Through a door in the far corner there was a small room with more cages. I forgot exactly what was in there. Papillons, and a few others I believe.
Wandering about I found another room away from the two I'd already seen. This small room housed the Chihuahuas and toy poodles. There was also a female bichon with her five day old litter. Three of the female Chihuahuas looked like they were going to burst at any moment they were so pregnant!
I started to panic here. I came for one breed, and had not seen it in the barn. Did I miss it? I went back through the kennels again, but could not find them. I walked outside to collect myself. Had I driven all the way down for a breed that wasn't really here? Had they pulled them back at the last moment?
I walked back to the car to talk to my husband. Our son had been sleeping so he stayed in the car with him. As I walked back from the car I noticed a huge red metal trailer parked to the side. They were pulling crates out of it and lining them up outside the trailer. One woman would pull a dog out, another would scan it. They'd make sure the tag tied around the dog's neck matched the microchip number, and then they'd stuff the dog back in the crate. I went to investigate.
There was a crate with several Cavalier King Charles spaniels. They were all the red/white kind and seemed friendly enough. The biggest crate they never did unload off the truck... it was the beagles. They howled through the entire auction. There were two white miniature schnauzers in one crate. There were so many Pekingese. All of the crates were the plastic airline ones, but they all had wire bottoms inside to keep the dogs from stepping in their own yuck.
Finally, I spotted an Italian greyhound. This is the breed I came to rescue. This girl was quite a bit larger than I expected. I'm not at all familiar with the breed, but was bidding for someone else who donated money to get as many out as possible. This girl's toes kept bending in funny ways as she stood on the metal wires.
A woman approached me. She asked about the market price of Italian greyhound pups. I said I wasn't sure. She and I walked around to the end of the trailer to see the other crates that weren't unloaded. There was a big metal cage with four more Italian greyhounds. One was exceptionally tiny, but not a puppy. One was obviously a male as he kept trying to mount one other dog. The other dog has an obviously broken tail but wouldn't stand still long enough for the male to do what he wanted to. She pointed to the female with the broken tail and said, "Are they supposed to be that skinny?" I said, "They're a thin breed yes." And she asked how many puppies they usually produce. I took a guess... "4-6 is my guess" and the eyes on the breeder of those dogs got huge... I have obviously guessed wrong and blown my cover. I wondered away.
As the auction started they closed off the barn. Nobody is allowed to look at the animals once the auction starts.
Bob (the auctioneer) went over how things go for the beginners in the crowd. He said, "Everything here is free until you put your hand up. Then it becomes expensive"
They auctioned a bunch of stuff off the table first. Cleaning solution, flea dip, syringes, shampoo, fertility kit thing (to inseminate), food bowls, lix-it water containers, and more. The kids carrying the dogs from the kennel started lining up with the Chihuahuas. The dog auction was about to begin.
The first three dogs on the table were very pregnant Chihuahuas. Bob says they never say a dog is pregnant, "You could take her home and in a week she could pop out one big watermelon. We just go by what the breeder says." Bidding started and prices rose. The two with the roundest bellies went for $1400 each. The other one went for $900. The cheapest Chihuahua there went for $285, she had 2 anal hernias.
Poodles came next. Pregnant females auctioned first (as always). The very first one up for bids went for $3100! At this point I was getting very worried. These prices were a lot higher than I was expecting and I was afraid that I may not be able to get any dogs out if prices continued to go so high. Two male puppies went for $390 each, they were born 7/11/04 and 7/4/04. They were the cheapest.
