Once we have compiled a list of dogs on nearby (and not so near) farms and kennels. Volunteers go to those farms and kennels and take pictures of the dogs and gather their information.
 

The webpage is updated to include pictures and the information we know about the dog. Each dog is assigned a number to avoid confusion on those with similar names. Once the numbers are assigned, another volunteer creates a spreadsheet.
 

From this spreadsheet, we finally know the demographics ... the breakdown of M-F, colors, ages, etc.
 

This particular haul had the following demographics: 23 - Females 48 - Males 13 -  Blacks (7F,6M) 27 - Brindles (10F,17M) further broken down by red, dark, blue, etc. 18 -  Fawns (4F,14M) further broken down by fawn, red and red fawn 12 - Parti-colors (2F,10M) further broken down by black, red, brindle, etc.  1 -  Blue Male  Included in the above mix: Special Needs: 1 Brindle Female with seizure disorder Seniors: 6 seniors from 7-9.5 years old

At this point, we're ready to ask the groups to beginning picking the dogs they want... we let them know that we have twice as many males and urge them to pick twice as many males as females.  

Although we begin with "mass emails";  historically, groups rarely respond to them... so after a few days, we send messages to each individual group. Although some groups may not be in a position to take any dogs, most times they will take one or two.

After the first round of emails ... we get the first round of "draft choices"  Of course, the most beautiful dogs go first - LOL. This time there was a little white & red girl named Frito ... all-in-all six groups asked for her!!! When the groups that didn't get her emailed back their "second choice" ... they almost all picked the same dog again. And so it goes.
 

We continually work with the groups and, if necessary, we'll just ask them to pick between certain dogs ... trying to keep consistent with the proportion of the entire demographic ... so the black/shy/old dogs don't get left behind. We may want to ask a group to take a specific dog.
 

	Sometimes a group asks for a dog that is scheduled to go somewhere else. This particular haul there was a group who has placed three of the littermates to one of the dogs and asked us to see if the scheduled group will let her go. We try to work these things out ... sometimes we can - sometimes not.
	Assigning dogs to groups goes on until the minute the hauler drives away... until that time, we're on the phone asking, "OK - Fluffy can't go, will you please take Spot?"

When we are confident we know which groups are taking dogs, we develop a route for the hauler.
 

For this haul, we began in Wichita at 4AM.  Unfortunately, that meant that one of us had to  go to Wichita to load dogs, then follow the hauler to Kansas City and load dogs up here. Our policy is that one of us must see each dog that gets on the hauler...a rule made necessary in 2001 when a dog with a broken leg was loaded without our knowledge.

After the hauler leaves KC, we go to Blockbuster and rent 3-4 movies to get us through the night. We track the hauler along the route, check in with them every couple hours,  and call the next group and letting them know the ETA.
 

At this point, here are the demographics of unassigned dogs:  

	Of the 23 females: 5 of the 7 blacks 3 of the 10 brindles 1 of the 4 fawns 0 of the 2 partis
	Of the 48 males: 3 of the 6 blacks 9 of the 17 brindles 7 of the 14 fawns 2 of the 10 partis 0 of the 1 blue
	So far we've done fairly well making sure every dog has gotten a fair shake ... the only problem is right now we have almost 30 dogs being left behind. :-(

And we can't forgot to mention the paperwork ... we put each dog's paperwork (lines, yellow sheet, vaccination record) in an envelope with their group's name on it. It may sound like the paperwork part of this is easy, but it is a very time-consuming process. We don't get the paperwork until the dogs arrive to be loaded, so it's a last-minute chore that can take longer than actually loading dogs.
 

To see a photo-journal of a haul being loaded up on January 18, 2003, you can visit Loading The Hauler.