting.
All the while their pictures were posted on the Petfinder site. Within two months, the once wild puppies were beautiful companions and ready to go to the families in New England who had applied to adopt them and been accepted as adopters.
The Dixie Pet Underground Railroad had begun.
The process works, according to Rhoda, when a group with which she works rescues a dog. The dog is taken to the veterinarian where it is spayed/ neutered, health checked, heart worm tested, wormed and vaccinated.
Its photo is taken and the person fostering the animal sends Rhoda a biography about the dog. Rhoda then posts this on the Miss Linda's Dogs for Adoption New England Web site at www.petfinder.com/shelters/NH76.html.
Those who are interested in adopting what are usually just the mutts on death row at area animal shelters fill out an extensive application that Rhoda describes as "painful" in its length.
From among the applications she receives, she calls her top applicants for a telephone interview. The top candidate then has a home visit from a volunteer in New England.
If the home visit is successful, Rhoda does a reference check and the potential adopter and the person fostering the dog have a telephone conversation to answer each other's questions.
Once the adoption is approved, a dog once destined to die in a back room at an animal shelter travels the Dixie Pet Underground Railroad which ends with him or her becoming a pampered companion in New England. The Dixie Pet Underground Railroad works with Peterson Express Transport Services, a business devoted to moving the unwanted animals of the South to safe and forever homes in New England.
The transport is operated by Kyle and Pam Peterson.
"Being animal lovers, we started helping with volunteer animal transports in and around Tennessee. As we became more involved, our volunteer work developed into a full time job. We realized a need for safe, affordable transport for the many rescue dogs being adopted to new homes up north from the kill shelters in the Southeast," the Petersons state on the Web site at www.petsllc.org.
P.E.T.S. LLC uses converted horse trailers to transport the dogs. Each trailer is climate controlled and equipped with USDA approved travel crates for the dogs. Each dog rides in its own crate and has constant access to water while en route.
The transport stops to allow the caretakers to check on the dogs every few hours as well as give them exercise and a potty break. Gravelle estimates that since those first feral puppies made the trip up north in September, 60 dogs from Bradley County have traveled the Dixie Pet Underground Railroad, a part of Dixie Dogs & Cats a Cleveland spay/neuter advocacy non-profit organization.
On Friday afternoons, Gravelle drives the dogs who are ready to make their journey north to Lenoir City to meet the Petersons' transport.
Dr. Bob Sanders of Keith Street Animal Clinic is the veterinarian for the Dixie Pet Underground Railroad. Not knowing about the possibility for Bradley County's unwanted animals to go north to loving homes before the program started, Sanders said the Dixie Pet Underground Railroad shows spay/neuter laws work.
"I was pleasantly surprised to find that New Englanders are willing to pay for complete veterinary care, including spay/ neuter, in addition to transport fees, in order to own a pet," Sanders said.
Rhoda said when she met "Miss Linda," the Decatur woman had 40 rescued dogs and was working alone. Miss Linda came into Rhoda's grooming shop. Rhoda said her first reaction was to stay as far away as possible. She didn't want to get sucked into the seemingly never-ending work of rescuing homeless animals.
She told Miss Linda she would provide grooming services that she might need, but Rhoda insisted her volunteer work would go no further.
Then Miss Linda's Web site volunteer quit. Rhoda took over.
Then Miss Linda told her she'd heard about a dog rescue in Knoxville that was sending its dogs north. Rhoda contacted the organization.
When they told her they were charging a $325 adoption fee to cover veterinary care and transport fees, Rhoda didn't believe it was possible.
The organization agreed to list two of Miss Linda's dogs as an experiment.
The two collie-mixes were snatched up by New Englanders looking for companion pets and $700 in adoption fees came into Miss Linda's bank account.
"I about passed out," Rhoda said. In the nine years Miss Linda had her rescue before she began sending dogs north, 69 had been adopted.
In the past five years, Rhoda said, more than 1,100 have gone to forever homes. Of those, only one has been returned and 10 have been re-homed in New England.
Now, Rhoda said, she spends at least three hours a night working to place the homeless dogs rescued by Miss Linda and by Dixie Dogs and Cats.
Just before Christmas, when Gravelle's organization was sending several litters of puppies to forever homes, Rhoda said her time climbed to five hours every night.
Now that Dixie Dogs & Cats has been successful in sending dogs to New England homes, the group is attempting the same process with cats.
The first adopted cats will travel the Dixie Pet Underground Railroad later this month.
Dixie Dogs & Cats has always had a more difficult time finding forever homes for rescued cats, Gravelle said, and charging an adoption fee that allows the organization to cover its veterinary expenses.
She's hopeful the Pet Underground Railroad may be part of the answer.
"We're not going to solve the deplorable situation with homeless animals in Bradley County through the Pet Underground Railroad," Gravelle said.
"But with a multi-pronged approach -- the Pet Underground Railroad, comprehensive spay/ neuter, reforms at the city's animal shelter and humane education -- we can become a progressive community where no animal has to die simply because it is unwanted."
A year ago, Gravelle said, she didn't think every animal could be placed in a forever home. "I knew we didn't have 7,000 homes where animals would be adopted in Bradley County," Gravelle said. "But the world doesn't end at Bradley County."
She read Nathan Winograd's book, "Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution." On the heels of finishing the book, she met Rhoda.
Among the dogs Rhoda has found homes for in the last five years are a 14-year Shih Tzu with eye damage and horrible skin, four three-legged dogs, three one-eyed dogs, and countless elderly dogs.
The book, coupled with beginning to work with the Pet Underground Railroad, has changed Gravelle's perspective.
"With enough time and money, we can find a forever home for every unwanted dog and cat out there. With the right resources, the right support and the right programs, we no longer have to kill homeless animals," Gravelle said.
Dixie Dogs & Cats is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit corporation. All donations are tax deductible to the full extent of the law. Member Cleveland/Bradley County Chamber of Commerce since 2006
