What a winter!!

It is almost March and we can't wait. The winter up has been brutal. Snow, cold, road closures and power outages seem to be news every day. It always amazes me that we can go from 20 degrees to 90 in a matter of a few hours as happened recently on a trip through Arizona. Road closures and snow have definitely slowed us down but thankfully haven't stopped us. Just a few years ago the winter was so mild that we saw snow only twice the whole winter. This year we were stopped twice outside of San Antonio Texas alone due to ice and interstate 10 getting shut down. We were lucky enough to get through Atlanta the day before snow hit and thousands spent the night in their cars unable to move. We weren't so lucky on 84 and 80 though but we deal with it and at least I had great company. :-)   Keep your head up and remember, spring is coming...sometime.

Our next trip looks like we will be dealing with snow and cold again but that just makes us look forward to warmer weather even more. Hang in there! In five months or so we will all probably be talking about the heat!

All for the love of a dog.

How we got started as ground pet transporters

Wow, time flies. It has been almost a year and hundreds of pet transported door to door. As we look forward to the new year, a lot of exciting things are happening here. My wife Norma is joining me soon on the road. We are so excited to be able to do this. She had cats when she was younger but never had a dog. After we got married, I found our first dog, Todd (from the Fox and the Hound movie, our daughter named him). He was a Shepard Lab mix and Norma just fell in love with him from the start. He was only six months old when I found him walking at the side of a road abandoned. I stopped and got out and he ran right up to me like he was ready to get out of the Pennsylvania cold and go home. I took him in my cruiser and dropped him off at home. I told Norma to not let him in the bed and to put him in a spare room. I didn't want him to sleep in the bed so that I could work on training him to sleep on the floor on a doggie bed. When I returned home from work and walked into the bedroom guess what I was greeted with? You got it. My wife sleeping away and a little puppy head popping up from the pillow next to her. Todd lived a long time and enjoyed sharing the bed with us until the day he passed away. He went on every vacation that we took and was a "brother" to our daughter. They grew up together and were best buds. We were only able to have one child. Todd was our little boy. Norma always said that she asked God for another child and he gave us a little furry four legged one.
    Todd is now gone and still sadly missed. I retired from police work and started transporting K9's for police departments and the business went from there. Norma is ending her career as an elementary school teacher and I can't wait for her to join me on the road. She can keep up with the emails, schedules and even this blog and Facebook posts.  I feel so fortunate to have her and can't wait for my best friend to help with our furry friends. The dogs and cats that we transport coast to coast by ground.

Thanks for everything and have a great year!

This is Todd. What an awesome fellow he was.

Dan and Norma
Visit our ground pet transport website

Ground Dog and Cat Transports

Now that we have been in business for a while and have transported over 100 pets nationwide, I can see why so many folks use a private pet service. A ground service that picks up your pets from one location and drives direct to the drop off location, stopping only to care for the pets, eat and gas up the transport vehicle. You can get from coast to coast in a few days. It is so much easier for the pets since they are not with any other pets along the way and they get lots of attention. The biggest problem is that with the cost, the private transports are so expensive. Some companies charge over $1.30 per mile for the transport and when you consider all of the expenses. the cost really isn't that far out of line. There is gas, car insurance, maintenance, paying the two drivers to name a few of the built in expenses. There is also the cost to get to the pickup location as well as the cost to get to the next pickup stop after your pets are dropped off. These all cost the pet transporter when they do the ground transports of your dog or cat. We have held the line on our costs but with a weary eye, we are watching the price of fuel. Nationwide the cost has gone from an average of $3.22 to $3.45 per gallon. That can mean a 2500 mile trip from coast to coast would take about 139 gallons of fuel in one of our vans getting about 18 miles per gallon. A few months ago the fuel would cost us $447.58 where it now costs us $479.55. That doesn't include the other costs we listed above and we didn't even mention the cost for tolls. It all adds up. Even though it is expensive, we feel that it is worth it to keep the pets off of the airplanes where the are treated as cargo. We couldn't imagine traveling that way and that is why we try to keep our costs reasonable so more folks can transport our beloved pets with loving care. You don't have to feel guilty sending your pets with a good ground transport service. There are getting the same care that you would give them on a long trip.

Thanks for reading our posts and check us out at
propetvehicletransport.com

Have a great day!
Dan

Private Pet Transports Nationwide.

One of the toughest things to do is to ship your pet with someone else. You can put them on a plane as carry on, if you are permitted. You can load them as cargo or your can ship them another way like through a ground transport company. This post will address the issue of dealing with a ground pet transport company for your dog or cat. First of all, as a fellow pet lover I know how much we all love our pets. They are awesome. They love unconditionally. Don't care if we are handsome or pretty, short or fat, even if we smell good or not at the time. They just love us. This makes it easy to love them back.

I used to be involved with K9's as a police officer (now thankfully retired) and have always had dogs and cats. My love for pets though came from growing up and always having them. If you aren't an animal lover, you wouldn't understand. Pets can heal a broken heart like the wife that can not have children, or in our case only one and wanting more. I would have a real problem sending my pets with anyone else and I understand the feeling. There are some things that you should look for in a pet transport company. First and foremost, they MUST be registered with the USDA as a pet carrier. They have rules that must be followed under The Animal Welfare Act. There are a lot of companies that do a service called private dog or cat transports. This is where a persons pet or pets will travel as a passenger in a vehicle. They are not crated and can rest on a seat just like they do when they ride with you. This service costs more than taking pets in a crate because the pet transporter will take other crated pets with your pets and spread the total cost of the trip out among all of the pet owners. There are advantages to both ways of transporting your pet, but the crated transports advantage is only the cost savings typically. The private pet transport is usually a straight shot from the location where the pet or family of pets is picked up, directly to where they are all to be dropped off. The companies usually have two drivers and can travel over 1,000 miles a day including stopping for dog walks and exercise exercise and to allow the pet or family of pets to relieve themselves along the way. If you need your pet shipped from Maine to California, it can be done in a matter of 3-4 days but the cost is higher of course. If you can afford this method of transport, it is the best for your pets. If you do decide to go with a private pet transport, make sure that you use a USDA approved shipper. Even if a shipper tells you that they do not have to be licensed if all they do is private transports, that is wrong! You can check an pet transport companies USDA license by going to the USDA website here and searching for a name or certificate number. Much more on pet transport and pets in general as we update our blogs. Thanks!

Have a great day.
Dan
http://www.propetvehicletransport.com