Pet project

Sue Wiese was somewhere on the East Coast, wanting to do something.

Hurricane Katrina had just hit, and in the overwhelming aftermath of that disaster, the Texas trucker’s good intentions easily could have slipped away without any action. But instead, they became so much more – all stemming from a simple prayer.

“I said, ‘Lord, what can I do? I’m just a truck driver,’” Wiese said. “What I heard was, ‘Transport.’”

She initially wasn’t sure what to make of that one-word response, but the pet adoption website Petfinder soon came to mind. And what became evident to Wiese as she browsed the site that evening was that although neither animals nor would-be adopters were in short supply, they often weren’t anywhere near one another.

It took a couple of weeks for her to summon the courage to call into Bill Mack’s radio show, where she went by her CB handle – Classy Lady – and asked if any drivers would be up for transporting needy pets to new homes. With a dozen callers responding even before her interview ended, that 15 minutes of air time in 2005 launched a mission Wiese has spearheaded ever since.

Operation Roger is now 18, and Wiese is 80. She retired from trucking more than a decade ago but has fond memories of traversing the Lower 48 and southern Canada with her own rescue dog, Roger, who passed just a few months before his namesake nonprofit came to be. And now, the 501(c)(3) organization keeps Wiese connected to her former career, as she manages all the logistical issues that come with getting a companion animal from Point A to Point B.

“I’m too ornery to give up,” she laughed.

Operation Roger consists of a network of volunteers, not only truckers but also shuttle drivers and layover hosts.

Routes and timelines for transport depend entirely on where the truckers’ work takes them, which often requires someone in a passenger vehicle picking up a pet from a driver and shuttling it to its new home nearby or to a foster home, where it has a layover of sorts until another trucker is available for the next leg of its journey.

All this transportation is provided free of charge. And while donations to help with office expenses previously have been required of those applying for a pet transport, a recent financial gift from the Dallas chapter of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows has suspended that need for the time being.

“It’s been my (desire) to not do any of that,” Wiese said in regard to requiring donations. “That’s been my dream for quite some time.”

She also dreams of more success stories like the many in Operation Roger’s history. Wiese has coordinated the transport of almost 1,000 pets, generally one at a time. Many have gone from rescue organizations to adoptive homes, but deliveries also take place between rescue organizations and between family members or friends.

Occasionally, Operation Roger also reunites pets and owners who are separated while traveling – as was the case with a dog who followed the tow truck that transported his family’s car following a wreck, only to end up in a junkyard where he wasn’t found until after his family had gone on to their out-of-state destination.

Wiese noted that reunions in situations like these are fun to see.

“I tell my drivers to really watch the dog’s reaction,” she said, recalling one case in particular where a dog froze when he saw his owner, then bolted toward him – dragging the driver holding his leash. “When they’re reunited with their owner, they’re just so happy.”

She has happy memories from her own pet transports, as well, one favorite involving a 9-week-old kitten that was polydactyl – a classification that comes when a genetic mutation creates extra toes. This kitten put all its toes to good use, climbing up her pant leg and across her lap to fall asleep in the crook of her left arm as she drove.

Of course, no two cats are quite the same. Wiese recounted a story of another feline that didn’t find sleep so easy to come by and stood guard in the cabin at night, growling when anyone came too close to the truck.

Some stories are sadder, even if they ultimately have happy endings. Such was the case with the most intricate transport Wiese has arranged, which took a dog from Louisiana to Reno, Nev.

The dog had been found in an abandoned home with warts in her mouth that took months to heal, and Wiese distinctly remembers the big, golden eyes full of fear in the first photos she saw of her. Operation Roger truckers took her first to Dallas, then Missouri, Kansas and Las Vegas before she finally was able to catch a ride to Reno.

What was miraculous was that the timid, shaking dog that started the journey – after experiencing kindness in multiple truck cabs and layover homes along the way – was a happy, enthusiastic traveler by the end.

“She was like, ‘Where am I going next?’” Wiese recalled.

She added that drivers communicate with receivers while en route, passing on information about a pet’s temperament that the adoptive family may not have gleaned from an online listing.

“If you adopt a dog from across the country, you fall in love with a picture, but that’s all you know about it, really,” she said.

Pets travel in the cab of a truck and often sleep in the driver’s bed, which has led to a stipulation that all animals transported by Operation Roger must be “at least partially housebroken,” according to its website.

The close quarters involved also require that the list of accepted passengers be limited to companion animals, rather than larger fare like livestock. And birds are no-goes, too, as they’d likely need to sit in a cage on the passenger seat and might be too exposed there to air conditioning or heat.

Wiese uses an application process to determine whether Operation Roger can aid a particular pet. This application as well as ones for volunteer truckers, shuttle drivers and layover hosts are available at OperationRoger.com.

The operation currently could use more volunteers, as the number of pets needing transport has exceeded the number of people providing it. Wiese noted that striking the right ratio is a teeter-totter she’s ridden for almost two decades – but she has no intention to stop anytime soon.

“These animals become attached (to the volunteers),” she said. “Many have been abused, and we try to show them TLC, that not all humans are bad, that they’re going to a new life and things are going to be better.” LL